Yet, there is a ray of hope - people with the hearts and the action to make a difference in the lives of these kids. My three days in Tijuana were spent visiting with the people that work directly in the worst neighborhoods, from the director of the juvenile hall, teachers in local junior high and elementary school, and directors of orphanages for street kids (El Pozo and Casa to the people of Spectrum Ministries that go out into the communities each week to bathe the kids that have no baths to go to at home.

My vision for this community is to provide them with access to computer-based learning tools, by contributing skills and knowledge to help them set up networked computer labs in the schools and orphanages. This particular trip is the first step in such a deployment, combining some level of anthropology with technical know-how to do a needs assessment for the deployment of technology in developing regions.

Initially our plan (on Alfred's inspiration) was to do linux-based thin client (LTSP) deployments in the schools, using TIER's wireless kits for Internet backhaul. Having done a short trip to visit potential sites earlier, Alfred suggested the use of Casa and the junior high in Pana for initial deployments. However, as a result of this trip, we have found that there is sufficient DSL coverage (as well as internet cafe coverage) that the wireless backhaul is unnecessary. At the same time, it is quite possible that an LTSP deployment is ideal for the purposes of the junior high, which has very specific plans for the integration of computers into its curriculum. More importantly, though, is the setting of a potential research agenda based on our conversations with the school and orphanage administrators. The primary need is for resources -- computers and other equipment, with a secondary need for appropriate software. This web site gives more details about our findings, including journals of the work we did each day, and notes from our meetings with various organizations. Feel free to send me a line if you have any questions!

Affiliate Research Groups

The needs assessment portion of this project is part of a class project for the Spring 2005 class of IS290: Information and Communications Technology for Development in the School of Information Management & Systems at UC Berkeley. Other members of the group are Alfred Round and JC Pratt. The class is taught by Dean AnnaLee Saxenian and Joyojeet Pal.

The Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions (TIER) is a research group out of UC Berkeley's CS Department, led by Prof. Eric Brewer. It serves as the technical sub-project of Information and Communications Technology for Billions (ICT4B), a cross-disciplinary and inter-departmental effort funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The group also has several outside specialists, including Kevin Fall from Intel Research Berkeley.