Link: Technology Review: Geeks to the Corps by Aleks Krotoski

While the Peace Corps builds houses, lays pipes and teaches chemistry, the International Executive Service Corps/Geekcorps has a more high-tech raison d’ etre.

Since early 2000, the charitable organization has been sending programmers, network designers and technical support to cities in some of the most impoverished nations in the world.

Geekcorps was conceived after Tripod co-founder Ethan Zuckerman visited Ghana in 1993. Inspired to narrow the digital divide, Zuckerman set up the initial program with six volunteers who were sent to Ghanaian city of Accra to develop Web applications and banking software with local companies.

Since then, the organization has grown to 1,600 volunteers strong, and pulls its members from companies such as Netscape Communications and the United Kingdom’s Department of Trade. Those who make it through the rigorous selection process then take part in a three-to-four month tour aimed at transferring their computing knowledge into sustainable systems that can be used in impoverished regions in eleven countries across the globe.