Via announces community computing push

CHIP MAKER VIA has announced today a community computing workshop over in the Philippines to show "e-Learning" professionals the benefits of ICT for education and development.

The workshop, dubbed VIA pc -1, will be held on the 27th November at the National Computer Center in Manila which will handily coincide with the National e-Learning Conference, says VIA. The workshop will be a "hands-on" seminar for NGOs (Non-Govermental Organisations) as well as folks from universities.

Dr Raffy Managhaya of the University of the Philippines will be tutoring the workshop, himself a big fan of open sauce software.

Fifteen teachers and trainers will be shown the supposed benefits of interactivity in education using computers, as well as how to make it a possibility with systems that they themselves will build, says VIA. Topics at the workshop range from how to establish a small network, working operating systems and learning management systems and figuring out low-cost alternatives for education.

Attendees will assemble a PC on their lonesome, boot it with an ADOC Puppy Linux live CD, test it for e-learning applications and repeat the set-up for other users.

Unsurprisingly, the systems are to be powered by VIA pc1000 mainboards with the VIA C3 processor and the VIA CLE266 chipset. You can check out the official VIA pc- 1 website here. µ