Fall foliage galore

Welcome back to the Geekcorps monthly…bi-monthly…ummm, quarterly newsletter. This year has had plenty of fluctuations and changes, but we are still riding strong with many projects underway on our multi-colored horizon.

Actually, we haven’t had a newsletter for a while. Why? Two reasons: One is that the stellar Stephanie Lindenbaum has departed Geekcorps for graduate school. (Standing ovation, please…) One of her countless tasks was the Geekcorps newsletter, but we’re trying to fill her mighty shoes with shorter, more frequent mailings — like this one — catching you up on our activities. The other reason that we haven’t had a newsletter for a while is because we had a number of projects waiting to begin or be renewed. Because we’re superstitious, we didn’t want to jinx ourselves. But, as you’ll see below, the log jam has broken, and we have a lot on the front burner.

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Ghana

Geekcorps’ seventh Ghana group is headed for Accra to the hallowed Geekhalla, but this time things are a bit different. Whereas previous Ghana groups have varied from five to seven volunteers, G7 is going to be a lean four people working on two projects each over the course of five to seven months. Most will start in January, but the intrepid Jessica Mitchell is headed to Ghana in November to start her first project working with Ghanaian ISP’s. (A round of applause, please, for Jessica…)

Why the change in the Geekcorps Ghana program? Well, there were several reasons, but we were largely trying to accommodate new priorities that had been set by the Ghanaian Government and USAID. We’re going to have a focus on helping create exports within the ICT and other trade sectors. In addition, we’re going to have one volunteer working with local colleges, teaching programming courses and helping develop computer science curricula. Finally, we’re also going to be working with ISP’s on various ICT policy issues and helping build dialogue between ICT businesses and policymakers.

We’ll keep you updated…
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Digital Freedom Initiative – Senegal
Our program in Senegal officially kicked off last month with the arrival of our first volunteer, Sean Canny, and the hiring of our Dakar Office Staff.
Sean, a native Irishman from Galway, Ireland, and Vice President from the Bank of America, will be working on an the e-finance piece of the DFI. In his own words:

Currently Senegal’s financial services infrastructure is primarily limited to the main urban centers with little or no penetration in rural areas. As a result the majority of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas face major challenges when trying to access even the most basic of financial services. This situation has led to non-uniform economic development concentrated in Senegal’s major urban centers and an associated rural-to-urban population migration. In addition, a large section of the Senegalese population remains unbanked with little knowledge or insight into even the most basic of financial instruments such as interest-based saving, investing, etc., either/both on an individual or community basis.

Sean spent 3 days in North Adams before leaving for Dakar receiving orientation, training, and old-fashioned Berkshires’ hospitality. In Dakar, Sean is working with the Dakar Office Team: Madame Fatimata Sylla, the Program Director, and Abou Fall, the Program Coordinator.

We will be deploying at least 15 volunteers over the next year to Senegal to work in the following areas:

*E-finance,

*Strengthening Operations and Management of SMEs through ICT,

*Improve SME access to market via ICT tools, and

*Strengthening Telecenters and Cyber Cafes

If you are interested in participating in DFI Senegal, please contact gina at Senegal@geekcorps.org for more information.
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Mali

Our program in Mali will be starting in November with the placement of a program coordinator in Bamako who will be working to set up a Geekcorps office. Our Mali project is different anx exciting in many ways. We are tasked with finding technological options to connect the more than 145 radio stations in Mali. A connected network will enable the radio stations to exchange development information and content, and will strengthen the reach that radio has in this west African nation. Keep your eyes posted for more news!
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South Africa

Geekcorps in South Africa? Yep, it’s true: Cape Town in 2004! Geekcorps will be working with Enablis, a not-for-profit organization formed to implement the Digital Opportunity Task Force’s Entrepreneurial Network that arose as part of the 2000 G8 Summit in Okinawa. Enablis’s primary mission is to “drive measurable economic development and build self-sustaining businesses by supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises and their use of ICT.” Geekcorps will be doing what we do best: Working with SME’s to maximize their uptake and use of information and communications technology (ICT). A pilot phase is shaping up for early 2004, and we’ll be sure to keep our eager readers informed.
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Vietnam:

