Here's a quick sketch of where I've been and where I'm going - click on the small images for larger versions. The original maps were taken from worldatlas.com and the cia factbook.

cape verde	south africa	south america	china

In the process of cleaning out my hard drive, I came across this annotated bibliography that I compiled last year. The following is an excerpt from the introduction, you can download the entire pdf file here.

In this annotated bibliography I review some of the works that analyze the flip-side of digital globalization. Starting from the question, “What are the detrimental effects of spreading information technologies?” I have tried to find authors who attempt to deflate some of the optimism surrounding the information revolution. This bibliography is amazingly incomplete, and only scratches the surface of most arguments; nonetheless, it serves as a broad survey of the types of arguments that are being made. The hope is to provide a quick overview of some of the criticisms offered from a wide range of disciplines, from the formulaic analysis of the Bridges.org economic report to Husserl’s philosophical discourses.

According to this article from the WEF, Cape Verde is one of Sub-Saharan Africa's "Leading Countries in [Internet and Communication Technology] Growth and Penetration". The country has the region's third highest personal computer penetration rate - eight percent. Wonderful!

The thing is, when I was in Cape Verde, I didn't see a single household that had a functioning personal computer. One family had a perpetually-frozen PC running windows 3.1, another had a computer with a fried power source... and that was it. There are maybe twenty or thirty internet café's in the entire country, and public computing facilities are all but nonexistent.

The Cape Town wing of The Big Issue just published one of my articles in their April edition. Here's the leader...

Many are the prophets of the Information Age. They preach the wonders of technology, of “information at your fingertips.” Soon, we are told, the Internet will usher in a new era of global connectivity and human understanding. Soon, computers will cure our diseases and do our dishes. But 'soon' means different things in different countries.

The children in the rural Cwili settlement of eastern South Africa have a new toy. It is a big blue metal box, and it juts out of one of the community center’s brick walls. The box is safe to climb on, is completely storm- and tamper-proof, and has a speaker that plays music from time to time. What is more, the box houses a small computer and the settlement’s only live internet connection.

Download doc / pdf

Português: Para os Monitores da informática que tem alunos que falam português, esses materiais o ajudam organizar e ministrar as suas aulas. Os ficheiros incluem um guia para organizar lições, exercícios e exames, uma lista de vocabulário para traduzir entre inglês e português, e um certificado para dar aos alunos que concluírem o curso. Tudo foi realizado por Amy Thekdi quando ela era voluntário do Corpo da Paz em Cabo Verde. Todos os materiais tem um versão em portuguesa e outra inglesa. Estão disponíveis em formato de Word .doc ou Acrobat .pdf; ambos estão comprimidos. Pode utilizar o programa gratuito WinZip para extrair os ficheiros. É um recurso livre que possa distribuir e copiar a vontade. Para o nosso bem comunica-nos o quanto esse programa lhe serve e envia-nos sugestões para
passíveis melhoramentos.

English: For those educators teaching computer classes in Portuguese, the following teaching materials will help organize and administer a basic 70-hour course. The available files include lesson plans, tests and exercises, as well as a Portuguese-English vocabulary list and sample graduation certificate. All files are written in both Portuguese and English. They can be downloaded in Word .doc format or in Acrobat .pdf format; both are compressed into .zip archives. All materials are being made available on this website in the hopes that it will be of use to educators in Cape Verde and other lusophone nations. They may be used and distribute free of charge; however, please let us know if and how you are using it!

Download doc / pdf

Português: The Cool Book é um livro para alunos de informática. Escrito em português, The Cool Book ensina as noções básicas dos computadores, com diagramas e lições sobre a história de computação, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Windows 98, e Iternet e Email. È um trabalho realizado por Amy Thekdi e Patrick Coonon, dois voluntários do Corpo do Paz em Cabo Verde. Agora, está disponível nessa website para ser mais uma ferramenta de apoio aos formadores da informática. É um recurso livre que pode distribuir e copiar a vontade - só pedimos que avisam-nos o quanto este material está a lhe servir bem coma sugestões para possíveis melhoramento.

The Cool Book está disponível como documento de Word .doc ou como Acrobat .pdf . Ambos estão comprimidos. Pode-se utilizar o programa gratuito WinZip para extrair os ficheiros. Ao fim desta página há a introdução oficial do livro:

English: The Cool Book is a 108-page computer manual, written in Portuguese, that teaches students basic computer skills. It was written by Ami Thekdi, with assistance from Patrick Coonan, while they were volunteering with the Peace Corps mission in Cape Verde. The Cool Book is being made available on this website in the hopes that it will be of use to educators in Cape Verde and other lusophone nations. It may be used and distribute free of charge; however, please let us know if and how you are using it!

Major topics covered include: The history of computers, Computing basics, Microsft Word, Microsoft Excel, Windows 98, and Internet and e-mail. The Cool Book can be downloaded in Word .doc format or in Acrobat .pdf format. Both versions are compressed - use the freely available WinZip or a similar such program to extract the .doc or .pdf files. The official introduction in English and Portuguese is included below:

Wizzy Digital Courier provides offline Internet to African schools. Using a camera provided by bridges.org, I spent the past few days making a short video documentary of the project. If you have RealPlayer installed, you can view the documentary (a series of five 90-second clips), at

http://tv.oneworld.net/tapestry?story=920

More information on the initiative can be found in the this article, or at the Wizzy Digital Courier website. The trip to Khayelitsha is described in my journal entry site b.