Many thanks to Jeff Chow for orchestrating the meeting last evening and to Shannon and John Frediani of Voices of Angels for opening eyes and stirring imaginations with their presentation on bringing eGranary from the WiderNet Project (http://www.widernet.org/) to a school in the city of Jos, Nigeria. I am now eager to duplicate the Fredianis’ work in rural Tanzania.
Thank you also to those of you at the meeting who left me e-mail addresses so that I could send you the link to this blog. Obviously, it would delight me if you looked through my previous posts during the month since I started blogging so that you could learn about the work my wife and I have done in Tanzania and about our plans to broaden our work.
But I aimed originally to establish an online counterpart, or complement, to the face-to-face networking meetings for people involved with small nonprofits which Jeff Chow has arranged in Santa Clara and which Jennifer Astone has arranged in Santa Cruz. I’m unsure about the logistics of creating such an online forum–I could perhaps furnish log-in information to those among you who wish to add posts of your own? Candidly, I need advice from someone more Internet-savvy than myself (which probably means most of you). So, please: suggestions?
Maybe a question Shannon and John provoked for me last night could serve as our initial forum topic. My question–from where does one obtain donated laptops?–seemed so elementary in the wake of Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg’s sophisticated remarks that I shied away from asking it of everybody assembled and finally put to Jeff Chow alone. I think I understood Jeff to say (although a day, a night, and a day of chaperoning high school seniors on their Senior Trip had diminished my capacities for understanding anything at all) that one approaches computer-manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard. Is it as simple as this, or is there more to the story?–Don Stoll
A whole village 
Hello Don,
I’m sorry that my comments had a silencing effect on you last night 😦
I’ve had the good fortune of looking through your posts from the last month and I’m impressed by your committement and efforts to change the lives of people in Tanzania. I happen to know a couple of people in the diaspora from Tanzania and I wonder if you would be keen on making contact.
In the meanwhile I would very much love to be part of an online discussion forum if there is space. I would suggest setting up a google group and inviting whoever you please to join the group. You can even make it public so all posts can be seen by anyone who pleases. Here is a link with information on how to start such a group: http://www.ehow.com/how_2118322_start-google-group.html
Again it was a pleasure to get to meet you and the rest of your group last night 🙂
Although your comments fascinated me, Wanjiru, my claim that they had what you term a “silencing effect” on me was facetious–nuts-and-bolts questions are always pertinent.
Thank you for looking over my earlier posts and for offering to put me in touch with your friends in the Tanzanian diapora; I would very much like that.
And Jeff Chow warned me of your technophilia–thank you so much for sharing some of its fruit with me!
Until next time,
Don