[imc-tech-solidarity] Linux Boxes to Ecuador: Thanks For Your Donation (fwd)

[evan@protest.net]

This is the note i send out to everybody who donated money to the
computers to ecuador project via pay pal. Mostly they found out about it
from the slashdot article.

-evan


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 16:51:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: evan@protest.net
Subject: Linux Boxes to Ecuador: Thanks For Your Donation

Thank you very much for your donation. All the groups in Ecuador are
excited about receiving the computers. We loaded up the computers for
shipping a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately the day our container was
going to sail the dock workers were locked out and the docks shut down.
We've used the extra time to make sure we have plenty of contacts in the
Ecuadorian government and customs agency to try and ensure a smooth
process once the boxes arrive. The delays mean that the computers will not
be there in time for the FTAA protests. This might even be a good thing
because it means that once the computers arrive we'll be able to focus on
training and getting the boxes to the communities in need.

This weekend we are going to be working with The Afghan Coalition based in
Fremont and their new project CEFAC (Computer Education for Afghan
Children). Websites: awai.org & sapweb.org. They are getting together a
shipment of computers to go in to the schools in Afghanistan. We encourage
you to come out and help us with this project if you're in the Bay Area.

For indymedia we are planning a second full container of computers to
South America in the next couple of months. They are going to Argentina
where bad economic decisions and huge international debt have collapsed
the economy. People there are struggling to survive and develop new forms
of social and economic organization which can meet the needs of society.
With computers and some creative networking we hope to help a number of
groups from the neighborhood assemblies and unemployed people's unions to
the new cooperatively owned and run factories. We are working closely with
both indymedia Argentina (argentina.indymedia.org) and the madres de la
plaza de mayo (madres.org), an organization of mothers and relatives of
people disappeared during the dictatorship in the 70's and 80's.

Please join our low traffic announcement list for more updates on this
ongoing project. You can subscribe by going to
http://lists.indymedia.org/listinfo/imc-tech-solidarity-anc

Incase you didn't catch it Whispered Media has a 5 minute video about the
project which you can watch in either QuickTime or Real Video format
online. http://www.whisperedmedia.org/watch.html

In case you were wondering the boxes we sent to Ecuador all were 100mhz to
300mhz Pentium's with between  32 and 128 megs of ram, and 1 to 3 gig hard
drives. We installed debian with ICEwm  and Rox for the desktop
environment and used the Koffice tools as the base for the applications.
We included pgp and the ssl libraries but did not do much in the way of
encryption. It would be nice to have a more secure system such as
encrypted home directories and proper TLS support in the next version if
we can find people to help us with that. We've also been considering how
to use either the GNU Radio project or packet radio to provide
connectivity where we can't get line of sight to remote locations which
don t have telephone access.

For the computers to Afghanistan here's the information. Please forward
this email along to anybody you think might be interested in helping with
this project.

When:  ACCRC (Alameda county computer resources center) will let us use
their facilities during weekends.  We will start Saturday October 11-12
and every weekend thereafter till we achieve our goal.

Time:  12:00 noon-7:p.m. both days, Staying for full duration is
voluntary.

Where:  ACCRC building:5725 International Blvd. Building D. Oakland, Ca.
94621.  Tele:  510-434-1325, www.accrc.org.  the building is at the corner
of International Blvd and 57th Street.

Notes:
1.  No previous experience in computers or electronics are needed, the
training provided by Indymedia will be more than sufficient.  No fears!
2.  Please call me or e-mail me about your commitment for Oct.11-12, so I
know how many people to plan for.

in solidarity,
evan


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