Computer Haven

Computer Haven is a plan to refurbish 100 older computers with full suites of Open Source software and distribute to 100 New Haven kids/families. The origins of the idea are the stuff of legend and folklore. A group of rebels, led this particular night by JR _________ from ______________, call themselves the OpenSource for Good  Tweetup group and include such innovators as Ben Berkowitz, Giftflow guys, Mark and others. ON this particular night they included participants in Connecticut’s #SWCT or Social Web Connecticut’s week of events. Some of these folks included: Andre Yap and Amy Desmaris from Ripple100, New Haven community organizer Lee Cruz, and myself, along with several others.

JR was innocently demonstrating his awesome thumb drive full of Open Source software that could be inserted into any computer, booted up and used! WOW! Flash! Boom! The ideas were unleashed, and questions followed; could this be used to supplement the “One Laptop Per Child” program to increase functionality?, Could this be used to repurpose older machines?, and wouldn’t New Haven benefit from these machines being used by New Haven Families?  After a lively conversation, I threw down the gauntlet and challenged the group to provision 100 contributed computers to be distributed through a conceptualized channel of “someone” who currently teaches kids how to use computers.

Like the heroic knights of old, Ben Berkowitz, JR, Giftflow guy, Ben’s IT, and others rose to the challenge. Computers became available, UberGeeks stepped up to the plate and offered to strip and provision the machines, and Giftflow became envisioned as a possible vehicle to find and allocate computers from larger organizations. Though the pilot program is a very limited 100 computers to 100 kids in 100 days, in keeping with the #GoogleHaven100 theme, It appears that this program could continue for some time and potentially affect thousands of New Haven resident’s live for the better.

The idea is for a person with distribution reach to work with the kids through a checklist of practical functions- can they log onto the web? can they write a paper in Open Office? can the Blog on Blogger? View a video on YouTube? Compose and send an email? Conduct a search on Google?, etc. When this list of tasks can be completed succesfully by the prospective student recipient, then they have earned a place in the digital community and we have begun to erode the “digital divide.” Though the pilot program is a very limited 100 computers to 100 kids in 100 days, in keeping with the #GoogleHaven100 theme, It appears that this program could continue for some time and potentially affect thousands of New Haven resident’s live for the better. With Lee Cruz’s announcement that Curtis Hill, Founder of Concepts for Adaptive Learning who has place over 1600 computers in New Haven homes, has decided to join us, we now have a solid distibution possibility and this project has Gone Live!!

How can you participate and be involved? Easy as 1, 2, 3.

1)  Have an older computer/laptop that can reused?

2)  Know how to strip old software and reinstall Opensource sofware?

3)  Want to help teach, distribute, mentor and/or support local computer recipients?

(actually there is a fourth) Media, Google map mashups, and making Google aware are also important :-)

The Put Up and SHOW UP!!

Where: Ben Berkowitz’s See Click Fix New Haven Office

Address___________________________________________

Who: YOU!! If you are interested, YOU are welcome here!

What: UberGeeks, Old Computers, Hooker Beers :-)

Why: Because if WE DON”T DO IT it doesn’t happen.

When: Saturday August 7, 2010 at ________AM

100 lives changed due to the actions of a small group- beautiful

Repeated 100 times...AWESOME!!

We look forward to changing the world with you, right here in New Haven :-)