ICT4D

I was recently in Finland and wrote the following:

I am in Helsinki, trying to forge new partnerships for awareNet and the Siyakhula Living Lab. I am always amazed anew at the propensity of the Finnish people for technology. The way the taxi driver switches on a TV display next to his steering whell and proceeds to change channels, all the while turning onto on-/off-ramps and dodging traffic, I have to think of the term “disruptive technologies”. I am pretty much hoping that this technology will not prove to be disruptive to my stay.

In several ways I am reminded of the Eastern Cape: there the propensity of the people is no less in terms of love of technology. There too we are faced with serious ethical considerations when bringing in technology. Freedom of choice is an important aspect of that ethical consideration constellation.

At eKhaya ICT we are very optimistic about 2009. We had an excellent trip to Europe which will be reported on in our next Village Scribe Association newsletter. We have made very meaningful contacts in Europe and have pledges to support our ECSPIRT project (on which eKhaya is performing major work).

Please visit: http://www.villagescribe.org/

The actual trigger for this message is the fact that things are getting even worse in Zimbabwe (who could have thought it possible). Rhodes University endorses the following mass campaign. SADC countries need popular pressure now to act. While I am not very optimistic about online campaigns, this one might just give the Zimbabwean people the support to become a great country once again!

http://savezimbabwenow.com/

The second LearnThings workshop is taking place this week. Content was delivered to the teachers on USB Flash Drives which they got to keep. The drives were donated by Intel, resulting in the following image:

OLPC [1] have been working on a light-weight easy to use laptop specifically for children and their education. As they have been releasing beta products for testing, adults who have seen these pretty little green computers have been totally enthusiastic and clamouring to buy them – for themselves. On the OLPC mailing lists a number of entrepreneurs want to buy large numbers for sales to private individuals.

The rival of the OLPC, Intel’s classmate [2] – also a solid state computer with scaled down specs and flash drive instead of hard-disk (hence solid state – there are no moving parts in these machines) – seems to have slowed down somewhat with Intel joining the OLPC consortium in October. Also Intel are not talking to us (maybe were just not big enough) so I can’t report anything else there.

Now as OLPC have launched their buy two get one offer, it seems Asus [3] is also taking on the Christmas shoppers with their Eee, which seems to cost anywhere between $200 (the original price Asus marketed in the second half of 2007) and $399 because of demand. Asus are reporting a unit sold every 6 seconds – making between 6000 and 14400 per day depending on how many sales minutes there are per day. That is not bad to quite good indeed. The Eee also has its own operating system, which seemes to be built on the Windows platform.

Ubiquitous computing in the developed world is good news for the developing world – apart from environmental/recycling issues(!).

[1] OLPC
[2] Intel Classmate
[3] Asus Eee

I have always found the “learner” designation for schoolkids a bit of a misnomer. “Learner” implies something concrete to be learned, as in “learner driver”. At school you are learning all sorts of different things, the teachers are also learning in fact we’re all learning all the time, whether we like it or not (even old dogs are learning, just not necessarily tricks). When you stop learning your life is over.

It seems to me as though this nomenclature were introduced to entrench the “teacher-learner” dichotomy. That is so stale. Wake up you hierarchical monolithic dusty old Department! This is not the education of/for the future! We need agile minds, creative thinkers (who may also kick balls brilliantly), not order-following ball-kickers (who can’t think of anything but the glory of winning).

This all echoes Jeff’s sentiments in the OLPC-ZA Archives.

These are ancient thoughts, but I have been waxing lyrical lately (must be the strain of all the work) and thought I should share. For instance, here are some thoughts on the paradox of life:

“Life just is ambiguous, any computer can tell you that – you just have to be able to decipher the error message.”
- in an email to my brother, 2007-08-13

“Life is an eternal paradox. The ambiguity springs from your perspective. When you dissolve your ego and become one with the universe, there is no more ambiguity and besides a couple of religous zealots, most people call this state, “dead”.”
- on my wall http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=726231819&pwstdfy=c5d8b891484b0462294984d426164fa1

