[Linux-aus] Headline - Gates, Howard launch $40m project

[Anthony Towns]

On Tue, Jun 29, 2004 at 01:05:53PM +1000, Pia Smith wrote:
> Gates, Howard launch $40m project
>  Sydney
> June 28, 2004

> Personal Message:
> We _really_ need to get organised. We should be organising these kinds
> of initiatives. We should be supporting computerbank more as we are losing
> this battle. What good will 100 microsoft driven community centres do,
> when they get caught in the loop, and start spending community money
> sustaining the microsoft environment? We could always offer the gov an
> alt way to spend the generous donation ;)

From the report, the govt isn't spending the donation, the "community
organisations" are. If you want to be cruel on multiple levels, the
obvious thing to do is to set up a similar project with ComputerBank,
do as good or better job both statistically (computers supplied,
families helped, centres started) and anecdotally (nice stories about
kids and adults doing clever things and getting on the Internet and
whatever); then do a comparative report about how much better a result
some kind-spirited local volunteers and small Australian businesses can
achieve with open source products, than foreign billionaires can manage
with their chequebooks.

Whatever happened to that roadshow idea? Rusty's doing FTA/politics
almost full time it seems, has anyone taken it over for him? It'd seem
like a good complement to ComputerBank, and there was a lot of enthusiasm
for it...

Cheers,
aj

-- 
Anthony Towns <aj at humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
Don't assume I speak for anyone but myself. GPG signed mail preferred.

``Like the ski resort of girls looking for husbands and husbands looking
  for girls, the situation is not as symmetrical as it might seem.''
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