[OLPC India] An Indian Overview of Project-2

[Jitesh Sachdeva]

View on the Laptop

"	As I said earlier, this laptop culture can bring the
revolution in the way of education in India. It is a
tool for education and communication and can help in
contributing to the entirety of aid programs.
Nevertheless it can provide access to education,
health, technology, economic opportunity.

Features that should be added considering Indian
community as a larger picture

"	The most basic feature of Indian community is that
it is very diverse. So this thing should be kept in
mind while developing OLPC project. That means, the
software should be accessible in all major regional
language like Marathi, Kannad, Telugu, Tamil,
Malyalam, the north east Indians languages like
Manipuri, Asamia etc apart.. The software can have
greater impact only in that way in India. 

"	The contents should be localized and hence should be
developed locally with the help of local teachers.

"     In spite of all the efforts that have been made,
the major part of people in rural India is still
illiterate. So, before handing them the laptops
directly, some training about proper handling and
usage of laptops must be given as most of the people
(including children and adults) have not seen any
computer in their lives yet (It may sound strange, but
it is true).

Open source software used in India apart from
GNU/Linux system, Mozilla Firefox, Aiword and Gnumeric
etc.

I feel that open source software should be used in
OLPC project like Linux instead of MS Windows as open
source software have following advantages:
"	Anyone can read the source code and learn the
technology.

"	Anyone can contribute by improving the code --
adding new features, correcting errors, etc. The
culture of the UNIX community attaches high prestige
and respect to such work. The public criticism of
source code which goes on in the open source world is
like the process of peer review in academic research.

"	Hidden trapdoors cannot be introduced. For example
Microsoft Windows once had a ``feature'' that it would
crash a PC if underlying software from a competitor to
Microsoft was being used. Such trapdoors would be
rapidly discovered if source code were visible.

"	The open source universe avoids the waste involved
in reinventing the wheel which takes place in all
software companies. In the open source world, each
programmer builds on the work of others before him.
This brings down the cost of development.

Some Open source software used in India apart from
above mentioned :
"	Apache (web server),
"	Netscape (web browser)
"	Sendmail (mail transport)

Software that can help in establishing vision w.r.t
India
 
"	I think the most required feature is language
translator. This language translator could be used to
communicate between two people of different languages
via laptop. 

"	There should be enough consideration to the extra
curricular activities in laptop like it should enhance
the skills like hobby oriented courses, IT related
courses etc.

Hardware Specification
	
"	I feel there should be provision of CD/DVD writer.
So the child can store necessary data and contents on
external disks as internal flash memory is very less
(512 MB). It is easy to say that 512 MB will be
suffice but as OLPC is planning to give the laptop to
child till he becomes 18, that means if a child gets a
laptop at the age of 12, then for the 6 years , I feel
the before said memory is quite less.

"	Also, there should be some easy provision like a
restore button to restore the laptop to factory
defaults in case laptop crash or some virus comes.

Development Issue

I think instead of using python, we could use any
other Object Oriented Language like C++ or Java as
they are standard languages and are used worldwide.
Because these are also taught in schools in India,
software written in them, could more effectively
implement the idea of open source software. Well, my
vote for Java as it is Platform independent and hence
obviates the need to write different coding for
different environment like Windows, Linux, and Solaris
etc.  

Jitesh Sachdeva	 
NSIT
INDIA






		
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