It’s always great blogging in mid-air, not that I’ve done it before. It’s just too bad that the internet connection is reserved for first class passengers. Talk about the digital divide. I suppose that will one day soon belong to the past, the idea of ubiquitous computing is really on the increase. Immediacy and global action have the potential to change the earth. Offenders and perpetrators of crimes have I think often been encouraged by the slow pace and restricted sphere of legal action. This is also a built in piece of logic in human reasoning as researchers at the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics at the University of Zürich found out in their experiments [1]. Immediacy is an integral part of the reward equation in most cases. A reward now is much more important than a reward later. As an illustration of this discussion in change, immediacy and global action, one could take the roll of film I developed – yes, you heard right, a roll of film that had to be developed – which had pictures on it spanning almost a year in time. That was a long wait and it really felt good looking at the pictures. However, the digital technology is just so much more convenient and so much better integrated in my personal information infrastructure (organisation, archiving, iPhoto), that the analog technology is becoming a nostalgic hobby. Still the surprise effect of the photos (especially with the aged film will make sure that this hobby stays).

This is an analog photograph of digital photograph, that Daniel and I are perusing. The digital photograph was made on the same day as the analog one, which we only got to see half a year later.

ICT4D researchers in Africa will have the privilege of watching the effects of not only global connection, but immediacy in rural environments. I wonder how stark the contrast will be. Perhaps cellular telephony has already started changing mindsets in this regard.

[1] http://www.iew.unizh.ch/home/fehr/papers/TheEconomicsofImpatience.pdf
There are all sorts of wonderful papers to read on Ernst Fehrs home page.

This morning I had the good fortune to read an enlightened letter to the editor of the Daily Dispatch. It juxtaposes wonderfully the difference between emotional and rational thinking. We can’t feel like others, but we should try to see through their eyes.

The challenge Mthethe throws down is that we do this for people we don’t necessarily like, and who are dissimilar to us. This means finding something out about them, and seeing our common humanity.

Here is Mthethe’s Letter as reproduced in the Daily Dispatch (http://www.dispatch.co.za/2007/03/17/editoria/letters.html).

We all suffer for the sins of our forefathers – black and white

DEAR Shaun (and any other white South African who feels that they are
being punished for their forefathers' mistakes):

I cannot pretend to know how it feels to be white in this country and
how that impacts on your job prospects.

Having said this, I would like to share some thoughts (as a young, 29
-year-old South African) on what could be done to deal with the anger
you and other young white South Africans feel.

Growing up in Mdantsane township during the apartheid regime made it
very difficult to feel good about myself. From early on I was made to
feel second-class and not good enough because of my skin colour (black).
To make things worse, all state institutions endorsed this by
segregating our schools and distributing resources according to race
with black learners received less money.

Some white South Africans feel that there is reversed racism and that we
should not have affirmative action but should focus on giving people
jobs on merit.

With all these systems in place, many black people remain unemployed and
hopeless and desperate. Have you driven past Duncan Village and seen the
conditions under which black people live?

I am not suggesting that you should not feel the way that you do. All I
am pointing out is that perhaps even those 17-year-olds in Duncan
Village feel hard done by by the government because they had hoped they
would get houses and opportunities.

I read that you were considering getting a British passport and I can
tell you that those 17-year-olds in Duncan Village, Reeston, Mdantsane,
Newlands do not have that option. If they are fortunate enough to get a
job, those 17-year-olds would have to buy their families proper houses –
and I don't mean in Beacon Bay or Vincent Heights but rather a
four-bedroom house in the township.

When I was 17, my mother lived in a squatter camp (I think it's called
Joe Slovo, in Mdantsane Zone 6). I imagine that the 17-year-olds who
still live in that squatter camp feel hopeless.

I had to buy my mother a house and supported my brother and my extended
family. I always challenge myself to think beyond my own frame of
reference and I guess I am posing the same challenge to you. I really
believe that any 17-year-old in South Africa (white, black, Indian,
coloured) needs to feel he is wanted, hopeful and that he can make a
contribution.

We need to build this country and no one is going to do it for us.
History will judge both of us as to the contribution that we make in
building this country.

We need to hold our government accountable and, given that racial
segregation is not tolerated any longer, you are as important in SA as
any other 17-year-old.

In reality, I think we are all suffering for the mistakes of our
forefathers. – Mthetho C Tshemese, Melville, Johannesburg