I'm finally doing a little paying work, and it's for something I can get behind ethically for once, the
Collaborative Technologies project/group.
CollabTech is a relatively new project of Free Geek, the non-profit computer recycling/rebuilding/educating organization here in Portland.
CollabTech is like a consulting agency that does information technology contracting for non-profits. The idea is to help non-profit organizations that need IT work done but can't afford to or don't want to hire a regular consulting firm. If they can afford CollabTech's regular rates they do, and part of the money, theoretically, goes into a 'technology bank', which can be draw upon later to fund projects for other organizations that can't afford to pay as much.
CollabTech is still in proof-of-concept mode, finishing up it's first project for an organization called Homestreet, which runs several mental health facilities in the area. The project went way over schedule and over budget, and some people have had to leave to do other work, so I am filling in to so some of the last bit of perl programming. I'm not getting paid as much I'm used to, but it's for a good cause - actually 2 causes, both Homestreet and CollabTech/Freegeek. Not only are we helping Homestreet, but we're proving that the CollabTech model can work so it can go on to do more projects. And it's great working with this group of people too.
So, in other words, this is pretty palatable work. But I still sometimes wonder if I should putting more effort into finding totally different kind of work, something that isn't so computer-intensive.
During my trip I enjoyed not using computers so much, and really wanted to limit my usage when I got back. I suceeded for a while but I've almost slipped back now to levels of use from before my trip. I need to make a concious effort to cut down. Like one of my server's users says on his website: "The world today has many other pleasures and only a
small percentage of them involve pressing things
with the index finger."
hah.
Posted by steev at Mayo 26, 2004 10:04 AM