June is busting out all over!
Sorry, we’re just a bit musical crazy up here in Mass MoCA. What with the Theatre Festival rehearsals next to us and show tunes flowing through the woodwork, it’s taken all we’ve got not to set this newsletter to music. Then again, typing with ‘jazz hands’ is sort of tough as well…
New programs are popping up, old ones are continuing, and general geek excitement abounds. Check it all out below.
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Hard work: the key to a successful marriage
We at Geekcorps have discovered that through our continued work with IESC we have just that… work! More geeks are heading out to Armenia nearly every month, database developer requests have come up in spots as far reaching as Thailand, and db/web developers are likely to be a big request from francophone Rwanda. Ecoutez-vous? If you speak French and you’re a big geek, let us know!!
The way these intra-organizational placements works is as follows: Program staff abroad contact Geekcorps when they (along with their Connecticut-based IESC counterparts) classify a job as IT-oriented. We search through our cache of qualified, bright, adventurous geeks and select the ideal candidates. We’re working hard to define the ‘Geekcorps’ element to these placements- that is, how the volunteers continue to get a Geekhalla-esque experience out of their time, even if it is only 1 month long and in Southeast Asia. Efforts to this end will include a more thorough orientation, as well as a responsibility to maintain site-specific sections of geekhalla.org. More specifics on this to come.
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Ger…Great!
If your air conditioning is beginning to feel inadequate for a long, sticky summer, then we have fantastic news for you. Program Director Ana Maria and Executive Director Ethan recently made a trip to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s happenin’ capital city. Via our partnership with GTN (Global Trade & Technology Network) another IESC division, we will be sending a total of 8 geeks over the course of the next twelve months in the fields of networking (Unix/Linux Red Hat knowledge a plus), Programming/Software life cycle (quality assurance, custom software, accounting software, and software maturity model specifically) and others yet to be determined…
Interested? Of course you are! Apply online and mention your specific program/location desires so that we may keep you mind. Recruitment begins shortly!
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Ghana Group V
Oy, does time zip by. At the risk of sounding like my mother, it’s amazing how quickly the kids come and immediately set off again. While we’ll miss G4, they’ve all got that great geek spirit that we expect will keep them connected to us for a long time to come. And the next batch, well who’s to say…?
Rian Aldridge applied to Geekcorps just so he could claim both the Dalai Lama and equally benevolent Ethan Zuckerman as his bosses. Okay, probably not, but Rian, an Aussie, does have one of the most interesting CV’s we’ve seen, having helped to network the exiled Tibetan government in India. We’re helping him escape the world of finance and big business to work with an NGO and a small web dev shop in Accra under the EDDI (Education and Democracy Development Initiative) program.
Shane Chen admitted his dream ten years ago was to play competitive beach volleyball and fool around with computers. But once you’ve realized your dream, where do you go? To West Africa, of course! From L.A., by way of a month’s holiday in Norway, new Green Card holder Shane will flex his networking (he’s also co-authored a Linux book!) skills with Netplux in Accra. That is, if he doesn’t fall too deep in love with Scandinavia…
We first chatted with Argentine Pablo Destefanis over a year ago, but scheduling and projects got in the way of a good match. Now he’s back (eerily updating his application the very same day we contacted him anew) and ready to help out our pals at BusyInternet with SysAdmin, security and training issues. We love his enthusiasm, not to mention the fact that he’s biked through the U.S. and Europe and his travel bug hasn’t been sated!
Olivia Given is, at the moment, our sole geek chick. Aside from co-managing her large company’s IT department, she amazes us by her polyglot, polyprogram, poly-platform abilities. In Ghana she’ll be working with the excitingly-named Office Automation, on their many-faceted (programming, networking, database admin, web development) project. Our second Brooklynite, Olivia confuses Volunteer Coordinator Carol every time she sends an email from her e-pseudonym.
We got a big kick out of Seattle-based Franklin Joyce’s personal website, particularly the HeadCheese/Cheesehead video. A lauded multimedia artist, Franklin says he likes to do “creative stuff with science.” He also passed up a fellowship to work in Japan in favor of work with ChoiceFM, an Accra-based radio station looking to create a Ghanaian-focused portal out of their site. We also expect him to organize cool community art projects in Accra as he has done at home.
