The power of 0ne

I've been spending quite some time thinking about the power of the grassroots in bringing ICT to the developing world. I am generally extremely wary of the type of development projects that consist of giving a (let's say danish) firm a few million dollars to buy (let's postualte danish) technology, and fly a few score people to somewhere in africa to implement and train locals in using the technology.
I am sure there are numerous beneficial projects that come out of that type of project, but it just seems to me that any project that doesn't put the needs and requirements of the local users above all else, is ultimately doomed to fail.

I like the grassroots answer to this dilemna. I mena technology built by local enthusiasts to solve a problem that they see in their (or others) day to day lives. The open source/hacker mentality transferred to development projects. I like it because grassroots projects are built with the sweat and tears of people struggling to make their dream come true. In many cases there are better careers, better financial rewards, and better wortking hours in other jobs, but some people just have to do this sort of stuff, or simply enjoy it so much that little else is relevant.

Rare is the grassroots project that is done for the perosnal financial award of the participants. Rare the one that isn't driven by real belief in a project.

And even rarer, i think (with my admittedly limited experience of the matter) is the grassroots project that wastes large amounts of money, if for no other reason than  the fact that these projects seldom have any money to waste in the first place.

Our Wireless Roadshow, is in effect an attempt at triggering grassroots approaches in connectivity.

Why? because even though grassroots projects should and ften are driven by a belief that something is not only possible, but also desirable, there are some barriers to these projects happening. I have seen some amazingly successful technology projects that are driven by grassroots, from Dr. Onno Purbo's amazing work in Indonesia, over a number of hugely successful Open Source products developed entirely without a business in mind, to some community driven health projects. The projects are out there, but not everywhere.

And that makes me wonder:
What is it that makes a successful grassroots school connectivity project happen in Indonesia, and in NAmibia, but not in the Phillipines and Angola?

A large part of the answer is a specific individual, geek, hacker, leader, creator.
The assumption fo the Wireles Roadshow is that these people exist in many places but do not always come to the forefront of a project, due to various barriers.

What are these potential barriers? It seems logical that a person could be out there with the energy and skills to make something happen, but without the personal circumstances to allow him/her to deciate themself to a project. Equally obvious barriers could include legal and policy problems, and finally there may be people out there who would take the initative if only they knew such a thing were possible.

Is it too much of a stretch of the imagination to believe that there are people out there in every country in the world who could and would intiate and drive their own grassroots project of only they were nudged in the right direction?

Peronsally I am a big fan of Amercian Author Paul Auster, and his novels, that basically all revolve around the immense role of chance in our lives. The little chance meeting that makies a complete change in our careers, or the tiny little decisions that means we meet the love of our life. I want to play with this chance. I want to experiment with identifying potential grassroots hackers with the power, will and desire to make a difference and see if I can't trigger a few projects in that way.

If we succeed we may help starting some amazing projects that can do incredible stuff with little or no funding. If we fail we'll still only have spent a few hundred thousand dollars, which is such a pathetic fraction of the total money spent on infrastructure in the developing world, that it seems to me it will be money well spent on a valuable lesson.

Or so I hope