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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.”
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About the Author
Reporter @juliabergin1
Julia Bergin is a reporter for Crikey focused on science. Prior to this, she covered foreign (particularly Asia Pacific) affairs as a freelance journalist and producer.
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