Geekcorps is working with partner organizations KiAsia http://www.kiasa.org and Internews http://www.internews.org to deploy four Geekcorps volunteers to Vietnam in support of a software professionalization program. Kick-off activities will center around a series of workshops on CMM (Capability Maturity Modeling) certification. Volunteers will then work with a portfolio of Vietnamese companies over three months to explore the full range of tools related to software development standards and methodologies. We are currently recruiting to deploy two teams; December 03-February04 and February-April. If you are interested, and have a strong background in UML, SMM, Extreme Programming and experience with CMM certification email amhark@geekcorps.org

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On cherche toujours les Geeques Francophones…
As you can see on our website, we are still looking for French-speaking volunteers who are eager to work in either Senegal or Mali.
What, precisely are we looking for? Individuals with experience working with ICT firms, e-finance, telecenters and cyber cafes, and wireless/packet radio.. As our projects evolve, we will continue to post our needs on our website. Going forward we will need more software engineers and designers among other tech skills.

If you’ve already applied, but want us to recognize your recent projects, drop Gina a line or update your application via the website. We’d hate to pass you by…

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Meet a Geek

Name: Gina Dario
Location: North Adams, MA
What She Does: Program Coordinator for Mali and Senegal
What That Means: Soup to nuts project management –from volunteer recruitment, training and orientation, to project implantation, management, and monitoring. Throw some budget stuff in, and some other ad-hoc projects, and that’s the job.. Plus providing Neil with comic relief on those dreaded “quiet days” and working with him on our juggling routine.
How She Got Here:(blush) Raised in Berkshire County, and even born in North Adams (!) Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Having fled the Berkshire for many years to pursue school, work, travel overseas, work, school, travel overseas, and work overseas, I found myself looking at a Geekcorps position with disbelief - Its in North Adams!?!
What She’s Reading: Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, The One to Watch, and The Glory and the Dream
What She’s Eating With apple season here, I’m trying to supplement my diet with daily servings of my homemade apple pie. I’m my own biggest fan of them, and am my family’s apple-making scion. Of course – anything sweet that Ana Maria and Neil bring in is appreciated..
What She’s Listening To: NPR, “I love U2”, and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. Latin music is also a favorite..Suggestions welcome!
How She Spends Her Time Not at Geekcorps: Traveling to Boston, New York and overseas, Tango dancing, painting projects, roller-blading, playing guitar, and watching the Sopranos (no personal connection, really).

Words of Wisdom: “When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before.”

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We’re proud to announce our latest partners in the world of International Development- Engineers Without Borders. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are at www.oneworld.net and www.digitalopportunity.org, which, as a joint endeavor of OneWorld and the Digital Divide Network is a global gateway to highlight uses of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) for sustainable development.

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International Volunteer Day, 5 December 2003

On 5 December 2003, volunteers and volunteer involving organizations across
the globe will join to celebrate International Volunteer Day (IVD). Building
on momentum from the International Year of Volunteers 2001, which raised the
global profile of volunteerism, IVD highlights collective challenges in
voluntary action and serves as a platform to help achieve the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).

This requires dedicated, coordinated action. All over the world, many
existing organizations and networks are harnessing volunteer effort towards
bringing about relief or a better quality of life for millions of people.
These actors include local and national governments, community-based and
non-governmental organizations, schools and universities, religious
institutions, sporting unions and volunteer associations.

Serving as global focal point for IVD, the UN Volunteers programme
recognizes the critical role of committed organizations, working in
partnership, to involve new actors and extend the reach of volunteerism for
development; it supports these initiatives with a range of activities.

For more information about IVD:

www.worldvolunteerweb.org/ivd

To learn about UN Volunteers:

http://www.unvolunteers.org

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