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Donated computers in queue for maintenance pile up at Free IT Athens, a community organization that restores used PCs and Macs in the Common Ground building.

Grad students provide tech support, recycled computers

Program helps students own computers

By: CHRIS MILLER for The Red & Black

Posted: 9/29/08

University students can put their skills to use and volunteer with an organization that sells low-cost computers to those who can't afford the regular retail prices.

Free IT Athens is a local group that provides affordable used computers, maintenance and repair services to people in the Athens community.

The organization assists other groups such as the Boys and Girls club of Athens and the Athens Area Homeless Shelter.

Free IT Athens was founded three years ago by a group of University computer science graduate students who wanted to encourage student volunteering in Athens, as well as advocate their views on the issue of technology.

"(The founders) had a big focus on promoting free and open source software and encouraging environmentally responsible recycling of used computer equipment," said Brian Pitts, a University graduate student from Atlanta and Free IT Athens volunteer.

Pitts, who received a bachelor's degree in political science with a minor in computer science from Emory University, said Free IT Athens' original mission has grown.

"Now a lot of what we focus is on not so much the actual recycling but refurbishing and getting computers back into the community," he said.

The concrete development of this ideology was bolstered this summer with the help of two interns provided by Common Ground, an Athens organization that supports local groups working toward social change.

This summer, Common Ground supplied interns Katie Manthey and Davis Powell, who are also University students.

Because of their lack of technical experience, Manthey and Powell spent their summer writing by-laws and a mission statement for Free IT Athens, which can be found on the group's Web site, freeitathens.com.

"We worked on creating a structure, basically just a plan for operation," said Powell, a senior from Roswell.

Although he was unfamiliar with the program at first, Powell said he found an appreciation for it during the summer.

"Computers and the Internet are such a core part of the workforce and a lot of people are actually shut out of that in the Athens area, and empowering them with computers can really offer a lot of advantages."

Recently, Free IT Athens has sought this kind of empowerment for students in the Clarke County School District.

Pitts contacted Virginia Jewell, the district's director of technology integration, last spring to ask about a possible partnership.

This partnership resulted in Clarke County schools donating 96 retired desktop computers, of which Free IT Athens cleaned hard drives and installed open source software and basic computer programs that can be downloaded for free.

Jewell said these computers were then distributed to Clarke County students for $25, which covered distribution costs.

Several hundred more computers are being processed to be distributed this year.

Free IT Athens also sells donated and reprogrammed computers to individuals for $50-100. Twelve hours of volunteer time with the organization merits a free computer.

The group also maintains open hours at the Common Ground office on 157 Newton St., Wednesdays 5 to 7 p.m. and Sundays 1 to 5 p.m., during which they provide services such as general trouble-shooting, virus protection and hardware installation.

This service is free to open source users. For users of operating systems such as Mac OS X and Windows, there is a $10 suggested donation.