[svlug] Let them eat cake (Linux for the poor)

[Seth David Schoen]

Hans Cathcart writes:

> Let me first qualify that being poor in Silicon Valley means you are not
> making enough to pay for rent by yourself in a cheap place.
> 
> But, on Wednesday I was chatting with a 3Com security guard, he was on the
> graveyard shift, and he mentioned something about: "Someday I'll buy a
> computer." And I wondered why he didn't have one already. Well, he said
> that his salary wasn't all that good. (I'm guessing close to minimum wage),
> which got me thinking. I reassured him that computers are getting cheaper
> and cheaper and soon they'll be trivial even for someone with a not so
> great a salary.
> 
> So I'm wondering is there any value finding used computers for low income
> people, assembling them and installing Linux.  Is there any value in trying
> to teach people that don't have computer experience at all, something as
> relatively complex as system administration.  If it worked could people who
> learn Linux, but have few years of computer experience get well paying jobs
> in the valley? I always hear people focussing on giving computers to
> children, which is a good thing, but adults need them also. In fact, if
> adults manage to raise their incomes through computer technology skills,
> this is a very positive sign for their children, perhaps even better than
> focussing so much attention on kids.
> 
> Is the fact that Linux is free, and runs on really cheap hardware
> potentially an opportunity to help minimum wage workers raise their
> incomes?  I would never think of thinking about this in the Windows world,
> because in order to improve skills there, you need money for software. With
> Linux you only need time and patience.

One of these days soon I'm going to try to volunteer for Berkeley Neighborhood
Computers, which is already doing this (although not yet with Linux).

http://www.wenet.net/~bnc/

There are apparently very similar groups in other cities in the Bay Area.

-- 
   Seth David Schoen L&S '01 (undeclared) / schoen at uclink4.berkeley.edu
He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do."  And they
said, "Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the
nations." (1 Sam 8)  http://ishmael.geecs.org/~sigma/   http://www.loyalty.org/

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