1 year, 10 months ago
If I donate some OLPCs to a new school in Haiti, will they be able to connect to the interwebs?
A friend is helping set up a school and aiding in the relief efforts in Haiti. I said I liked the look of the OLPC project and wanted to buy some for kids in developing countries.
I understand that the laptops themselves will be beneficial regardless of internet access but also udnerstand the added benefit of being connected to the net.
So, is anyone supplying interwebs in Haiti at the moment?
If so, what is the cost to users? (is anyone sponsoring this at present?)
All input welcome surrounding this issue. Thanks.
I understand that the laptops themselves will be beneficial regardless of internet access but also udnerstand the added benefit of being connected to the net.
So, is anyone supplying interwebs in Haiti at the moment?
If so, what is the cost to users? (is anyone sponsoring this at present?)
All input welcome surrounding this issue. Thanks.
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M$1 Answer
This is an interesting question. One clarification: OLPC = One Laptop Per Child.
Many of the people in Port Au Prince and surrounding environs who were left homeless by the earthquake are living in camps. A recent story on National Public Radio (probably on All Things Considered) said that many of the people in these camps aren't likely to leave any time soon because they actually have more amenities in camp (like a reliable source of fresh water, and many small businesses have popped up to serve people in that community).
One of the services I've heard about are the people with generators who are running a small entertainment service to attract users to their businesses. They run videos or DVDs of programs that attract the children, who in turn get their parents to pay a small fee to use the businesses' phone chargers and such. With the prospect of some electricity and an interest in the Internet, I think you'll find places where WiFi is available within the area impacted by the earthquake.
http://www.inveneo.org/img/antenna-haiti.jpg
Here is a story about one group doing just that: http://www.inveneo.org/?q=haiti-links-grow
Published in January, the Inveneo organization is doing just what you suggest. There are member organizations of a Non-government organization (NGO) called NetHope working on connectivity in the earthquake zone (here are their FAQs: http://www.nethope.org/about/faq/).
Inveneo appears to be working on connectivity issues in poor regions around the world (here is their mission statement: http://www.inveneo.org/mission) It looks like in Haiti they began by providing connectivity to the various NGOs that moved in to work on the recovery. Now that many months have passed, I suggest you follow some of the links and see if they have a place for your offer of laptops. I suspect they do, or they can tell you how to go about it. Contact them directly and discuss this.
If you set up computers, I imagine the users would come to a central place to use them, where a signal and power exist, or users would be within a WiFi region and would take advantage of one of the businesses I mentioned above, to charge a battery. Or are you offering hand-crank or solar powered laptops?
Good luck!
Many of the people in Port Au Prince and surrounding environs who were left homeless by the earthquake are living in camps. A recent story on National Public Radio (probably on All Things Considered) said that many of the people in these camps aren't likely to leave any time soon because they actually have more amenities in camp (like a reliable source of fresh water, and many small businesses have popped up to serve people in that community).
One of the services I've heard about are the people with generators who are running a small entertainment service to attract users to their businesses. They run videos or DVDs of programs that attract the children, who in turn get their parents to pay a small fee to use the businesses' phone chargers and such. With the prospect of some electricity and an interest in the Internet, I think you'll find places where WiFi is available within the area impacted by the earthquake.
Here is a story about one group doing just that: http://www.inveneo.org/?q=haiti-links-grow
Published in January, the Inveneo organization is doing just what you suggest. There are member organizations of a Non-government organization (NGO) called NetHope working on connectivity in the earthquake zone (here are their FAQs: http://www.nethope.org/about/faq/).
Inveneo appears to be working on connectivity issues in poor regions around the world (here is their mission statement: http://www.inveneo.org/mission) It looks like in Haiti they began by providing connectivity to the various NGOs that moved in to work on the recovery. Now that many months have passed, I suggest you follow some of the links and see if they have a place for your offer of laptops. I suspect they do, or they can tell you how to go about it. Contact them directly and discuss this.
If you set up computers, I imagine the users would come to a central place to use them, where a signal and power exist, or users would be within a WiFi region and would take advantage of one of the businesses I mentioned above, to charge a battery. Or are you offering hand-crank or solar powered laptops?
Good luck!
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M$
Thank you for your informative answer - I imagine someone will have to work hard to bring a greater insight.
The OLPC laptops are neither solar nor crank powered but are specifically designed to take power from many types or source (car battery for instance).
This makes me think that within the scope of the project it may be wise to think of power needs at the same time.
On top of this I would like to see work made available for Haiti residents to build on the IT infrastructure - but that is a whole new Mahalo question!
Thanks again - and keep the info coming people.
Like I mentioned, there are micro-vendors set up to allow camp residents to come to their businesses and charge electronic items for a modest fee. A free charging station might undercut those small businesses, but if you made a charging station exclusively for these laptops, then it would be a wash, everything else would still be charged in the manner people have been doing it. The trouble with any aid programs that simply give away stuff is that they undercut the local producers who would sell (rice is a good example of this). So make the power answer exclusive to the laptops, or perhaps (!) make the laptop charge stations a feature you can offer to the existing local fee charging stations, on the provision that they allow the OLPC devices to charge for free. This could attract other business to them (just as playing movies does.)