[OLPC library] Listening to the poor (was Re: [learningfromeachother] Content workflow)

[Pamela McLean]

Ref recent emails between Peter and Ed (see "snipped" version below).

I agree completely that we need education for entrepreneurship and that we
need to open up communication.

Now we have the communication systems of 21st century there  is no need for
top-down donor-recipient relationships. We can cut out unproductive
middle-men and unwieldy bureaucracy. Now the external resources and
knowledge can meet local resources and knowledge for a collaboration between
equals. MInciu Sodas is enabling this and so is Dadamac
http://dadamclean.blogspot.com/

Pam

2008/7/9 Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com>:

> On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 10:28 PM, Peter Burgess <peterbnyc at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> (snip)
>
> > My conclusion has been for a long time now that the best USE of the OLPC
> > initiative would be to get information from these poor communities so
> that
> > we can set about holding the world's leadership accountable for the mess
> > that has been created by a legal and political system that is
> dysfunctional
> > for pretty much all of the informal sector in the world ... a sector that
> > serves probably well over half the world's population.
>
> Peter may well be right here. I have often said myself that giving the
> poor a voice could be the function with the greatest impact. Note that
> communication also means the ability to cooperate with each other and
> to make deals with the rest of the world. But dealing with corruption
> and unaccountability is one of the most important activities in any
> society. (And one that the US needs to get back to, also.)
>
> > As I am often told by my friends the best solutions are when everyone
> ends
> > up being happy ... the use of OLPC infrastructure to flow information
> from
> > the community to an accountability system (Community Accountancy) does
> not
> > preclude having the infrastructure also used for facilitating education,
> and
> > all sorts of community information activities. I will argue, however,
> that
> > ignoring the dysfunctionality issues and not having the information to
> > address accountability is a formula for short term comfort and ultimate
> > disaster.
>
> Well, you are welcome to come into the community and suggest an Open
> Source software project and an educational curriculum for dealing with
> these issues. None of it happens unless someone steps up. It is not
> that we are ignoring any of the genuine issues, but that we are all
> pedaling as fast as we can, and there needs to be a lot more of us.
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