A while ago I took what I thought would be an interesting and challenging (and low-paying:-) job; I became the Director of Technology of the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI). CMI is the main source of higher education for the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), a developing country about a four-to-five hour jet flight west-southwest of Hawaii (GMT +12).
One of the reasons I took this job was the possibility of implementing a great deal of change in a short amount of time. Another attraction was a potential to use GNU/Linux in a widespread way. Since I arrived, I've learned a whole lot about high tech in the third world; I encountered things I never dreamed of when I was back in the states.
For example, in twenty-plus years of working with computers in the US, I never saw a computer and gecko fry because the gecko stepped on the wrong spot on a circuit board while trying to keep warm. :-)
I knew the power here would be shaky -- I was told it goes out fairly frequently (a couple of times a month for a half-day, usually). What I didn't expect was the extent of the problems of surges. The power here routinely fluctuates between 60 and 160 volts, all within seconds. Computers don't like that. :-) UPSs abound here at CMI, and yet their batteries last nowhere near as long as they should, due probably to the humidity and salt air (and the power quality).
The salt air was something I was totally oblivious to. After a year or two, a machine in this environment looks like you poured acid over the power supply's fan outlet. It's amazing. Other than an odd case that sat for years in someone's damp basement, I never saw a case actually *rust* in the US. Here it's routine. I'm thinking if they get 3 years out of a machine here they've more than got their money's worth. The environment here -- 80-83 degrees, yet fairly humid and very salty -- is brutal.
CMI and the RMI are like a lot of countries. *Everything* is pirated. Note the emphasis -- *everything*! I'm located on Majuro atoll, which is the gov'tal and main business hub of the RMI. There's about 40-odd thousand people here. Basically all software on this island is pirated. Someone will buy a new computer or buy one copy of software, and within a week it's all over the island.
But it's not just software. All intellectual monopolies are ignored. The local cable company shows VCR and DVD movies on various channels. Each day they put in a different movie, run it constantly, and they'll put in a different movie tomorrow. It's just part of your basic cable service.
This flagant piracy makes a sell for Linux much tougher -- there is no license cost benefit for using Linux. And I've had lawyers on this island tell me that piracy doesn't matter because the RMI doesn't have any copyright law(s). (Obviously, they've never had to *support* all that software!:-)
Still, Linux has advantages. Open source code is an attraction. The RMI dreams of having a slice of the global information society's economic pie, but it's unrealistic because I'm literally the most knowledgeable IT/computer guy in the country and I know how stupid I am. :-) There is light years for the RMI to travel before they're ready to even run their own call center, let alone compete with Indian companies for programming contracts. Still, they dream...
Linux's multilingual abilities attract some. Needless to say, Windows isn't available in Marshallese, but if someone got ambitious, Linux and/or OpenOffice could be.
But overall, I think Linux's single biggest attraction in this environment is its flexibility. I used to tell people in talks in the US that Linux would run on "mainframes to Macs" to get this idea across.
One problem I see all over these tiny islands in the Pacific is the lack of skilled people -- engineer-types is what we'd call them in the US. Like all organizations, the Pacific islands have more than their share of outdated and/or clueless managers. And they've got an oversupply of the hobbyist-turned-techie types -- the low level "techs." But seriously skilled people -- what I'm calling engineer-types -- are in very, very short supply.
For example, the RMI gov't doesn't employ *one* IT person. If a machine goes down and the end-user can't figure out what the problem is, they just throw it away and buy another one. Amazing. (I've got my CMI techs collecting those throw-aways; but with less than 100 machines in the Parliament building's LAN, there isn't a ton of these throw-aways, darn it. :-)
And engineers are in short supply in all areas, not just IT. Whether it's the phone company, or the power company, or the local car dealership, it's all the same. Good techs are nowhere to be found. (And for some reason the law of supply and demand doesn't result in higher pay for the techs they do have; instead, maintenance just doesn't get done and expensive systems are simply repurchased when they die prematurely.)
But back to Linux. One opening I see for Linux is to replace many different devices which have proprietary interfaces and command sets. For example, why learn IOS when you can do the same job as that Cisco router (and the size of these networks allow it) with Linux? There's a huge frustration all over the Pacific with the complexity of modern technology. Linux won't make that technology any easier, but its flexibility is a distinct advantage.
The main opportunity I see for my area of interest (educational tech) is with the K12LTSP project and terminal servers. Right now, the RMI is buying both Macs and Windows machines (don't ask me why a support-poor school would buy both!) for use in its public schools. These schools have absolutely no support or tech people. Terminal serving would be a way to both handle Internet access (right now, they just buy modems for *every* machine) and to lighten the maintenance burden. Linux could play a huge role here.
Which leads me to the main goal of this long story. (Shoe drops!:-)
I need your help. I'm in the process of preparing some demonstrations of Linux technologies -- everything from general desktop use, to server functions, to a terminal server -- to show to various people/organizations here. I can sit down and write up some OpenOffice Impress slideshows, but I know there's a lot of good stuff already out there. I'm lazy and I'd rather borrow your work than work myself.
So my question: Does anyone have any slideshows that would be appropriate or even semi-appropriate for this use?
These could be aimed at general audiences, geek crowds, the chamber of commerce, edtech or whatever. What I'll do is to liberally borrow slides and/or ideas and adapt them. If you have anything you think might be useful -- or even funny :-) -- feel free to send it to me. TIA.
Also, any ideas for use and/or selling points of GNU/Linux that you think might play well in this environment will be happily considered...
And for the curious, feel free to ask if you have any questions about CMI and/or the RMI or the state of tech out here in the Pacific; I'm happy to reply via the list or directly.
Regards, . Randy
-- "If the current stylistic distinctions between open-source and commercial software persist, an open-software revolution could lead to yet another divide between haves and have-nots: those with the skills and connections to make use of free software, and those who must pay high prices for increasingly dated commercial offerings." -- Scientific American
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