What can we say? We’re name-ist. And Bosco So has the coolest name we’ve heard in a long time. But that’s not why we selected this programmer and developer extraordinaire- we dug his extensive skills set, as well as his great perspective. Having spent two years in Liberia with Peace Corps, Bosco has since honed his strategy and ecommerce skills in contract and permanent work around the U.S. Now based in San Francisco, Bosco will be working with Software Engineering in Accra, and will be accompanied by his partner Susan, a talented artist interested in working with NGOs in Ghana.
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Approach… aptitude… applications!
Please don’t forget that if you’ve already applied, you can update your application without sending in a brand-new one. Even if you would like to add to your personal statement, send in an update, not a new app. Our Recruitment Director would also like to URGE you to update your email addresses if the one you applied with is now dead or abandoned. Imagine us attempting to contact you for an exciting Geekcorps placement and being unable to reach you…! You guilty people know who you are – or rather, you probably don’t. Our detective skills only go so far, so if we can’t contact you, you miss out!
No other major changes have been made to the re-vamped website, but don’t forget to check it periodically for new press pieces, questions and answers in the forum, and links to other Digital Divide sites. geekcorps.org. Perhaps not as entertaining as The Onion, but still pretty damn good.
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What is a frequent flier mile?
Big Geek Ethan certainly knows! Not only has he been back and forth to Washington DC, New York and Boston (ok, so he drives to Boston and trains it to New York, but you know what we mean) but has also gone all the way to Mongolia and Indonesia, all in the name of Geekcorps.
Many of you folks write in to ask us why we haven’t expanded to, say, Ecuador or Samoa. The answer is not so simple: in developing programs, sometimes we respond to specific requests from prospective partner businesses in the field. If there appear to be a number of viable businesses in a burgeoning IT sector, we’ll definitely check it out—this entails an exploratory trip to research not only the state of IT in a country, but also living conditions for volunteers: safety, comfort, enjoyability factor, caliber of work. If it all checks out and excites us enough (oh and there’s something called funding we also have to contend with), we’re good to go- scopes of work are developed and volunteers are sent.
If, however, the environment (including government ministries, both indigenous and American) appears hostile or unreceptive, we won’t bother- or perhaps will check back in a year’s time. You see, we wouldn’t want to send volunteers where they can’t be productive and make a difference. Additionally, we wouldn’t want to put anyone in a potentially unsafe or (gasp!) un-fun situation.
That said, you’ve seen what we’re making of Mongolia… Now stay tuned!
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We all develop, sooner or later
At the end of this month, we bid fond farewell to Ellen Schneider, our brave and tireless Development Coordinator. Moving on to the greener pastures (get it?) of graduate work in Landscape Architecture, Ellen’s departure will leave a vast and gaping hole not easily filled…
But we will try, in the name of Neil Bibbins. More info (and perhaps a ‘Meet a Geek’) on Neil in the future, but just to assuage your fears that no one will be able to field your contribution- you have Neil!
For more information on donations or corporate sponsorship, contact Ellen (until the end of July at ellen@geekcorps.org), or see the donations page on our site.
Geekcorps is an independent division of IESC, a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are tax-deductible.
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Meet a Geek
In this installment of MaG, we meet not one but TWO geeks- our lucky and eager college interns!
Name: Nick Minekime
Location: North Adams, MA
What He Does: Summer Intern, Researcher
What That Means: It means he tries to build an Index that will help Geekcorps decide which countries it should target next…The Geek Index. This means he spends lots of time looking through countries’ vital statistics: #PCs/Capita, #ISPs, GDP/Capita, literacy rate, etc., and then looking at a few subjective factors to predict which countries have the most potential for an IT revolution.
How He Got Here: Partly from a Williams College grant to encourage summer internships at non-profits and partly from Geekcorps’ own pocketbook. That’s the short answer. The long answer is that he spent all of last year in China, got interested in development and wanted to come to a young, high-energy non-profit. And he also really wanted to stay in Williamstown for the summer.
What He’s Reading: Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter’s Life with Autism, by Clara Claiborne Park; Holy War, Inc., by Peter L. Bergen; and, of course, 2002 World Development Indicators, The World Bank.
What He’s Eating: (What kind of question is this?) Leftovers and sandwiches for lunch but better when he gets home.
What He’s Listening To: NPR, U2, plenty of Chinese trashy pop and some Chinese rock ‘n roll, and a little Grieg.
How He Spends His Time Not at Geekcorps: Looking for a girlfriend.
