Low cost. High Impact Computing
Chromebooks - Low power and media consumption devices in the west. A cheap, golden lifeline in the third world.
In the developed countries, brand new Chromebooks or hand me down tech are discarded as low power "e-waste" but Chromebooks , Arduinos, Raspeberry Pi's and other "Internet of Things" type sensors and micro computers are just fine for learning basic proramming all the way to web scripting, online business, office suites and as far as application development. Even 4k video playback is now a commodity functionality on even the cheapest hardware.
The developed world seldom uses their more powerful and more expensive computers for more than what Chromebooks do just fine while IoT devices originally designed to give the "a-ha" moment of accomplishing something with hardware at the cheapest costs, have been proven many times over to be useful in their own right
Ownership is more important than schools
Our first priority are kids or students who have already shown promise in STEM, either through bootcamps or barely adequate school programs, it is most essential that they have their own computer vs one that's shared with the family so they have their own time to self-discover as well as reinforce and put into practice what they have been able to learn. Above all it is most important to be able to continue the journey.
While schools are important to support (and we will support them), our primary concern is for our recipients' to develop their experience with computers at all times and not only during school or library hours. Our next priority is also to help parents and well meaning friends who have usually sacrificed their computers to help those with the technical potential to do more with them. They shouldn't have to miss out as well! We will honour their sacrifice
We don't promise to fast track average person in developing countries into IT workers and programmers overnight Most will struggle knowing even where "tech work" begins and what that looks like vs computer repair at the local computer store. Working online customer service, virtual assisting or selling their existing local store wares online would already more than double local incomes compared to their parents' generations
Beyond Bootcamps and Gen Zero
We tackle two main problems. The first already mentioned is hardware access. The second is to cover everything from teaching to providing of facilities themselves.
A far bigger problem is lack of qualified teachers and supervisors. For even the basics. There are others working to provide hardware but far less in providing educators. This is where MOOC's (Massively Open Online Courseware) and other forms of self paced and guided learning can be of help. Other than that money is needed to cover basic rent so places like learning centers / cowork spaces.
An important factor in our approach vs others is that we don't introduce too fancy toys, too fast. If the computers are too nice and too overly focused on "first world catchup", they are also too often misused for things like gaming or worse.. resold for profit. We are providing a handup, not showing off the greatness of the developed world in the form of a handout.
We don't typically need to go beyond what the local economy can afford until more people have mastered skills and are ready to move up to become more advanced participants of the tech economy. Ideally at that point they can are self sufficient enough to make their own purchases.
