Re: News: India buys 250,000 OLPCs
Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
<mahesh....@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/04/india-embraces-olpc-buys-250000-xo-laptops.ars
Very interesting and, thanks for posting this. It makes is more
compelling to think and *act* towards:
- increasing the number of participants in the OLPC community
- getting some structured "Marketing" bits in place
- figuring if summer projects around OLPC/XO/Sugar sound interesting
enough to be broached to institutions
--
You see things; and you say 'Why?';
But I dream things that never were;
and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw
Sent from Pune, MH, India
Outofindia
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/04/india-embraces-olpc-buys-250000-xo-laptops.ars
Thank you,
Regards,
Mahesh Mitkari [Microsoft MVP]
Cognition Infotech
+91 – 9890555485 l mah...@cognitioninfotech.com | http://blog.maheshm.net
P Before printing, think about the ENVIRONMENT
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Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
> What's the response on the lists to this news item?
I haven't seen this item forwarded to any of the lists (OLPC and
others) that I am subscribed to. I did micro-blog it expecting some
queries, none so far.
> As a policy for our group: let us first do something significant before we
> talk about it.
I cannot agree more here.
> In the mean time, let's help the few small projects on the ground that we
> have and lets get our Pune and Mumbai volunteer group projects off the
> ground. Hyderbad and Kolkata are waiting in the wings.
It is really good know hear that Kolkata is good_to_go.
> We are planning a OLPC INDIA DAY Annual Workshop and Conference in September
> 09 where we will bring together all those currently working on or planning
> XO deployment in the country.
>
> This years focus will be on Content and Pedagogy:
> New Activities for Sugar.
> Localisation issues and projects will also be addressed.
>
> Walter Bender is expected to deliver a session.
> He says: This sounds like a great opportunity; I am especially enamored with
> the idea of "Sugarizing" the contents of the mathematics texts into
> activities.
This is a very important piece of exciting news. Thanks for sharing.
Looking forward to the workshop.
Sameer Verma
<sankarshan....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 11:04 AM, Outofindia <outof...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> What's the response on the lists to this news item?
>
> I haven't seen this item forwarded to any of the lists (OLPC and
> others) that I am subscribed to. I did micro-blog it expecting some
> queries, none so far.
>
Some lists had a brief posting of the same URLs. OLPCNews has Seth
Woodworth from OLPC commenting that they haven't heard about the
order. http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/india/olpc_india_orders_xo_laptops.html
I would imagine that if the deal were true, we would hear from OLPC
first in the form of a press release. Indeed, if it were true, my
heart would jump with joy!
>> As a policy for our group: let us first do something significant before we
>> talk about it.
>
> I cannot agree more here.
>
>> In the mean time, let's help the few small projects on the ground that we
>> have and lets get our Pune and Mumbai volunteer group projects off the
>> ground. Hyderbad and Kolkata are waiting in the wings.
Hyderabad has slowed a bit (at least my end of it), but we need to
keep plugging away and keep the momentum up.
>
> It is really good know hear that Kolkata is good_to_go.
>
>> We are planning a OLPC INDIA DAY Annual Workshop and Conference in September
>> 09 where we will bring together all those currently working on or planning
>> XO deployment in the country.
>>
>> This years focus will be on Content and Pedagogy:
>> New Activities for Sugar.
>> Localisation issues and projects will also be addressed.
>>
>> Walter Bender is expected to deliver a session.
>> He says: This sounds like a great opportunity; I am especially enamored with
>> the idea of "Sugarizing" the contents of the mathematics texts into
>> activities.
>
> This is a very important piece of exciting news. Thanks for sharing.
> Looking forward to the workshop.
>
I am sure it will be a terrific event.
cheers,
Sameer
--
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
satyaakam goswami
more inline
On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 11:04 AM, Outofindia <outof...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What's the response on the lists to this news item?
none so far
> I have confirmation from OLPC USA that they have no information that this
> order has materialised.
>
> I'm begining to have concerns about journalists who carry reports like these
> and then hold back information on where these projects are being planned,
> which State Government is considering this project etc. ...
> and then to add insult to injury they speculate that DBF and the Reliance
> ADAG "may be" a Satish Jha partner!
>
> On behalf of DBF I can say we too have no idea what this is all about.
>
> If 250K kids get XOs to learn with, it will be fantastic news and our
> volunteer groups will only be too willing to help I'm sure.
>
>
> As a policy for our group: let us first do something significant before we
> talk about it.
>
> In the mean time, let's help the few small projects on the ground that we
> have and lets get our Pune and Mumbai volunteer group projects off the
> ground. Hyderbad and Kolkata are waiting in the wings.
>
> I will share the DBF olpc site with you all this week.
