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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