Interview with Inveneo.org

[peter]

There is a good chance I'll can get an interview with someone senior at the Inveneo project.

According to their website:

"Inveneo focuses on designing, integrating and supporting affordable technology systems that match the needs of people and organizations in under-served areas of the world. We provide complete, ready-to-install solutions. We share our designs, both equipment specifications and open source software, so that the systems can be created, adapted and supported locally. Our main goal is to make ICT more available and sustainable so that it can be used to by organizations to build capacity to deliver vital services and for people as tools to improve their lives."

They have projects in Louisiana (post Hurricane Katrina), Haiti, Uganda, Ghana, and Rwanda. They had a display at LinuxWorld one year showing how a computer system for a classroom could be powered by a combination of solar and bicycle pedal power.

They are based in San Francisco, California, USA.

Please visit their website and update this thread with any questions that pique your interest. Thier experiences in deploying Linux on bare bones systems while maintaining user interest and acceptance could be interesting.

Schotty, interested in a podcast? A combination phone and email interview could be really interesting.

Comments welcome.

[Schotty]

Interesting.

I like the premise of the organization, and would love to learn more. I guess I could start prepping an interview outline and see what they have to say. Good catch Pete!

[tuxette]

I have some questions:

1. What does Inveneo do and what inspired it to be created?
2. How are the systems installed by Inveneo tailored to the needs of its users?
3. What type of IT planning is required prior to deploying the systems?
4. One of the failings of many IT projects is a lack of user acceptance. How does Inveneo work to reduce the risk of this occurring at locations all around the world?
5. What have been the three most difficult technical challenges in setting up Inveneo projects around the world and how have you managed to overcome them?
6. Inveneo was involved in providing communications services to New Orleans in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, how were the challenges different from those traditionally experienced by Inveneo in the field?
7. How has the open source community helped in facilitating Inveneo's growth?

[peter]

Any more questions? I'd like to send them off this weekend.

Schotty do you have a list of your own for the podcast?

[Schotty]

Peter, read my PM.

The world, I will. This past week was hellish and I am currently one of those zombies from Evil Dead. 12 hour work days, woman broke her foot, kid burnt his hand, barely driving truck .... and over 2 weeks without a beer. I aint in good shape. I plan on getting a good list together this weekend, order some new gear and be ready sometime early to mid week. Even if I dont get the gear, I can record via a Gizmo out call the entire convo. But the gear would be cool, since that would give me an 8 track mixer and a nice condenser mic.

Anyway....