> I need a couple of people with ideas and knowledge ..who can help me think
> through and write up a note on our approach to XO Teacher Training.
since you are outofindia the ground realities are different in every
state and implementation as they say two plane landings can be same
looks like OLPC implementations are going the same way in India.
so far i am aware of two initiatives they were like poles apart.
>
> We are planning a OLPC INDIA DAY Annual Workshop and Conference in September
> 09 where we will bring together all those currently working on or planning
> XO deployment in the country.
Where is the proposal , What is the scale of this event where do you
want it to be ? , I can manage a place like Habitat Center in New
Delhi if we have something concrete .
>
> This years focus will be on Content and Pedagogy:
> New Activities for Sugar.
> Localisation issues and projects will also be addressed.
>
> Walter Bender is expected to deliver a session.
> He says: This sounds like a great opportunity; I am especially enamored with
> the idea of "Sugarizing" the contents of the mathematics texts into
> activities.
mvalent
I am glad the DBF website will be finally online. I am also glad DBF
is considering teacher training as something important in XO
deployments. My opinion is that you were very lucky to find a
receptive teacher in the village of Kairhat and if you feel this
experience was a success it is certainly thanks to him mainly.
If you organize something in September, I will do what is possible to
send somebody from St-Anthony School.
-marc-
Gramin Manav Vikas Samiti
Oeuvre des pains asbl
http://www.oeuvredespains.org
Wayan @ OLPC News
> I have confirmation from OLPC USA that they have no information that this
> order has materialised.
>
> I'm begining to have concerns about journalists who carry reports like these
> and then hold back information on where these projects are being planned,
> which State Government is considering this project etc. ...
> and then to add insult to injury they speculate that DBF and the Reliance
> ADAG "may be" a Satish Jha partner!
>
> On behalf of DBF I can say we too have no idea what this is all about.
As the publisher of OLPC News, I was the second to blog this story,
right after IDG broke it on Friday.
http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/india/olpc_india_orders_xo_laptops.html
In looking for more info on who these governments or local partner
could be, my post was the first to suggest that Digital Bridge
Foundation could be associated with Satish as there isn't any recent
info on OLPC India activities and the last info I could find on
external partners (Reliance press releases) points to DBF.
Yet I also asked for more info in my post, as we've heard these
announcements before (Libya, Brazil, Thailand, etc) and I am tired of
talk w/o action.
I am very interested to know more about your OLPC USA denial of an
order. In fact, I asked my contacts at IDG to reconfirm the story
when Seth brought up his concerns. I know the request went up to IDG
India quickly, but I have not heard back from them.
I am also interested in knowing what DBF is doing with OLPC and what
all is happening in India w/ OLPC and its many flag bearers. I know
there are a number of grassroots pilots, the "official" Kairhat pilot,
and now some entity called "OLPC India", but beyond that it gets very
murky, very fast.
Could I ask you to help clear the air - would you please write a Guest
Post for OLPC News that explains the role of DBF in India as it
relates to the furtherance of one laptop per child, XO laptops in
particular, and OLPC HQ if applicable? I know the OLPC News
readership would love to hear of your work.
I also expand the Guest Post invitation to everyone on this listserv -
I'd love to publicize your activities on OLPC News, in your own
words. Several of you are already Guest Posters, and know the
visibility OLPC News can bring to your efforts.
Thanks,
Wayan Vota
Publisher, OLPC News
mvalent
Is this a new joke of Digital Bridge Foundation ? Where is this
website you are talking about ?
I don't know if others are like me but I am really tired of the show
OLPC India is making. On one side you have Satish Jha with his
millions laptops and on the other side you have DBF promissing a
website for more than one year and saying always : "next week".
Common point ? Stories... Only stories.
-marc-
On Apr 29, 7:34 am, Outofindia <outofin...@gmail.com> wrote:
(...)
> Harriet
OLPC India
for profit initiatives to proliferate with little coordination.
Media is clearly free to interpret.. remember the reporting on $10
laptop?
Similarly, don't we all live with limited information and come to
various judgement that often have little bearing on reality.
I tried finding out and what I hear is very encouraging for OLPC
indeed.
However, all the news of various initiatives can hardly be transacted
on the news media first. The folks engaged with the large scale
deployment of OLPC will choose their moment to share with everyone at
their convenience.
Meawhile, I guess that we all expect that various voluntary
initiatives must continue to share more information.
DBF is a voluntary initiative and it will be great to know what are
the pilots they are running, who is funding them, what is the learning
from them and how are they scaling up. How many laptops did they
purchase or receive as donation? How many have they given away? Are
they resellers?
Does someone, anyone in fact, have any consolidated information on
that? Could you please share it with the group?