[Air-L] help on africa and computer donations (1. Climate 2.Insects . . . )

[Denise N. Rall]

Again I am sending this. Sorry. The points to address
that will allow these computers to work:

1. Climate
2. Insects 

THEN . . . .

3. Lack of infrastructure

Get real! It's a jungle out there! Or, a desert! NO
laptop withstands much sand. Perhaps re-design with a
"crumb tray" underneath the case that can be emptied
periodically of sand and ants?

P.S. Do any students on this list actually compute in
the wild, offline, offgrid???

Cheers, DNR


> 
> Below are some other arguments that I address in my
> paper:
> 
> 1. Lack of infrastructure e.g. very few people have
> telephone lines
> and this will stop them from connecting to the
> internet.  (Wireless
> connections are out of question in most places due
> to the high set up
> costs and regular maintenance required.)
> 
> 2. Security would be a concern - High crime rates
> might mean that
> high security would be needed in order to protect
> computers from
> theft.
> 
> 3. Language would be a concern as well - Operating a
> computer that
> interacts in English my be a problem for many
> people.
> 
> 4. Health Care - Many people die everyday form
> malaria and other
> diseases. In these cases it is always a good idea to
> save lives first
> by providing better health care and medical services
> rather then
> donating computers.
> 
> Currently I have based my paper on statistics from
> UNDP and NYT
> articles, but because this is a very recent issue I
> am currently
> having problems finding more scholarly articles and
> I would
> appreciate any suggestions you can provide.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Alok Kotecha
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Denise N. Rall, PhD
Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA 
Tues: Room T2.17, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 Mobile 0438 233 344 
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/
Virtual member, Cybermetrics Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK
http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/index.html


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