divide Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear Robert Davies, Thank you for this article about sending free PCs from the inventories of companies from around the world. I think the idea of sending PCs that are essentially free may have some potential in some countries and under very specific circumstances. However, in my experience, getting used PCs through customs in many developing countries can be a real problem. It is one reason that few development projects that I know of go this route. And in many countries, having second hand PCs from the first world does not sit well - here they are sending us or dumping their rejects again. This is not the feeling of the ultimate beneficiaries by the way, but it will be the way the government may feel and the government decides what comes in to the country by and large. Plus there are the logistical reasons such as duty on the import of PCs / durable goods, etc. In this and related lists (Afrik-it), there have been and probably still are discussions ongoing on this topic (what experiences have worked and under which circumstances, which organizations do this, etc.). Some projects seem to have potential but I am not convinced that the sending of so called free or recently used PCs per se will work. There has to be a delivery mechanism that will facilitate and help overcome the difficulties that would be encountered, some of which I have alluded to. Consider the following idea that in my understanding has not been attempted before - please correct me if I am mistaken - and that may be a useful way forward. If a 'PC sending project' were incorporated into the activities of donors it would stand more chance of succeeding. If donors could obtain these PCs from a pool of computers that had been certified as operational and use these instead of brand new machines, the savings would be very significant and could thus free up funds for other activities such as awareness promotion and training, etc. A nominal fee could be expended to fund the recovery and certification process (although one would expect that the companies 'donating' these PCs could be prevailed upon to do this themselves). Another idea would be for the refurbishing to be undertaken in beneficiary countries as a way of enhancing local capacity as well as the market for PC maintenance services. The other advantage of incorporating such in the activities of donors is that in many cases, certainly with the UN agencies, including the World Bank and probably other donors as well, importation can take place duty free. While the tax or duty paid on the import of PCs is falling or is low, this can still be an advantage. There have been cases of free PCs being stalled indefinitely at customs because there is duty to be paid, even if the PCs were obtained as donations. In some cases, duty becomes payable once the project is over, so this has to be considered as well. Access to PCs is a most significant drawback when introducing communities to the use of PCs and the Internet. It is not just physical access that is a problem, i.e. having a PC or getting access to one, but being able to use it is also a major challenge. For the poor and especially the illiterate, using the interface is another difficulty to overcome. A keyboard is not a user friendly device. It is not intuitive the way a cell phone is for example. However, one technology that is fairly ubiquitous is the television. Building access models based on Web-TV and set-top boxes or using a hand held icon marked input device (press the cloud or lighting icon for information about the weather) linked by dial-up to the Internet would work in some countries such as China (although many countries do not have telephones in the rural areas where many of the poor reside). In China for example, we have found that this issue is being considered by China Telecom. Connecting the rural poor is a challenge in itself, but getting them to over come the limitations imposed by the keyboard is another area of concern. So work is ongoing on user friendly devices such as those mentioned above (Would very much like to hear from others familiar with this area of concern). Finally, it has to be mentioned that the fledgling PC industry in many countries, and especially in the poorest countries, depend to some extent on donor purchasing of PCs and related services. The proposal mentioned in this article would probably have a negative impact on the sale of PCs through local suppliers in many developing countries, but would probably generate some work on the service side. Whatever model is arrived at, it is very important to bear in mind that the impacts are many fold and that what may appear like a great idea from the comfort of an office near the Tower of London may not be so in downtown Nouakchott or Samarkand. Cheers, Richard Labelle Consultant ****************************** Richard Labelle Information Technology and Management Practices for Development Gestion des Technologies de l'Information pour le Developpement Aylmer, Quebec, CANADA J9H 5Z6 tel: 1-819-684-8980 fax: 1-819-684-2834 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************** ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. 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