[ubuntu-za] Ubuntu LoCo participation in People's Health Assembly

[Bill Cairns]

Hi David,

Thanks for this interesting post. My reaction was that the solutions
being offered are probably very relevant, but has there been a proper
architectural analysis of the whole problem? I have no doubt that FOSS
can provide valuable solutions where it is needed, but throwing any
technology at a problem is not going to solve anything unless the
problem is properly understood and a comprehensive design of the whole
technology required has been done.

This is an old man speaking who has been there and done that:
solutions that are introduced from the bottom up can lead to long term
chaos and the requirement to start again. If there is time to do it,
there is time to do it right.

Bill

On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 2:17 PM, ubuntupunk at gmail.com
<ubuntupunk at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Ubuntu LoCo.
> I recently attended a workshop on behalf of Earthlife Africa & Mindfreedom
> International (one of several volunteer and charitable organisations I am
> involved in).
> We discussed various issues related to mobilising around a global People's
> Health Assembly in July 2010. The assembly looks set to put South Africa on
> the map in terms of public health and will hopefully see a lot of activity
> around primary health-care and National Health Insurance.
> http://www.phmovement.org/en/resources/pha
> One of the topics for discussion is obviously Technology & Health.
> It became abundantly clear that PHM lacks an IT strategy and faces a number
> of challenges:-
> 1. Inflation of information leading to overload and potential chaos
> ACTION: Develop a Communications Clearinghouse for the Assembly
> 2. Online presence needs to accommodate multitude of requests for
> information
> ACTION: Set up a Forum/Bulletin Board using best in category FOSS e.g phpBB
> and host where appropriate.
> 3. Linquistic and cultural challenges presented by Pan-African special focus
> ACTION:  Develop and Campaign around Machine Translation for Africa (Google
> currently does not offer Zulu-English, or Xhosa-English translation.
> 4. Special Session on Health & Technology
> ACTION: Bring on board FOSS advocates and IT professionals.
> ACTION: Develop activity around Disability & Technology
> 5. Special Communication Needs
> ACTION  Motivate for Videoconferencing Facilities, Free Skypes etc
> I would be most interested in any feedback on the above, especially where it
> relates to FOSS
> Regards
> David Robert Lewis
>
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> David Robert Lewis
> PO BOX 4398
> Cape Town
> 8000
> South Africa
> Mobile 082 425 1454
> Landline 021 448 0021
> Fax 0866 995510
>
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