Geekcorps in the press

How do you bring the Internet to countries like Mali, where more than 70 percent of the population is illiterate and the telecommunications infrastructure barely exists?

You use the radio.

Geekcorps: A Peace Corps for Techies, CNET News

We were on the ABC News program “Ahead of the Curve,” discussing our work in Mali with VIA Technologies. Geekcorps Mali is empowering radios stations in remote communities with improved communication and access to information, using free, open-source software, low-cost Internet connections, and in some cases, low-voltage solar-powered computers designed to withstand the desert environment.

Watch the video clip now!

MobuzzTV, a daily video magazine for 3G mobile phones, profiled Geekcorps for its Improvement Day special. Encouraging techies to volunteers, MoBuzzTV even championed our famous BottleNet on its short, sharp 3-min program specifically for small screens and written with the mobile viewer in mind.

Catch the show online here and check out their other programming via cell phone at mobile.mobuzztv.com

Link: http://www.mobuzz.com/shows/2279.html

Geekcorps made the front page of the Dallas Morning News with an in-depth interview of some very cool geeks, Program Manager Wayan Vota and Geek Volunteer Henry Malmgren. The DMN even announced our newest project, the Sudanese North American Diaspora Database.

The article is no longer available on the Dallas Morning News site, but it has been syndicated by the Milwauke Journal-Sentinel:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=343609

While to the American ear, we are pronounced \gek’ - kor\ and often the name is misspelled “Geekcorp” or even “Geek Corp”, we are Geekcorps, one word, without a capitalized “c”. Geekcorp is a software company, Geekcorps is your favorite technology nonprofit.

Geekcorps Mali is changing the mindscape of technology one word at a time. This month’s word is “BottleNet” and it’s featured in the June edition of Wired Magazine on page 46 in the Jargon Watch section.

Seeing is believing: here is a JPG of the page. So be cool the next time you’re talking tech and use “BottleNet” in a sentence like this: “Yeah, I was thinking of buying a $100 WiFi antenna from Best Buy too, but instead I built a Geekcorps BottleNet for $2. Sweet, eh?”

The February 16, 2005 edition of Technology Review, the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) magazine of “emerging technologies and their impact on business and society,” published an article about Geekcorps.

While the Peace Corps builds houses, lays pipes and teaches chemistry, the International Executive Service Corps/Geekcorps has a more high-tech raison d’ etre.

Link: http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/02/wo/wo_krotoski021605.asp

Geekcorps was featured in the French-language cyberjournal Commerce Monde on April 15, 2004.

En attendant la manne au Sénégal
Geekcorps a déjà son histoire de succès au Rwanda grâce à un Québécois
Par Daniel Allard

Link: http://www.commercemonde.com/040/sommaire/s043.html

First volunteer to Mali!

Ian Howard, the first volunteer assigned to Geekcorps’ community radio / WiFi project in Mali, West Africa, will be arriving within the week in Bamako. Ian’s employer, the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), published an article in the University Bulletin about Ian and his exciting project.
Additionally, the Record, another Canadian newspaper, posted the following article:

The Record article: http://dingo.uwaterloo.ca/~ihoward/geekcorps/docs/therecord_article.html
The Bulletin article: http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2004/jan/09fr.html

Afrik.com, “Le quotidien de toute l’Afrique,” is a great French-language website that posts news and articles about all issues related to Africa: Economy, sports, internet, technology, music and travelling. This week they also have an article on the Digital Freedom Initiative, which Geekcorps is working on in Senegal.

Link: http://www.afrik.com/article6831.html