Spurred by an article by Pat Booth in the North Shore Times (24 Feb '09, p7), today I kicked off an initiative I hope will see some good done.
The article was titled "The sad plight of the unconnected" and bemoaned the rapid move to mainly online services by all manner of buinesses and service providers - both public and private - including schools. People who don't have computers or can't afford one are left poorly served and literally unconnected.
There isn't much that can be done for people who do not want a computer, but it certainly is possible to help out people who may want one, but lack the resources to get one. Many in Booth's article sited the cost of a computer and an Internet connection as the main reason for being unconnected. Meanwhile, the recent annual rubbish collection on the North Shore saw many computers put out for collection that may well have had salvagable parts in them. I have a box of old hard drives that are small by modern standards, but that would do excellent Internet access service in a Linux-based PC with a modest amount of RAM. So there certainly is potential.
It's obvious why services are moving online. It's faster, cheaper and...cheaper. The dilemma faced by people on low incomes who can't afford to be online is that there is even less incentive for business to pay more to reach people like them, who can't afford to buy their goods or services anyway.
Schools hard pressed to stretch their budgets as far as possible are understandably reluctant to pay "extra" to reach students whose parents may not be able to afford to pay their school fees. It may not be a looney idea for schools to provide Internet access to students who don't have it, can't afford it, but would love to have it.
"Internet Assist North Shore" (IANS) is an attempt to close the connectivity gap for as many as we can.
If you think you can help out, have an old computer, or know someone who can't afford a PC, make yourself known here.
IANS is on twitter, too: @IANSNZ
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for deciding to share your thoughts here. In commenting on this blog, you can express any opinion you like, though any opinion expressed should make some attempt to be consistent with verifiable reality. Say what you like, confident that I won't delete any comments that are polite and respectful of me and others who may comment here. Civility aside, SPAM comments will be deleted if only because they are usually far too long and selling rubbish anyway. (Comments on posts older than 30 days are moderated. I'll approve them as soon as I can.)