Triplesourced

I'm back in the office from a trip to Nairobi to look at how PCs from the West can be re-used in developing countries - and easing backing into the news agenda is not an option given the EU's ruling against Microsoft this morning.

Microsoft's chief coucil Brad Smith is just about to shed some light on Redmond't take on the ruling at a quickly arranged Press Conference and we'll keep you posted on what he has to say - FUD or otherwise.

(photo credit: Glenn Edwards)

This morning did not start well as my meeting with Microsoft's man in Nairobi to discuss the company's newly launched Digital Pipeline scheme (to lend its "influence" to the task of providing re-furbished PCs from UK companies to developing nations) was cancelled at the last minute.

I had some interesting questions lined up to find out exactly where Microsoft's altruism ends and the promotion of its interests in developing world begins but they will have to wait until I interview the general manager for the East African region next week.

That particular mission aborted, I jumped into a taxi and after a couple of wrong turns managed to make my way to the next meeting of the day with Computers for Schools Kenya. This is an NGO that works to put the computers, that organisations such as Computer Aid in the UK source from business, into the hands of Kenyan students.

After a tour of the CFSK's new facility on the outskirts of Nairobi – including a demonstration of how they take old CRT monitors and make them into cheap TVs useful to the local population – we headed off to see how some schools are making use of this donated technology.

The picture above was taken at the second stop on our tour: Shangilia Mtoto WA Afrika– an amazing community school for the lowest-wrung of Kenya's school-children. Many of the pupils here come from broken or abusive homes and would be on the streets without the centre. They have nothing but the kids here are some of the most energetic and joyful of any I have seen on my visits to schools.

I will be covering this story in more depth but I just wanted to share one of the brilliant images captured by Glenn Edwards – a very experienced photojournalist we are lucky enough to have accompanying us on this trip. If you ever needed evidence of the difference a PC that no longer cuts it in a UK company can make to children in developing countries then this was the place to convince the most cynical mind.

I have just returned to Nairobi from a behind-numbing eight hour trip from South-east Kenya – down near Mombassa.

Unfortunately, despite the teeth-jarring off-road driving that had to be endured thanks to some very serious road works being done to the main Nairobi to Mombassa highway – I can't actually reveal what I was doing down there yet – thanks to a pesky embargo that I have agreed with Computer Aid.

The organisation, which takes no longer cutting edge PCs from the UK and puts them to very good use in developing countries such as Kenya, is involved in some very worthy projects here. Unfortunately, as other publications are also interested in this story – and are donating some serious funding to Computer Aid, I have agreed to hold my story back until a mutually agreed time – probably a couple of weeks.

However, there are plenty of other interesting things to see here. Tomorrow morning, Wednesday, I am off to interview Microsoft's man in Nairobi to discuss some juicy subjects – such as what has happened to the promise of a $3 package of XP and Office apps aimed at students in the developing world. If it is happening, it will be interesting to find out what response Microsoft has to the accusation that far from altruism, this is just an attempt to influence the next generation of software purchasers in these growing countries.

I will also be discussing Digital Pipeline – an initiative backed by Microsoft albeit with charitable status – to get refurbished PCs to the developing world. Whether this is pure altruism or there are more market-orientated motivations behind it, I am not sure at this point – but it will be fun to do some digging.

I am also off to the headquarters of Computers for Schools Kenya – a great African success story of aid being taken on by a local NGO – a case of Africans helping Africans. The charity works with companies such as Computer Aid to get PCs from UK companies to Kenyan kids who need them. The organisation is based on a Canadian model, Computers for Schools Canada. Canada actually leads the world when it comes to re-using refurbished PCs – thanks to a government mandate that means all old PCs from government departments have to be passed down to schools and colleges. If only the UK government was so enlightened – it might go some way to reducing education costs.

On Thursday, I am off to meet representatives of the Linux community in Kenya including the brilliantly titles Linux Chicks – an organisation promoting development of open source skills across Africa.

Stay tuned for the results of these and other meetings.

First day (Sunday) in Nairobi - arrived off the day flight from London last night to an airport festooned with adverts for Safaricom – Vodafone's Kenyan subsidiary. Last week was the twentieth birthday of GSM but although mobile networks have been a relatively recent arrival to sub-Saharan Africa – they have developed in an unprecedented way. As Rupert Goodwins, ZDNet's technical editor pointed out, the aims of the $100 laptop scheme – to provide a cheap notebook for developing countries – might be admirable but given the choice, the average African kid would rather have mobile than a computer.

I'm over in Nairobi with UK based charity Computer Aid who are taking me on a tour of their various projects that range from allowing remote hospitals to embrace telemedicine to working with Nairobi's Kenyatta University to investigate the potential of low-power PCs – vital in a country where electricity is a limiting factor. Joining me on the trip are Computer Aid's chief executive Tony Roberts, Glenn Edwards – a renowned photographer who has done some truly powerful work covering the troubles in Somalia and Rwanda amongst others, and Graham Thom, a Computer Aid fund raiser.

We are off to a rural hospital tomorrow – about 100 miles outside of Nairobi – to look at how the PCs that Computer Aid has donated to them allow them to take advantage of telemedicine. A lot of these small hospitals do not have the skilled doctors that tend to reside in hospitals in the big cities – telemedicine – basically collaborating online – is a way around that.

I am off to Kenya next week with UK charity Computer Aid
to see some of the projects that PCs donated by UK companies have made possible. I have reported on some of these before such as the Dolphin Pen (USB Key) device which Computer Aid is funding and allows visually impaired teachers in Kenya to interact with information on their laptops more easily. I'll be following up this story and others so watch-out for the special report at the end of this month.



(Kenyan Union of the Blind (KUB) executive officer Martin Kieti who is leading the Dolphin Pen project alongside Computer Aid)


Coincidentally, I just received an invite from HP asking me to attend a press conference on the 18th September looking at the issue of IT related waste in Africa- which is a big problem:

HP has joined forces with the Global Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) and the Swiss Institute for Material Science (Empa) to analyse and provide training on improved technologies and new removal processes with the aim to develop a blueprint for electronic waste management in Africa.

In the UK HP avoids working with organisations that donate PCs to developing countries as it claims that some of these organisations are unscrupulous and use the idea of donating PCs as a cover for dumping dead machines on these countries. However, I think this blanket ban is a bit short-sighted on HP's part as Computer Aid and others are very careful about the quality of the machines they donate – and make sure they track them to make sure they are properly disposed off at the end of life.

One of the organisations that Computer Aid works with – Computers for Schools Kenya – even makes use of defunct CRT monitors by turning them into TVs. There is a different attitude to recycling in Africa – it's not seen as a new fad – but rather something that just happens out of necessity and a matter of course. Everything with some intrinsic value is seen as salvageable and re-usable. Obviously a lot of this has to do with poverty, but it's also an attitude and philosophy that has roots in the culture.