Geeks w/o Borders?

Jesus Hernan asks: "I have a couple of months to fill this year and - being a Linux geek with 6 yrs experience and in general a real nice guy - I was wondering if there was any organization akin to Doctors Without Borders that offers aid to technologically impaired countries, i.e. building computer solutions with cheap hardware, the like." Well, I'm aware of one organization that might foot this bill: The Geek Corps. Slashdot did an article on them a while ago and they look to be doing some really good stuff. Do any of you know of other similar organizations out there?

Re:Engineers without Borders

[Mr. Slippery]

Interesting! Thanks for the pointer, I will pass it along.

Though it does seem that all their chapters are in Canada...

Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/

Peace Corps seg on NPR

[smitherz]

There was a segment on NPR the other day about
them lookin for people for IT type jobs.
It said you sign up for 27 months(I think) for
IT locales and off they ship you just like the
farming/housing builders they are known for.
It said the first batch went to Belize to set up
goverment/hospital systems.
Don't have the link to specific audio but I am
sure it would be easy to find at www.npr.org

Uk Centred Work For Students

[Tempest2000]

I am currently studying my A-levels and was wondering if there is any volunteer work available in the field of computers/technology without having any formal higher qualifications such as a degree.

GeekCorps domain name

[dtobias]

Actually, the proper address is www.geekcorps.org [geekcorps.org], not .com as linked above, though the .com address redirects to the proper address. Given that they're a non-profit organization, .org is the proper TLD, and us geeks shouldn't be promoting and encouraging domain abuse by citing their site using the inappropriate .com TLD!
--Dan

You can spend your time better....

[snoop_chili_dog]

Instead of bringing the wonders of porn and the internet too undeveloped countries, why don't you bring food and clothing to people who don't have any. There are plenty of homeless shelters in America that need help. If you just don't like people then help the local animal shelter for God's sake. I'm not saying it isn't good to help underdeveloped nations catch up, but wouldn't it be better to train someone without out a house some computer skills. Then they might find a job.

Do you know how many children don't ever get christmas gifts? How many people just want a ham and I don't mean radio? I'm not questioning your intent, but those six months you have could change someones life. Do you really want to just introduce someone to yahoo?

I don't know of one

[Zachary Kessin]

But maybe there should be. On the other hand I think that in many places what they need are "Civil Engineers without borders". I think MSF (Doctor's without Borders) is a great group who do work that makes our world a better place. But was thinking that in a lot of places there are vilages or towns that could use a good and inexpensive solutions for problems like clean drinking water and sewers. One of the reasons why life expectency in places like the US has gone up over the last 100 years is that you can more or less count on being able to turn on a tap and get drinkable water. And of course decent sewers to go with them.

We should always be looking for ways to make the world a better place.

Re:Uk Centred Work For Students

[unitron]

Not enough computer-illiterate relatives to keep you busy? :-)

Re:I don't know of one

[Mr. Slippery]

On the other hand I think that in many places what they need are "Civil Engineers without borders".

My girlfriend, who's an environmental engineer, is trying to start an "Engineers Without Borders" organization along those lines. (She's done a lot of work in using natural system to treat wastewater.)

She's just getting started with it, but has gotten good response from the people she's talked to. If anyone would like more information, e-mail me (remove "spambefuddler-") and I'll put you in touch with her.

Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/

Engineers without Borders

[nuggz]

Why not just join Engineergs without Borders.
http://www.ewb-isf.org.
They have a few nice projects under their belt too.

Non sequitor

[Plague You]

If these countries are technologically impaired, where would they even get the money for "cheap" computers? It's not as if 3rd world countries have a bunch of computers lying around, but no idea how to use them.

Check this out

[deran9ed]

Its not Linux related but you may find it interesting. lazy mans link [politechbot.com]