Today on my blog, Igneous Quill, I asked some questions about reusing old computers in community development projects. Specifically, I was concerned about the following areas:

1) Difficulty of deploying/supporting multiple hardware configurations. If a company donates a large number of computers to a project, they are likely to have the same configurations. Otherwise, computers donated by individuals will vary widely in age and otherwise. How much of an issue is this to projects providing recycled computers, especially in the context of a community center?

2) Maintenance. Older computers are more likely to break down. Do non-profits providing them also offering service? If so, for how long and under what conditions?

3) Security. If you give a computer to someone it becomes their responsibility. There isn't much you can do about it if they live in a dicey neighborhood. What about community centers, though? I've been thinking and dreaming about eventually being able to help set up community centers in Brazil, where my wife is from and where I lived for a few years. Even older hardware there would be subject to the threat of burglary. Has anyone dealt with this before?

I'd be glad to receive feedback on all these points either here on on my blog. Thanks.

Look...

There are people that need your help.

Yeah, there are a million causes, and ten that amount of people who may fit only one. But we have our cause...the rest will take care of themselves or not. We do what we do with one at a time.

But that' how we do it...individually.

One at a time.

Here's the facts and they are not laid before you to for my self-aggrandizement.

They are only the facts.

Since 2005, and until recently, one man has gathered, rebuilt and distributed computers to just short of 950 kids in one area. It's been tough a lot more than it's been easy. 900 and 40 some computers...

A drop in the bucket, yeah...

But all floods begin with one drop.

It was quite a feat, getting everyone together and then finding stuff for them to do. Lynn did a great job getting the venue, getting coverage, and all the other stuff I'll never know about. Ken made sure the computers came out how they were needed, made sure donors got their tax receipts, and did general schmoozing among other things.

Me? I managed to create the single biggest bottleneck of the whole event, the install table.

Much of what we all learned will be compiled in general documentation for other groups to glean if they wish to put on a similar event. Believe me, it will be quite worth it to learn from what we experienced.

Abel over at GTG Web Solutions just posted about installing Ubuntu on older machines for LAP.

You can view the post here http://gtgweb.com/node/60

Nick