Webcams are funny little buggers. The technology used to see people on the other end of your phone or internet connection isn't anything new. Yet, while many of our friends, family, and business peers have video capabilities built into their computer, few choose to use them. We all have embraced the ability to reach out and touch someone, and even spy on them, but allowing them to see us while we're doing it has yet to catch on.
Perhaps the novelty has already worn off in developed countries like ours, but in other less fortunate countries people continue to be fascinated with the same types of technology we take for granted.
When we first discovered the internet, email, chat rooms, text messaging, instant messaging, webcams, VoIP, and the likes, we were blown away by the fact that we could instantly connect with the lives of complete strangers and learn about things we never imagined. Now, it's simply a way of everyday life. Even still, while many of us feel connected to the world more than ever, there are parts of the world that are off the grid and out of our lives completely. If we could connect with them and their culture in the same ways we connect with our own we might be more willing to get involved and make a positive difference.
With social inventions like the XO laptop and it's One Laptop Per Child program, technology is providing children with little or no access to education an affordable means for learning, exploration and self-expression. Could this program be extended to the poor families and the homeless communities in developed countries as well? What if software developers designed social networking applications for these accessible devices that allowed us to share information and ideas with one another? And what if each of them had a webcam built in so we could put a live person's face with a screen name, email or blog posting?
If everyone had a webcam and the ability to see how the other half lived as it happened, we might just share that childlike enthusiasm we once had when we first connected to and learned from those cultures not so different than us.
As an experiment, grab a webcam and log on to 5minutefriend.org. Then, imagine that you or your child was seeing and visually communicating with someone from a remote village in, say, Darfur and not a pop culture vulture who probably thinks this technology is so yesterday.
When you're done, perhaps you'd like to share with us innovative ways other technology can be made accessible for everyone, not just those who can afford it.
  
|
  
|