Words of Wisdom: Be honest, don’t lie and don’t cheat. It’ll always come back to haunt you in the end.
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Name: Samson Oku Ampofo
Location: Living in Tema, Ghana (home sweet home) till August and in Williams College, Massachusetts for the rest of the year.
What He Does: Summer Intern - Impact analysis of Geekcorps in Ghana
What That Means: That means poring through tons of files of Ghanaian IT businesses and trying to decipher from inexpressive answers to questions in Business Evaluations whether these companies are benefiting from Geekcorps or not; or whether the evaluations are structured such that this information can be easily attained. It also means visiting these partner businesses and discussing the merits and demerits of their relationship with Geekcorps and whether the aims of the projects they embarked on were met.
How He Got Here: It was a very easy choice to make. It was a choice between working in Williamstown all summer with all the lovely people he was tired of seeing and eating bland New England cuisine and going home to family and old friends, to warmth, to spicy Ghanaian cuisine….and on and on. It was a really easy choice. He applied for sponsorship for an off-campus summer internship with a ‘government’ type organization (Geekcorps?) and got it. His internship advisor told him about Ethan and Geekcorps (and of course Ghana) and he said yamaaann!!! He had also wanted an opportunity to investigate whether working in an IT company, especially in Ghana, was feasible. From what he’s seen it’s definitely something he’d relish giving a shot.
What He’s Reading: He loves reading books by Jeffery Archer, Robert Ludlum, Michael Crichton, Frederick Forsythe, etc. He has, however, had to suppress his appetite for such reading material for history and economics books. (Sniff sniff)
What He Is Eating: He believes eating is an art form he loves to partake in. What he eats is quite dependent on where he is, who he’s with and his mood. In Ghana, its all about Jolof Rice, Fufu and Light Soup, Fried Ripe Plantain (Kelewele) and Beans Stew (a.k.a Red Red). In Williamstown he can be found eating healthy amounts of junk food, bland dining hall food, and of course clam chowder.
What He is Listening To: Basically anything with good rhythm (very important) and easily discernable strains of notes from a good bass guitarist. He listens to Jazz, Reggae, Dancehall, R&B, Rap, Highlife, Hiplife, Soca, Afropop, Latin music…
How He Spends His Time Not at Geekcorps: Playing basketball, football (not the barbaric American football), watching movies, playing video games, traveling, chilling with friends and sleeping (catching up on sleep deficit accrued during a year in Williamstown).
Words of Wisdom: We fear what we do not know, what we do not understand, what we’ve never seen. We fear when we are clueless to the why’s of issues. There is nothing as scary as seeing ignorance in action. Read, watch, listen and learn, only do this from the right sources. Who says curiosity killed the cat?
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Notes From the Front
Well, 5 of our 7 G4 Geeks have left Ghana- we just can’t chase the last two out of Accra!- but the last month at site made for some great, inspirational postings on Geekhalla.org. Check them all out on www.geekhalla.org, and in the meantime, here are a few to pique your interest:
What an interesting time it’s been these past months. All the ups and downs make you feel like it’s a 4-month roller coaster. Well I’ve still got all my fingers and toes and a new appreciation for differences in culture. My laptop has died on me a few times since I’ve been here but hey….welcome to Africa. I love Red Red and hate Pito…I will miss the roof….but won’t miss the mosquitoes.
A geek for 2 more weeks… Work has me smiling from ear to ear. I’ve never been more proud of my class. 3 1/2 months ago they knew Windows Basics and Suite. Now they can setup a network without flinching…and the big kicker…they can teach others to do the same. Yep they’re now Network Trainers (a bit green) but none the less capable. I know this because I arranged for them to train a 1-week class last week and I divided them into teaching different aspects of Networking. Everything from hardware installs to creating and administering a directory structure on your Server. Great Job guys!
(Ross Barney, June 11)
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…and so on and so on…
Then you probably end up with a 4 month roller coaster…
And usually I’m not a big fan of roller coasters - but this one…
JEEEZ WHAT A RIDE…!
(Christian Skogh, June 18).
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At this point we’d also like to acknowledge that time stops for no man… or organization. Our fearless Ghana country director, Stophe Landis, has completed two fun-filled and arduous years in Accra and has decided to move on and leave Geekcorps. He and his lovely wife, Shawn, have been integral to Geekcorps’ success in Ghana and we would like to both thank them and wish them the best of luck for the future.
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