Game Changers: Using the PC to Change the World

Posted 06/23/2011 at 3:27pm | by Jeffrey A. Lambert

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As PC enthusiasts we spend much of our lives finding new and exciting ways to work the technology we love into every facet of our lives. We pay our bills, play games, keep in touch with loved ones, and do business from our computers. They are our hobby, our obsession, our passion.

As computer enthusiasts, we are not strangers to using our interest and knowledge of tech for the benefit of others. The Internet is filled with user-created and supported software that are available to all, regardless of financial need or experience level. Some of us provide education and guidance to others through forums and knowledge base sites. We donate our old or extra hardware to groups or individuals in need. Among us are the heroes who use a mouse and keyboard at work to fill invoices and write programs, then come home to don superhero capes and use these same tools to provide education, inspiration, and creative outlets for others. Below are just some of the many who have gone above and beyond to use their love of computers and technology to improve the lives of others.

The College Difference

Cornell University, located in Ithaca, NY is home to a group of students, faculty, and community members who strive to provide technology to those that do not have access. The Cornell Computer Reuse Association began when Al Heiman, a faculty member of the college’s IT department, noticed that Cornell updated their computers every three or four years, simply getting rid of these old computers that were still in good working order.

Heiman decided to gather together like-minded individuals on campus and, starting in 2004, began organizing donations to schools in Ghana and South Africa. In the fall of 2006, the CCRA officially became a student group on Cornell’s campus.

The mission of the group is “to donate computers and other computer-related technology to humanitarian organizations in the developing world and in the local Ithaca community”. In their five years in existence, the group has donated over 1200 computers in the United States and in countries all around the world.

The CCRA makes sure that each computer that is donated meets a certain standard set by the organization. The group's goal is to provide computers that can be used for basic tasks such as browsing the Internet, and completing productivity tasks such as word processing and spreadsheets.

Machines acquired from the Cornell campus have its operating systems reinstalled, while donated computers have the hard drive wiped using a freeware program known as Darik’s Boot & Nuke (DBAN).

From left to right: CCRA group members Henry Huan, Jason Wang, Denise McEnerney of the Hanger Theatre, Amy Allen, and Nathan Baron-Schmitt deliver a donation of computers to the Hanger Theatre in Ithaca, NY.

The desktops and laptops are installed with Windows XP and the appropriate drivers, and are then loaded up with free software such as Oracle’s Open Office, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome web browsers, Gimp photo editing suite, and antimalware software such as Malwarebytes. All donated computers contain at least a Pentium 4 processor and a decent amount of RAM, usually 512MB or more for desktops and slightly less for laptops.

International organizations are given newer models, usually 3-4 years in age. The CCRA’s hope is that these machines will last longer and will be easier to setup and repair in places that do not have access to reliable PC services.

The group’s current president, Jason Wang, recalls a story in a recent interview about the impact this organization has made on individuals and communities around the world. “My personal favorite story is our donation of desktops and laptops to a Nigerian orphanage run by CORAfrica (Children of Rural Africa). Starting in 2007, we started donating laptops to its orphanage so that the children would have access to computers for their education (the orphanage doubled as a school for the children). In 2009 when we donated about 10 laptops, the director asked us for another 30 desktops. We assumed that the desktops were still for the kids in the orphanage, so we donated them to him in the fall of 2009. Afterwards, we learned that he actually used these desktops to set up a technical college right next to the orphanage (he literally built the technical college around the computers we donated). Because there were now two schools right next to each other, the orphanage was able to convince the government to drill a well there so that the children did not have to carry water back from the river every day. That is the kind of impact we would like to have with the computers we donate: the computers directly benefit the many that use them, and indirectly benefit the whole community.”

Students at the community college in Nigeria using donated computers from the CCRA.

In the future the organization plans to establish working relationships with other colleges and universities across the United States. The group is also looking  for grants and public support to assist in their shipping operations. “Being a student group, we really only have the money to box up the computers and to buy some of the power supplies for laptops/old monitors. A single international shipment is at least a few thousand dollars and we only fundraise $200-300 a year on campus. So currently, the places we are donating to are paying for the shipping costs since it is far cheaper than buying computers in many countries (especially in Africa). We don't want to not do a shipment because the shipping costs are too expensive, so we are looking at ways to cover the expenses for organizations that can't afford it.”

You can donate to the organization by visiting their website and clicking the “Support Us” link.