The Skomara Digital Hub

Skomara is a collaboration between Camara and SKOSA (Sheikh Khalifa Old Students Association) and is the legal entity running the Digital Hub here. Before I leave Kenya, Skomara should be a legal entity that is a fully incorporated not for profit company limited by guarantee. I am so glad I took a technical/medical career course rather than a legal one;)

As I have said before the Digital Hub is well and truly up and running. Over 700 volunteers have registered with the organisation, it is supporting 48 schools in the Mombasa area and over 70 institutions nationally. The organisations it is now supporting range from primary and secondary schools to technical and teacher training colleges and even community groups and orphanages.

The demand for affordable computers and associated training is growing and growing. I honestly do not know of any other model that can meet both needs. To make computers affordable to people earning a euro a day they need to cost 100 times less than people earning 100 euros a day (average wage in Ireland). So if we typically pay 500 euros for a machine then the machines need to cost 5 euros (or a weeks wages essentially out here). You simply cannot build ICT technology for that price so you need to subsidise. To get a refurbished computer from a company in Ireland to a school in Africa costs about 80 euros all in. The company pays 20, the school pays 5, Camara has to raise the other 55.

But to be honest thats incredibly good value. Each computer has the potential to hold more information than all the paper libraries in Kenya without even being connected to the internet.

All the software on the Skomara/Camara computers is Open Source. The advantages of Open Source are obvious:

(a) You can do just about anything with Open Source packages now that you can with software you pay for.
(b) It is more stable and runs quicker on older machines
(c) You learn more about the computer learning through Open Source
(d) You have a planet full of brilliant developers and supporters for the initiative

Critically though for poorer schools, they are not laboured with huge license fee issues once they have the hardware.

It makes total sense for the developing world to embrace an Open Source strategy.

However, though computers and software are totally necessary they are not sufficient as a solution. Training is critical. Knowledge transfer in this instance is utterly important because computer and software packages break in time.

Sending out technical volunteers with a combination of teaching skills and high end ICT skills to places like the Skomara digital hub is crucial. I cannot think of any other projects where short-term time in the developing world adds more value. Camara is committed to sending out volunteers each summer to the hubs and schools it supports to provide high end ICT and teacher training expertise.

The beauty of a volunteer program like this is that when you return from your time over seas there is something obvious to return to. There will still be a need to keep the refurbishment operations in Ireland going!

We have noticed over the last three years since Camara has got off the ground that many people go back back a second and even a third time with the volunteer program. This is a tremendous unexpected development.

If you have read this far, please consider getting involved. I can tell you straight up that the project with the right support is going to make a real difference out here.

Its hard to put into words the sense of excitement and ownership people here on the ground for the hub and remember its only 3 months old! In the next few blogs I hope to capture that.

Thanks for all your support so far as always...

Gary