[Olpc-open] FW: olpc and anti-corruption

[Clark Pope]

I'm curious if anyone is looking at using the OLPC as an anti-corruption tool. I hear that one of the major problems in afghanistan is corruption of the police and other officials not to mention civilians. I realized that these developing countries are a lot like Ebay: nobody knows who they can trust. The online sites have tried to tackle with ratings systems of users and buyers. My theory is the same thing could be accomplished with the OLPC.  Basically, people would get an OLPC by providing picture and finger print at a vending machine. The units ethernet address would become the person's ID. The unit won't work with any other finger scan and if activity is not detected in 48 hours, let's say, the unit would be reported stolen or some GO would be prompted to investigate.  In the marketplace and at government office both parties to a transaction would authenticate themselves to each other via their OLPCs. After the transaction each individual can rate the other.  If a seller or official is corrupt it will become obvious very quickly as many people report on them. If people refuse to participate then others know not to do business with them.  The same infrastructure can be used to report insurgents, essential services, voting, etc.  Anyway, is anyone working on applications like this? Seems to me the coalition would pay for it since it is alot cheaper to empower millions of citizen watchers than it is to send more troops.  Please respond to my email directly as I don't subscribe to this list.  Thanks,Clark


From: cepope13 at hotmail.comTo: cepope at nc.rr.comSubject: olpc anti-corruptionDate: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:58:47 -0500


dispense from vending machinesgovernment employee have paper trailethernet address is the citizen iduse for electionsrate vendors and buyersuse to validate government officials and report corruptionpay contributors with monthly electronic depositsreport status of water, sewer, and electricitycall for help if stolen can be deactivated remotelyfingerprint scan to purchase and use communications tooleducation tool

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