Dear GKD Members, My name is Dennis Heuer and I am a german social scientist who is involved in the free source community around the Linux operating system. My interest in social sciences and information technology always was interdisciplinary, so I begann to work on the question what Linux and the free source community could offer to developing countries. That is why I founded an organization to work on exclusively this problem. The organization is called "organized communication" and can be found on internet at the address: http://orgc.org.
The organization is in its early stage and no project has been started. At the moment I am seeking for information to get a founded overall picture of the problem. Free source in developing countries is often discussed in the Linux community but seldom from the non-technical view. Too, the community does focus too much on stability, price, and office products. Software for schools, project and teamwork, or cultural differences to be considered etc. is mainly out of focus. This is why I contact you. Please, maybe you can help me on my way to find the right basement for my work. And maybe I can help you getting your opinions heard in the free source community because I will hold a speech on LinuxTag, the greatest Linux Fair in Europe, taking place in Germany at the beginning of June (see: <http://www.linuxtag.org>, english pages available). There are several objects that I would like to know about. They are too many to sum up here. I will have a look into the GKD-Archive but it may be very overloaded. Please help directly. In this email I just want to reduce my questions to three main points: - I do not focus on business. My aim is to support the work of non-governmental organizations and (gov.) local initiatives. I could not find many case studies being done on that topic. How is the need for software in team and project work inside of (international) organizations? How important is work and communication over internet for those organizations? What are the experiences with information technology in small local initiatives or in schools? Do you know resources that answer these questions? - Are you able to give a global picture where in the developing world the use of computers is a topic? This question is twofold. First, the use of computer equipment has a different relevance in different countries. Second, the size of organizations and initiatives or the social level, the gender may play a role. - Can you give me contact addresses of organizations, institutes or programmes that focus on similar problems? Thank you very much, Dennis Heuer ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
