City folks’ ‘cutting edge’ technology goes by gigahertz, gigabytes and RAM, but the bush offers a sophisticated slowness to science and tech.
It’s a 10-day turnaround to fix a loose plug or a dead wire in a remote community — it requires a helicopter and a team of city-based experts to fly-in, plug in, and fly-out.
“Whether it’s a TV dish that needs realignment, set-top boxes that are sitting on the floor filled with dust and water, wi-fi that’s shut off because it’s got the wrong card in, these are all minor problems that you don’t need fully fledged interstate technicians for a fix and make safe, fly-in fly-out service,” CEO of the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT) Peter Renehan tells Crikey during a visit to its head office at the Alice Springs Desert Knowledge Precinct.
“We want to gear up our guys to go in and be on-ground tech support and then teach these remote communities to do it themselves. We want those skill sets to remain in the community.”
Read more about how the CfAT hub is breaking down misconceptions.
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