| < Mozilla roadmap | Russ Allbery > Eagle's Path > April 2003 | filter-syslog 1.10 > |
This is one of the coolest stories I've seen.
An Indian scientist tried an experiment. He put a computer with a high-speed Internet connection in a hole in a wall bordering a slum in India, running a web browser in kiosk mode, made a trackpad for the mouse and a few other basic controls available, and just watched to see what the kids living in the slum would make of it. No instructions or anything.
The kids taught themselves how to use it, making up their own words for the cursor and other bits of the web browser interface that they'd never seen before. They love it. He's now been setting up similar computers in other places all over India.
Read more about it on PBS's web site. This is one of those stories that makes you feel like there are people in the world who really get it.
Posted: 2003-04-03 23:00 — Why no comments?
| < Mozilla roadmap | Russ Allbery > Eagle's Path > April 2003 | filter-syslog 1.10 > |
Oh, very very cool. This is the kind of thing that gives you some sense of hope for the future. Through all the destruction we seem mired in from all sides -- and which India is no stranger to -- we still have an innate capacity for discovery, for creativity, for intelligence and for fun. All of these result, collectively, into creation, of the future and of an Internet where we all have a place.
It gives a person something to hope *for,* really.
Posted by E. Burns at 2003-04-04 05:46