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

[ubuntupunk at gmail.com]

On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 2:36 PM, Bill Cairns <cairnsww at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
> > --
> > David Robert Lewis
> > PO BOX 4398
> > Cape Town
> > 8000
> > South Africa
> > Mobile 082 425 1454
> > Landline 021 448 0021
> > Fax 0866 995510
> >
> > --
> > ubuntu-za mailing list
> > ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com
> > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-za
> >
> >
>
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Hi Bill,

I think the short answer, is no, there has been nothing done in terms of
analysis of the architecture and special needs of the conference.

I am not even sure if there is a budget or what type of funding there will
be, but am hoping that the organisers will realise the advantage of creating
local capacity and solutions to the problems at hand, as we analyse the
needs.

Thus far, I am simply at the coal-face of the problem. Simply agreeing on
where a forum would be hosted for example, so that we can all chat about the
problem, is one of the more interesting hassles.

However I think the benefits of doing this right for our country, far
outweigh the consequences of doing it wrong.

-D
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