Linux Against Poverty Is A Go!
The Linux Against Poverty Team
Today’s it’s official. I’ve joined forces with Lynn Bender and Dan Rumney on a third large-scale collaboration project for the year: Linux Against Poverty. We’re growing a global community to distribute computers to underprivileged students, families, and school systems around the world. Our concept is simple: pull together thousands of volunteers in hundreds of cities around the world to take computers destined for the local dump, rehab them, slap linux on them, and put them in the hands of people with limited or no access technology.
Needless to say, I was thrilled when Lynn called and asked me to help take this event global. Dan Rumney and I had gotten off of the ground with preDevCamp, and Lynn was shocked how quickly we took the project from concept to implementation–over 80 cities worldwide and counting in a matter of weeks. Not too long after Lynn and I first talked Linux Against Poverty (LAP), we had Dan involved in as well. Together, we’ve laid out a plan for one of the most significant events of its kind, and more importantly the most equitable event for all participants. This is the very essence of think globally, act locally, and I couldn’t be happier to be working with such a group of unique and very gifted individual talents.
Alas, we can’t do this alone. Linux Against Poverty is about “we,” not “me.” No matter what your interest or experience with Linux is, you can help change the lives of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
So where we at? Where are we going? First we’re showing an alpha of the Linux Against Poverty website at an evening of Drinks and Drupal in Austin this evening. You can RSVP to the event on facebook. The website comes to you courtesy of Four Kitchens Studios, who’ve taken all the conceptual work and hacked together code Dan and I used for preDevCamp and designed a friendlier, cleaner package we hope to open source at some point in the future. Within a week we hope to have the website 100% up and running and publicly accessible. That’s where you come in. Once the website is operational, all that will be missing is our global army of volunteers, rarin’ to make the following things happen:
1) Collection
2) Rehabilitation/configuration
3) Distribution
You’re right. I’m oversimplifying. A successful, global Linux Against Poverty will be much tougher to pull off than that. But not for you. Thanks to the system we’ve built and the model behind the community, those three things are all we need from you. We’ve taken the data collection, event organization, and yes, even recycling (for most areas around the world) out of the equation for everyone willing to volunteer a little bit of their time between now and August, and their weekend starting August 1 to help those who need it.
Predictions are worth spit, but I have faith you guys. My entire career has been and continues to be built around community and mass collaboration. Here are the numbers I’ve been tumbling in the old noggin. PreDevCamp–an event around a product only available in the United States, on one carrier, with no release date–will have roughly 1000 people in over 80 participating cities worldwide volunteering their time and effort. As proud as I am of that, think what we can do with Linux and a real cause? How many cities? My personal goal is an average of 100 computers in 300 cities. If we make it, we’ll have distributed more computers to people in need on a single Saturday than OLPC or any program of its kind has done in the last 10 years. Bold, but entirely, tantalizingly obtainable if we can count on your help.
In the next few weeks, the Linux Against Poverty team will be releasing more details around everything from organizing an event to creating ongoing mentoring programs in your local area so that these computers aren’t just dumped on people without the proper local support or education. All details will be available on the main website, and each of the city organizers will be posting personal blogs and updates on their websites as well.
This is your call to action. This is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something greater than any individual. Contact us. Together we’ll make this event a success, reach our goal, and help bridge the digital divide so we can really have an impact on poverty.
[...] Genius” whurley* is doing something not-so-evil: Trying to get together an effort to refurb aging computers with Linux and put them in the hands of people who need them. The event is set for August 1st. The rest is [...]
Sounds great happy to see people doing something nice. I’d like to help as well, but I will not add it in the comments. Reason people might thing I’m spamming. So wondering if you can contact me I’ll let you know how I’d like to help. If you alright with it great. Thx.
Awesome idea – great cause. Helping Linux make the world a better place?… I’m in.
This is a great idea. As a graduate student I have done studies of the digital divide in East Austin and globally as well. This effort is very note worthy.
However I should note that a critical part of this effort will be training the people you give the computers to how to use them, what they are useful for and also how to maintain them, if not they will just sit like old appliances. Also thinking about inexpensive internet connections like Cables/DSL’s 10 dollar a month connection, as well as “free” wi-fi is a very important aspect. Creating an awareness campaign for such an effort would be great.
I have done this project on a small scale for some time now and those are probably the most notable challenges. Being geeks we tend to have our own old hardware and access to old hardware to give away. We usually even have time to throw linux on it. But the hard part is making time for the training, the nitty gritty of getting into communities and showing them how and why they would use this technology.
However, the fact that you all are doing this is totally exciting, because I know “We” are all capable of turning this leaf over and giving people not only the “technology”, but the means to make it work for them. Congratulations!!! Let me know how I can help.
As I mentioned at Drinks and Drupal, this is a great example of Seth Godin’s \The Tribes We Lead\
Glad this is shaping up so well, it’s gonna be awesome. Sorry I missed the event last night, I was at home fighting off some stomach bug.
It also looks like I’ve got about 15-20 systems and a bunch of misc hardware to offer up to the LAP project, more on that soon.
I am very excited by your work. Our local LUG (sf-lug.com) has created a Xubuntu GNU-Linux lab and GNU-Linux standalone computers at a school in San Francisco, CA. There is a similar effort at a school nearby. We are documenting this work for a documentary movie called the Digital Tipping Point. The premise of the movie is that by helping schools and other underprivileged users, we are actually helping ourselves by creating sustainable communities and taking back control of the Internet from large businesses, such as Microsoft, who don’t always have the best interests of the consumer in mind.
You can see raw video of our effort here, where a teacher talks about the impact that the lab has had on the kids:
http://www.archi…a_a_2009_feb_001.ogg
At the 2:27 minute mark here, the teacher talks about how the existence of the lab teaches the kids the importance of giving back to their communities:
http://www.archi…a_b_2009_feb_001.ogg
The Digital Tipping Point is being built on-line out of forkable video segments that are posted to the Interent Archive’s Digital Tipping Point Video Collection. I would love to get video from you in raw .dv format to add to the collection! Your story is exactly illustrative of our movie’s main theme!
c u
Christian Einfeldt,
Producer, The Digital Tipping Point
Oh, one other thing. Sorry, I almost forgot the most important part. We are able to store computers at our school, and we are looking for Pentium 4 (or AMD equivalents) with at least 512 MB of RAM to give to other schools and students in the area. So if you find that you get lots of computers, and need a home for them, I can definitely arrange to take them off of your hands!
Also, Stormy Peters, the GNOME Executive Director, is looking for computers for a project in Mexico, if you have a way to get computers to that project!
http://www.storm…r-lab-in-mexico.html
c u
Christian Einfeldt,
Producer, The Digital Tipping Point
Hi. I’m one of the developers on Apache Open for Business, the Open Source ERP system. I would be interested in helping you model the inventory of components, facilities, staff and other operational intrinsics in the OFBiz system. It could also be used as a no-cost shopping system to manage the re-distribution of the finished systems. Please, drop me a line.
Really good idea..