Hello again, all,
At 08:14 -0400 2002/08/15, Joey Borda **star*walker** wrote:
>[Snipped...]
>Who's for a "Bridges Across the Divide" (BAD) working group?
That has been the vision of a great many people around the world for years, and a good source of information on the issue and many organizations working in that area is http://www.benton.org, which also has a Digital Divide mailing list with an international readership. (Unfortunately, I had to unsubscribe a while back in order to work on other things.)
Somehere in that list's archives you will find an organization (in New Jersey, I think) which has an online database for matching prospective donors to prospective recipients. You will also find that there are already organizations involved in equipment recycling in many communities, often in conjunction with providing community access or training.
Much as I'd like to encourage a "BAD" from amongst this group, I think it needs to be considered as requiring a separate organization and a different structure. This organization might be in a position to provide some Web space to encourage people to involve themselves in this, too, but otherwise I think its main contribution would be in providing information -- that is, on organizations that already do recycling or how to start one in one's own community without having to reinvent the wheel.Mine was just a thought prompted by Eric's touching post. Thanks for taking it seriously. I would not disagree with anything you say.
For the moment, at least, I think we have to stick to getting ourselves organized before we set out to organize the world on too many fronts.In my case just generating the ideas or discovering other's related ideas and work is nourishing.
As for Bill Gates, his foundation gives away lots of the shiny new computers needed to run his proprietary operating system. which the recipients are obliged to usel; ideally, they are supposed to pay for the endless equipment and software upgrades themselves forever after, and never to hear a word about open source software except that it's a "security threat". I wouldn't expect a positive response from Big Bill if I were proposing to ship 500 old 386s to Haitian schools to run StarOffice and NetTamer.Well I just read a piece by an interviewer who'd interviewed Bill G again recently (I believe it was in 1996 the first time), and got the same rise out of him that he did in '96. He asked Bill how he liked being in the Upgrade Business, likening Microsoft to all the car makers.
My best attempt at translating the above is "I think therefore the law thinks." It's been too long since high school Latin. Correction please."cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."