August 26th, 2004

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Travel
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Applying Your Skills in the Developing World

While sitting in the dentist chair today, I chatted with my hygenist about her education. She said that she went to a private medical school in California. As part of the program, every student has to spend three months abroad doing community medical service. I thought that this was an exceptional idea, particularly for an American school. It would definitely broaden the mind of every student, and make better doctors and nurses.

I’ve always wanted to join GeekCorps. I applied several years ago, but haven’t pursued it any more aggressively than that. After all, I could go to Africa and dig ditches, but I’d surely dig lousy ditches. GeekCorps lets geeks do what they do best: help developing nations solve technological problems. Slashdot references a new interview with their founder, Ethan Zuckerman. Hey Ethan, if I learned one thing in Africa, it’s not to turn your back on the elephants.

Comments: 2 Responses so far

alexis
August 26th, 2004
4:04 pm

I met some very nice people in Mongolia who volunteered for Geekcorps.

[Reply]

Chris
August 26th, 2004
4:24 pm

It’s things like this that make me want to develop free software and help the FOSS movement. Replacing Microsoft Windows with Linux and Microsoft Office with Open Office could shave several hundred dollars off the price of a computer, and the cheaper computers are the more likely they’ll end up in the third world, educating people.

I agree with Bill Gates, in that instead of concentrating on getting Africa wireless access, we should concentrate on getting them clean water. However, I know nothing about building water pumps but a lot about software, so I’ll help where I can.

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