Taran Rampersad wants to believe, it would seem, that 20 people owning 20 motorcycles amounts to the same thing as a bus. (I'm guessing here that that's what the missing message argues.)
And he wants to inject the important notion of the "network" into the issue: <<In a network, public computing is made possible by smaller computer in the network. Which means it's all the same thing. So the more people who have *individual* devices contributes to *public computing*.>> That's of course true, and irrelevant to the issue. If 20 people could afford to own 20 computers at $480 each, or $240, or even $100, that might be seen as preferable to 20 people sharing one $480 computer, or one $100 computer, but the issue that the public computing concept is trying to solve is how to make computing available to those who can't afford to own, learn, and maintain computers as individuals. Or, to risk belaboring the point which appears elusive, if 20 people chip in $24 each they can possess in common the same Simputer that you can afford to buy and use without sharing. And, interestingly, the flash card in its design makes clear that it is intended to be a public computer. Our Benjamin Franklin created the first subscription library in the US on the public principle: if 20 people joined together and bought one book each--a different book each--and put them in the common stock when they were finished, each subscriber could read 20 books for the price of one. This is the origin of the term still in use here, "circulating library": the books "circulate" rather than remain on an individual owner's shelf. And as Arun and others here make clear, there are advantages well beyond the basic economics that are compelling. The 20 people who share a computer have the opportunity to form a "community of practice." They teach other, support each other through the frustrations with a new technology: and sometimes 20 heads are better than one. You muddy the waters, Taran, when you try to blur the distinction between personal and public computing. Twenty people owning $480 computers for a total capital expenditure of $9600 is NOT the same as twenty people having access to a computer for $24. Twenty people on a bus is not the same as 20 people on 20 motorcycles. That's basic economics. Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Taran Rampersad Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 3:54 PM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN]The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Updateonthe Simputer Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: >Arun's case for the public computer thesis, below, is powerful and >compelling. > >That we can do much to bridge the digital divide without public computing is >a fiction that needs to be exposed and contested. > >Steve Eskow > > Sorry, Steve, I've read all of this quite carefully and posts I have made to this list about it have NOT shown up - notably the one about motorcycles instead of your buses. In a network, public computing is made possible by smaller computer in the network. Which means it's all the same thing. So the more people who have *individual* devices contributes to *public computing*. The more individual computing devices that are possible, the more your public computing concept holds true... so we're back where we are. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: Panama City, Panama [EMAIL PROTECTED] PLEASE DON'T HIT REPLY TO ALL! http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo _______________________________________________ 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.
