The Academy of Games
Between the 12th and 16th of August this year, the Leonore Goldschmidt School, in Hannover, was taking part in the city’s 10th annual “Akadamie der Spiele” (Acadamy of Games).
Upvest was proud and happy to support the school in doing so. I’ll explain exactly how, below.
Kids giving new life to old PCs
This year, one of the projects on offer was a technical workshop where children were led through the process of giving new life to old PCs.
This workshop was organised for the school by KDE Eco as part of their “Opt Green: Sustainable Software For Sustainable Hardware” project. That project is in turn backed by the German government via the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt).
The PCs, whilst still completely functional, were rendered e-waste because the operating system that shipped with was no-longer supported by the company that built it, and the hardware was not deemed “sufficient” for a more modern version of that operating system. A problem that is commonplace, and leads to the disposal of computers decades before a lifespan that is sustainable.
The answer to this conundrum? Freely available, open source software, in the form of Linux distributions.
In session’s led by KDE Eco’s Nicole Teale and Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss, the children learned how to find, download, install and explore a variety of linux distributions. They also learned about the drastic environmental impact of manufacturing electronics. Most importantly they learned that these computers are tools that they can control and modify, and that they don’t simply have to accept the idea that they are ready to be thrown away when Microsoft or Apple no longer wish to support them.
At the end of the week the groups presented back to their classmates and teachers about what they’ve learned.
Where does Upvest come in?
Naturally, to run such a workshop the Leonore Goldschmidt School needed three things:
- A lab in which to set up the computers.
- Some old PCs to rejuvenate.
- Some people on hand with Linux and networking skills to support the workshop.
The lab was provided by the VHS, Hannover.
The school itself could provide the PCs, which is a testament to the real world impact and cost of these “forced end-of-life” scenarios in computing. Sadly, they no longer had monitors of cables for the PCs.
Björn Saemann, a teacher at the Leonore Goldschmidt School, was there throughout the week to give support to the students. I’ve been developing software for Linux since the mid 1990s, and as I happen to live in Hannover, I was happy to offer my time to set up and support the lab.
In that context, I heard about the missing equipment. I quickly got in touch with our CTO, Juha Ristolainen and arranged for Upvest to donate what was needed.
We were, of course, careful to provide used equipment to maintain the theme of the event and to avoid creating yet more harmful demand for unnecessary new electronics! The equipment now belongs to the school and can be used to provide similar workshops in the future.
Why would Upvest do this?
Innovative companies like Upvest can’t exist without people who question the status quo. We were founded and are staffed by people who have developed a deep understanding of their business and technical domains and use it to create new and better solutions. This requires the knowledge and confidence to take the tools and build something from scratch.
If Germany is to create an economically and environmentally sustainable economy for the decades to come, we have to encourage our children to take control of their digital world. They must see it as something they can shape and make decisions about, not just something to be consumed. We must be masters of our technology, not victims of it.
It’s easy to make statements like this. There’s no end of people in the tech and startup space who’ll tell you what Germany and Europe are doing wrong. That’s natural. I’m doing it now. One of our core values at Upvest is “Telling the story”, after all.
However, two of our other core values are “Learn and grow” and “Own the outcome”. Which is to say, we believe in education and development, and perhaps most importantly, we don’t shirk responsibility - we get stuff done.
We’re proud to have helped with this wonderful initiative in this small way. Here’s to the engineers and innovators of better tomorrow!
