Slide request; hello; adventures in the RMI
Randy Edwards
redwards at golgotha.net
Fri Sep 19 22:26:12 EDT 2003
Some of you may remember me, some won't. I'm Randy Edwards, an
occasional GNHLUG member and/or lurker. Here's something that'll be a bit
out of the ordinary for this list...
A while ago I took what I thought would be an interesting and
challenging (and low-paying:-) job; I became the Director of Technology of
the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI). CMI is the main source of higher
education for the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), a developing
country about a four-to-five hour jet flight west-southwest of Hawaii (GMT +12).
One of the reasons I took this job was the possibility of implementing a
great deal of change in a short amount of time. Another attraction was a
potential to use GNU/Linux in a widespread way. Since I arrived, I've
learned a whole lot about high tech in the third world; I encountered things
I never dreamed of when I was back in the states.
For example, in twenty-plus years of working with computers in the US, I
never saw a computer and gecko fry because the gecko stepped on the wrong
spot on a circuit board while trying to keep warm. :-)
I knew the power here would be shaky -- I was told it goes out fairly
frequently (a couple of times a month for a half-day, usually). What I
didn't expect was the extent of the problems of surges. The power here
routinely fluctuates between 60 and 160 volts, all within seconds.
Computers don't like that. :-) UPSs abound here at CMI, and yet their
batteries last nowhere near as long as they should, due probably to the
humidity and salt air (and the power quality).
The salt air was something I was totally oblivious to. After a year or
two, a machine in this environment looks like you poured acid over the power
supply's fan outlet. It's amazing. Other than an odd case that sat for
years in someone's damp basement, I never saw a case actually *rust* in the
US. Here it's routine. I'm thinking if they get 3 years out of a machine
here they've more than got their money's worth. The environment here --
80-83 degrees, yet fairly humid and very salty -- is brutal.
CMI and the RMI are like a lot of countries. *Everything* is pirated.
Note the emphasis -- *everything*! I'm located on Majuro atoll, which is
the gov'tal and main business hub of the RMI. There's about 40-odd thousand
people here. Basically all software on this island is pirated. Someone
will buy a new computer or buy one copy of software, and within a week it's
all over the island.
But it's not just software. All intellectual monopolies are ignored.
The local cable company shows VCR and DVD movies on various channels. Each
day they put in a different movie, run it constantly, and they'll put in a
different movie tomorrow. It's just part of your basic cable service.
This flagant piracy makes a sell for Linux much tougher -- there is no
license cost benefit for using Linux. And I've had lawyers on this island
tell me that piracy doesn't matter because the RMI doesn't have any
copyright law(s). (Obviously, they've never had to *support* all that
software!:-)
Still, Linux has advantages. Open source code is an attraction. The
RMI dreams of having a slice of the global information society's economic
pie, but it's unrealistic because I'm literally the most knowledgeable
IT/computer guy in the country and I know how stupid I am. :-) There is
light years for the RMI to travel before they're ready to even run their own
call center, let alone compete with Indian companies for programming
contracts. Still, they dream...
Linux's multilingual abilities attract some. Needless to say, Windows
isn't available in Marshallese, but if someone got ambitious, Linux and/or
OpenOffice could be.
But overall, I think Linux's single biggest attraction in this
environment is its flexibility. I used to tell people in talks in the US
that Linux would run on "mainframes to Macs" to get this idea across.
One problem I see all over these tiny islands in the Pacific is the lack
of skilled people -- engineer-types is what we'd call them in the US. Like
all organizations, the Pacific islands have more than their share of
outdated and/or clueless managers. And they've got an oversupply of the
hobbyist-turned-techie types -- the low level "techs." But seriously
skilled people -- what I'm calling engineer-types -- are in very, very short
supply.
For example, the RMI gov't doesn't employ *one* IT person. If a machine
goes down and the end-user can't figure out what the problem is, they just
throw it away and buy another one. Amazing. (I've got my CMI techs
collecting those throw-aways; but with less than 100 machines in the
Parliament building's LAN, there isn't a ton of these throw-aways, darn it. :-)
And engineers are in short supply in all areas, not just IT. Whether
it's the phone company, or the power company, or the local car dealership,
it's all the same. Good techs are nowhere to be found. (And for some
reason the law of supply and demand doesn't result in higher pay for the
techs they do have; instead, maintenance just doesn't get done and expensive
systems are simply repurchased when they die prematurely.)
But back to Linux. One opening I see for Linux is to replace many
different devices which have proprietary interfaces and command sets. For
example, why learn IOS when you can do the same job as that Cisco router
(and the size of these networks allow it) with Linux? There's a huge
frustration all over the Pacific with the complexity of modern technology.
Linux won't make that technology any easier, but its flexibility is a
distinct advantage.
The main opportunity I see for my area of interest (educational tech) is
with the K12LTSP project and terminal servers. Right now, the RMI is buying
both Macs and Windows machines (don't ask me why a support-poor school would
buy both!) for use in its public schools. These schools have absolutely no
support or tech people. Terminal serving would be a way to both handle
Internet access (right now, they just buy modems for *every* machine) and to
lighten the maintenance burden. Linux could play a huge role here.
Which leads me to the main goal of this long story. (Shoe drops!:-)
I need your help. I'm in the process of preparing some demonstrations
of Linux technologies -- everything from general desktop use, to server
functions, to a terminal server -- to show to various people/organizations
here. I can sit down and write up some OpenOffice Impress slideshows, but I
know there's a lot of good stuff already out there. I'm lazy and I'd rather
borrow your work than work myself.
So my question: Does anyone have any slideshows that would be
appropriate or even semi-appropriate for this use?
These could be aimed at general audiences, geek crowds, the chamber of
commerce, edtech or whatever. What I'll do is to liberally borrow slides
and/or ideas and adapt them. If you have anything you think might be useful
-- or even funny :-) -- feel free to send it to me. TIA.
Also, any ideas for use and/or selling points of GNU/Linux that you
think might play well in this environment will be happily considered...
And for the curious, feel free to ask if you have any questions about
CMI and/or the RMI or the state of tech out here in the Pacific; I'm happy
to reply via the list or directly.
Regards,
.
Randy
--
"If the current stylistic distinctions between open-source and commercial
software persist, an open-software revolution could lead to yet another
divide between haves and have-nots: those with the skills and connections
to make use of free software, and those who must pay high prices for
increasingly dated commercial offerings." -- Scientific American
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