[Grassroots-l] Can OLPC distribution be run as a business?

[Sami Gharres]

All



Apologies in advance for barging in, but I am rather new to this forum
and I have a couple of basic questions I would like to ask if I may.



I was recently in an African country and I was shocked by how few
youngsters have access to computers, primarily because no one could afford them. I came across this OLPC concept and thought about setting
up a distribution and after care network there.


 
My prime goal is provide a whole generation with a truly affordable
computer but I also need to run this as a business that can generate
revenues and support itself. I believe that a 170 USD laptop is within
the reach of a lot of people there, most of them carry prepay cellphones worth
that much or more. I also have few ideas to subsidize the price further for schools, youth centers etc. I have influential business and technical contacts in that country and I
can get funds to set it up if I can put forward a decent business case.




My question is, does a commercial distribution scheme sound like a
viable idea, is it within the spirit of this scheme? If so, who can I
contact to take this further?


Regards

Sami

> From: bryan.berry at gmail.com
> To: sverma at sfsu.edu
> Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:31:33 +0545
> CC: its.an.education.project at lists.sugarlabs.org; grassroots at lists.laptop.org
> Subject: Re: [Grassroots-l] Is this the "Idea Funnel?"
> 
> On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 10:25 -0700, Sameer Verma wrote:
> > IdeaTorrent/Ubuntu Brainstorm is a neat project. It is simple and easy
> > to use. What matters though is that once such a mechanism is in place,
> > people who propose and/or vote should be as diverse as possible,
> > otherwise we get a bunch of developers who pat each other's back (self
> > selection bias). I still feel that this project does not involve enough
> > educators. 
> Absolutely, I share that concern
> 
> > That's where majority of the ideas should come from.
> Agreed, esp. While kids can tell us what they like and don't like. They
> can't tell us what they aren't learning. 
> 
> > Educators know challenges in the classroom firsthand. They also know
> > what works. So, in implementing ideatorrent or some such thing, the
> > barrier to entry for an educator should be minimal.
> 
> absolutely.
> 
> > Once a project gets a lot of votes, the next step becomes crucial. How
> > does an idea become a project? Who takes it on? etc. That workflow must
> > be established as well.
> > 
> > Sameer
> > 
> 
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