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Geekcorps pairs socially-conscious technology experts with communities to promote development and inter-connectivity. The group tackles these issues on three broad fronts: information technology, business development, and education.
To meet the broadest range of community needs and overcome challenges posed by the environment and infrastructure underdevelopment, Geekcorps collaborates with local civic groups and NGOs to apply technology in ways that are innovative and flexible. Working with businesses and universities in Africa, Geekcorps has expanded open source software development to foster the creation of responsive solutions to local problems. In Mali in particular, Geekcorps has designed the Desert PC and has worked to make satellite Internet connections more affordable. In the Middle East, the group has helped promote tourism through the development of PDA navigation guides that highlight rural points of interest.
The PDA program benefits small businesses by making rural communities more competitive in the fight for tourism income. Other projects promote business development and entrepreneurism more directly. A volunteer in Beirut, for example, helped companies explore the ways in which Mircosoft Visual Studio Team System Training could improve management efficiency and increase their presence in international markets.
While providing training for business leaders, Geekcorps’s educational outreach programs extend to local public schools. Working with Academy for Educational Development and USAID, the organization is recruiting volunteers to create DVDs and CDs that will help teachers in Kenya learn how to use information technology in the classroom, and help government agencies implement plans to bring under-served rural communities into the educational mainstream.
The overall mission of Geekcorps has a long heritage. The concept reaches back to efforts to combine technical expertise with social reform in the years before World War I, improving public health welfare through increased hygiene and safety and modernized utilities. The New Deal of the 1930s saw a similar effort to blend outside technical training with community-based solutions to economic problems. Geekcorps more consciously models VISTA and the Peace Corps, which saw volunteerism and community service as integral parts of education.