Oh, yeah! Just go spend a few days in an African village and then come back and tell me what it is you think you can sell there.
Composting toilets? (50% of Ghanaian villagers have NO toilets of any kind and use the bushes.) Solar lanterns? Some unknown majority of Ghanaian villagers use KEROSENE (a dangerous poison) to "light" their homes. Post-harvest processing equipment? A big part of every harvest rots in the marketplace because the village doesn't have canning or bottling or packaging equipment. Foot-operated irrigation equipment? 99% of African farms are watered only by rain, only in the rainy season. School uniforms and notebooks for all children, including girls? AT least 1/2 of African girls don't go to secondary school. I bet there are 100 other appropriate, low-cost products that villagers would buy before a laptop computer.... Sarah The narratives of the world are numberless. . . . there nowhere is nor has been a people without narrative.--Roland Barthes Sarah Blackmun-Eskow President, The Pangaea Network 290 North Fairview Avenue Goleta CA 93117 805-692-6998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.pangaeanetwork.org -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of arthur richards Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 5:14 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [email protected] Subject: [DDN] Fw: Re: PhD research on OLPC I think quite frankly in the developing world where I was brought up and come from an OLPC is not the first need, it is not the second, it is not the third, nor the fourth need nor the 10th most important need! Business people want to sell and still have their heads in the sand that a parent or government is going to squander $100 or $200 to buy a laptop when that parent does not earn that in one year! Wake up guys! Go to where you want to sell these things and come back. You might just change your mind. Arthur --- On Mon, 22/9/08, Joel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Joel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <[email protected]> Received: Monday, 22 September, 2008, 1:55 PM On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 5:09 AM, Cindy Lemcke-Hoong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > what is the different between telecenters and 'community computers'? If they are the same, for search purpose, perhaps we could keep to the same terms? > Cindy In the 3rd world countries, a PC is generally too expensive for individual ownership (hence the relevance of the OLPC). The cost is not just the purchase price of the HW, but must include the SW costs, and the user's time to learn and use the technology. It is simply that an OLPC is so "out-of-context" in the lives of the average citizen. It is our belief that this is because too little effort is placed in providing appropriate applications / solutions at the 3rd world point-of-view. The telecenter OTOH MUST contextualize at the community level. Can the same be said for the OLPC? J Galgana BayangPinoy Organization, Inc. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. Make the switch to the world's best email. Get Yahoo!7 Mail! http://au.yahoo.com/y7mail _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
