GeekFest '08
I discovered my "inner geek" today as Charis and I visited CPCC's GeekFest '08. The first session we attended was an unexpected jewel - after the initial disappointment that Iqubal Quadir would not be presenting live but featured in a DVD presentation of a conference held in San Francisco earlier this year, I began to listen to what he had to say.
"When Iqbal Quadir applied to US colleges from his home town in Bangladesh he was surprised to discover that not all American universities were found in Washington, DC. That’s how it was in Bangladesh, where everything of importance was centralized in the capital city, Dacca. He later realized that Bangladesh was not unique; in most developing countries, the infrastructure is concentrated in one or two cities, leaving the rural areas almost blank. As he acquired degrees and experience in finance, he realized that this centralization is not only a mark of poorer countries, it is probably a cause of their poverty. Quadir presents this broad outline of development in order to give context for his belief that technology can alleviate poverty."
Quadir convincingly presented technological applications that shot down the typical "hands-out-give-our-poor-country-money" pleas, and systematically showed instance after instance where decentralizing power enabled the people in 3rd world countries to make life-altering connections that transformed the marketplace placing power back into their own hands. Thought provoking presentation.
We also attended sessions on 3D animation presented by a gentleman who has worked for all of the largest animation projects - most recently, Disney's Madagascar 2, a session on innovation and society, and two sessions on distance education - Moodle and BlackBoard.
Bonuses for the day were the door prizes - Charis and I had favor (of course!) and walked away with tons 'o swag - a 4 gig SD card, a USB Snowman Robot (yes, you read that correctly!), two tee shirts, two thermal coffee mugs, and a hat. I was secretly hopeful for the USB lava lamp . . . oh well, there's always next year's GeekFest!
"When Iqbal Quadir applied to US colleges from his home town in Bangladesh he was surprised to discover that not all American universities were found in Washington, DC. That’s how it was in Bangladesh, where everything of importance was centralized in the capital city, Dacca. He later realized that Bangladesh was not unique; in most developing countries, the infrastructure is concentrated in one or two cities, leaving the rural areas almost blank. As he acquired degrees and experience in finance, he realized that this centralization is not only a mark of poorer countries, it is probably a cause of their poverty. Quadir presents this broad outline of development in order to give context for his belief that technology can alleviate poverty."
Quadir convincingly presented technological applications that shot down the typical "hands-out-give-our-poor-country-money" pleas, and systematically showed instance after instance where decentralizing power enabled the people in 3rd world countries to make life-altering connections that transformed the marketplace placing power back into their own hands. Thought provoking presentation.
We also attended sessions on 3D animation presented by a gentleman who has worked for all of the largest animation projects - most recently, Disney's Madagascar 2, a session on innovation and society, and two sessions on distance education - Moodle and BlackBoard.
Bonuses for the day were the door prizes - Charis and I had favor (of course!) and walked away with tons 'o swag - a 4 gig SD card, a USB Snowman Robot (yes, you read that correctly!), two tee shirts, two thermal coffee mugs, and a hat. I was secretly hopeful for the USB lava lamp . . . oh well, there's always next year's GeekFest!
posted by Global Glue at
5:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home