Archive for September 13th, 2007

It’s with great please that we announce the new Geekcorps Mali Program Manager, Olivier Alais. Olivier comes to Geekcorps after working in Burkina Faso deploying computer labs with the French Embassy there. As a Parisian, he’s bringing a true French flair to Geekcorps Mali.

Olivier is also bringing Geekcorps Mali into a new program area. For the next year, he will build on GCM’s success in improving rural radio stations by developing five new radio stations in Mali’s far north. These stations will bring needed communication technologies to underserved areas previously excluded from Mali’s active social and political systems.

ICT’s like Geekcorps’ Desert PC, Can TV, and Cybertigi and Adapted Consulting’s Open FM radio transmitter. Together, these technologies will enhance the sustainability of the stations, increasing their already significant benefits.

Olivier will also lead GCM in developing more Cybertigi successes with new sites in new locations, proving that ICT’s can deliver both impact and profit to rural Africans.

We’re confident that Olivier will continue Geekcorps achievements in expanding private enterprise with innovative, appropriate, and affordable information and communication technologies and you can congratualte him on oalais at iesc dot org.

It’s with sadness that we say goodbye to Wayan Vota, who has led Geekcorps for the last three years from IESC’s headquarters in Washington DC. As Director, he helped Geekcorps expand into new countries, like AIM-IT in Lebanon, and in new directions, like Smarter Seminars with Hewlett Packard.

Wayan is moving on to direct an online microenterprise mentoring program and will miss the conversation stopper of “I’m with Geekcorps.” A line guaranteed to generate a “Wow!” or two.

If you’d like to have the same fame and cachet at your next gathering, be sure to register with Geekcorps. It’s the first step to get involved.