Miscellaneous

Recycled Computers, Remixable Content

By Asheesh Laroia

The Alameda County Computer Resource Center is a Bay Area non-profit whose motto is “Obsolescence is Just a Lack of Imagination.” James Burgett, the Director of the ACCRC, writes on their website that they have distributed 16,000 computers as of 2006. Most of the computers they receive would otherwise end in the trash, which means they are saving landfills from computers’ toxic waste. Instead:

[They] give free refurbished computers to schools, non-profit organizations, and economically and/or physically disadvantaged individuals. . . . Our refurbished systems all run a Free software GNU/Linux operating system.

With Andrew Fife from Untangle, they are organizing a Linux installfest in the Bay Area this weekend to get the Bay Area community to help set up those systems. In addition, they are going to pre-install Creative Commons-licensed photos and music from Flickr and Jamendo. The photos and music were selected as part of our LiveContent project. What better complement to (little-f) free computers than Free Software and Free Content?

With the number of computers they’ll be working on, the installfest has four locations. It all takes place on this Saturday, March 1. If you’re near Berkeley, San Francisco, San Mateo, or Marin County, check out their wiki and sign up!

Full post as published by Creative Commons.org on February 29, 2008 (boomark / email).