March 2008 — News
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Open Source Computer Donation Program Aims To Go Nationwide
Extra Credit Open source isn't all enterprise software, learning management systems, and office productivity suites. It also has a creative side. For artists, musicians, and others with a creative bent, there are quite a few useful free, open-source applications out there, a rare few more advanced than their commercial counterparts. Most will run on a wide range of platforms: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and various Unix incarnations. If you can bring yourself to visit Wikipedia, you'll find a fairly decent list of free creative software here. Otherwise, here are some titles to look at. Paint & Image Editing Audio Editing Animation & Video --D. Nagel |
Ensuring that schools in low-income communities have access to the same technologies as wealthier schools isn't enough for James Burgett, executive director of the Alameda County Computer Resource Center in Northern California. He wants them to have better technology, and he wants them to have it for free. Burgett--along with several partners, contributors, volunteers, and staff--has been for years refurbishing computers, loading them up with open-source software, and deploying them in classrooms (and giving them to individuals) in the San Francisco Bay Area. He's recently expanded that effort and is now looking to take it national.
The motto of the Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC) is: "Obsolescence is Just a Lack of Imagination." Its mission is to take in used electronics--including computers that otherwise would have been discarded--then find a use for them. If something is unfixable, it goes off to secondary recyclers. (Anything to keep the equipment out of landfills.) If it is fixable, it gets refurbished and then donated to a variety of recipients, including public and private schools in low-income communities, non-profit organizations, and needy individuals. Support for the donated systems is also provided, including complete repair and replacement for the first year. (After the first year, schools are asked to reapply.)
The operation is subsidized by Burgett's electronic disposal business. Proceeds from disposals (of old TVs and the like) are put toward the charitable donation program.
In its refurbishment efforts, the non-profit ACCRC has historically turned around something like 24 to 50 machines per month, which have then been given away. But recently the company teamed up with open-source developer Untangle to organize an event March 1 called "Installfest," which brought together around 130 volunteers, including members of local Linux user groups, for a drastically accelerated production cycle at four locations.
Pulling Off Installfest I
On this expanded scale, there were some minor logistical hitches, but, in terms of the number of machines turned around for distribution, the event was successful.
"This is the first time we've ever gone out and solicited the public to do donations or [refurbishments] on a large scale," Burgett said in an interview with THE Journal.
