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Open Economies - Need for a standard set of specifications for recycled computers

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Need for a standard set of specifications for recycled computers

  • To: openeconomies(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu
  • Subject: Need for a standard set of specifications for recycled computers
  • From: Richard Curtain <curtain(at)bigpond.net.au>
  • Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 08:19:42 +1000
  • Organization: Curtain Consulting, Melbourne
  • Reply-to: Curtain <curtain(at)bigpond.net.au>
Request to the Open Economies List

I  have  recently  participated in the Youth Employment Summit in Alexandria
Egypt  where  youth  delegates from 140 countries participated along with 40
ministerial delegations.

My  input  was  a  paper on the ICT to generate employment opportunities for
young  people in low and middle income countries. I was also able to present
the  paper  at a well attended seminar at the Asia Pacific Development Centre
in Kuala Lumpur on my way to the conference.

One  issue that came up was a concern from young people that the high income
countries are dumping their old computers in the low income countries.

Clearly,  there  is a need for someone to specify a minimum standard for old
computers  which  links  processor  speed  with  the  required  RAM  to  the
requirements  of  an  open  source  operating  system and open source office
applications, and other free software such as an e-mail program.

There  may  also be a requirement to specify a refurbishment standard - what
items  of  hardware  need to be checked and in some way assessed in terms of
their reliability.

Ongoing  maintenance  requirements also needs to be spelt out so that people
in  low  income  countries  seeking  recycled  computers  are aware of their
lifetime maintenance costs.

Is  there  scope  for  an authoritative body to put some effort into this to
address  the  potential  resistance  that  could  develop  to  the  use of a
potentially valuable source of low cost access to computers. There is a risk
involved  in  using recycled computers and it is reasonable to assume that a
risk  assessment should be provided as an expression of good faith that this
is  seen  by  the  recipients  as a genuine offer of a valuable resource and
therefore is not seen as dumping.

There  is  also  a  need  to  specify what ways that e-mail can be used more
effectively  to  communicate.  Most of the delegates I had contact with used
hotmail  or yahoo accounts. However this is a poor way of using e-mail on an
ongoing basis.


  Richard Curtain
  curtain@bigpond.net.au
 
 
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