On Aug 28, 2009, at 8:12 AM, Victor Gathara wrote:
I am thinking here of donations of used computers that can
make their way into the country through a regulated and monitored
channel (such as ComputerAid) who will also have responsibility to
ensure EOL disposal according to WEEE standards to prevent dumping of
electronic waste.
Victor,
In your position, you know very well that these second had computers are not donations. You can ask Tony Roberts how much he is paid to dispose a computer from Barclays in UK, that eventually finds its way to a school in Mau. And the Mau school pays for shipping and other costs....but besides all these politics......DFID might consider to fund a specific study comparing the final 'landed' cost of a dumped computer versus a 'clone' assembled with new parts at Crescent Technologies or JKUAT taking into consideration the kazi kwa vijana created....if it has not been done already. PS. I am speaking as a 'contributor' to this mess here, because I also have problems disposing my old computers and printers in the office. Most of the times, its easier to take them to a school in shags that cannot afford the electricity bills of running them...and... just live with the guilt like everyone else despite being labeled as The Hero who brought us computers.
One reason IBM sold its hardware unit was because Moores Law states over time, the cost of hardware approaches zero and the cost of power consumption and capacity of the hardware doubles every 18 months. Thus, bringing 5 year old computers to Kenya only drains too much power when we should strive to bring consumption per watt down. At least, just based on power consumption alone, dumped computer should never see the 'light of day' at the Kenyan port if locally assembled computers will consume half of the wattage today....especially now when everyone is striving to go green.
Google, for example, has watched its energy consumption almost double during the past three generations of upgrades to its sprawling computing infrastructure. It recently unveiled a major new datacenter site in a remote part of Oregon, where power costs are a fraction of those at Google's home base in Silicon Valley. But cheap power may not be enough. Last year, Google engineer Luiz Andr� Barroso predicted that energy costs would dwarf equipment costs -- "possibly by a large margin" -- if power-hungry datacenters didn't mend their ways. Barroso went on to warn that datacenters' growing appetite for power "could have serious consequences for the overall affordability of computing, not to mention the overall health of the planet."