Inscrevi o MetaReciclagem [2] no Tech Museum Awards [3]. Passamos na primeira pré-seleção. Textim foi esse:
1. Identify the technology application
Most projects dealing with the so-called “digital divide” in Brazil are based on fallacious premises, such as: “poor people should learn how to use a computer, in order to become more ‘employable’”; or “what we need is money to buy brand new computers, those old ones can’t do what we need”. MetaReciclagem started as a group concerned with the recycling and remanufacturing of used computers, counting with a transdiciplinar group - from Linux hackers to graphic artists and anthropologists. Soon, we were helping social projects to use technology in order to improve their activities, but in an inverse way: not people getting used to the “right” use of technology, but transforming technology in order to address those peoples’ demands. That goes from creating a Linux distribution that runs smoothly on a 100Mhz Pentium, to the intallation of a free Wi-Fi hotspot in a public city park, and plans to provide Wi-Fi cards to communitary associations in poor neighbourhoods around the park, plus many other projects.2. Explain how the technology application benefits humanity
MetaReciclagem is developing a new way to work with technology: not a computer as an industrial product, but social technology as craftsmanship. By attracting people with many different perspectives, we are able to crete projects that generally cover wide areas, dealing simultaneously with educational, economic and social issues. The result is a methodology that treats information technology not as something apart from people’s lives, but as a way of talking to other people, the creation of innovative networks, and fostering the integration of local cultures in the context of an interconnected world.3. State why you think the nominee deserves recognition
MetaReciclagem is an completely independent group, and MetaReciclagem is a self-organizing methodology for dealing with social technology. By dealing with real needs, and giving poor people the ability to transform technology, we are creating new, contextualized knowledge, everyday. MetaReciclagem didn’t import a “success story”. We learn with external examples, sure, but we also learn with each other and with the communities. We provide poor people not only means to access information from all over the world, but also examples about how to use technology to improve their own life quality.
Pardon pelos errinhos. Não havia tempo de esperar alguém revisar. 3 de maio tem outra fase, dessa vez vai ser mais pensado.