While providing computers for students and the masses is very important, let's not forget bridging the divide requires a good educational system. It takes a lot of computer engineers to fully implement systems through out region. If the educational system of the region is poor, it is virtually impossible to bridge the divide in a short period. Personally, I think it is too early to try to reach the masses in some regions of the world. We need to feed them and educate them first...
As for projects that help bridge the digital divide, a few of us has formed a company that plans to implement wireless internet access to a number of Asian countries. Today, I started talks with a group from West Africa about doing the same for that region. God bless, Sam Young Director of IT La Sierra University -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Todd Seal Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 7:55 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DDN] Bayosphere Host as DDN Informant Bayosphere is "hiring": http://bayosphere.com/node/445 Thinking about issues that concern me in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's a digital divide here, too. That issue exists everywhere. Since I'm a teacher, I think of schools where students are learning computer skills and are even given laptops at the beginning of the year, computer labs readily available, multimedia presentations assumed, all work typed and all research online. How much more prepared for life after high school are those kids versus the students in a school that doesn't have computers available or instruction on how to use them? Those students may graduate without even the ability to type at a decent rate, a vital skill in many jobs now, let alone more complex computer literacy. It's a slightly different look at the digital divide, but it's something that can tie into graduation rates, college performance, test scores, etc. These are things that are more immediate to John Q. Public that the simputer (a worthy goal that many people have never even heard of). I wonder if we can use Bayosphere to let people know about this issue and to ellicit responses. It's just an idea I have. If anyone wants to work on something to become a Bayosphere host or has any ideas about how we might use that platform (Dan Gillmor is pretty widely read and respected around here), let me know personally or on this list. Any thoughts on this? -todd seal [EMAIL PROTECTED] -san jose, ca -ddn blog: http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/tsguitar _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/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://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
