[OLPC India] Not the right track

[Marc Valentin]

On 11/13/07, Usha Gowri <usha.gowri at gmail.com> wrote:
> I can simply vibe with what Valentin writes-its been very frustrating for
> those of us who were very excited about your entry into India-the costs have
> doubled and to me it is so difficult to understand why you would make  us
> pay and direct the +1 elsewhere, considering that our poor kids need as they
> say every drop of it.

I can imagine the difficulty to start this kind of project seriously
in India. Basically it is a development project so it has to benefit
to some category of schools only. I see three kind of schools in India
: the very expensive ones (private schools in the cities), the more
challenging ones (like the one we created in the villages) benefiting
of help from abroad and finally the small local initiatives struggling
to survive. The first category could be interested by OLPC though they
are not targeted, they can easily afford it, the second category is
interested and could get the budget by convincing the supporting NGO,
the third category has no possibility to buy the computers.
So, it is important for OLPC to control how this "market" is
developing. Suppose they start selling without any control, the first
category would be equipped fast discrediting the project. I suppose,
that is why they invented this "GiveMany" program so they can make the
first category pay for the third one. But I see several problems : 1-
I am not sure rich schools will accept to pay a product a price higher
than normal. 2- The second category is not taken care of.

Now about the "Buy 1 Give 1" program, seen from India and even from
Europe this looks like a big joke, a big marketing event done by
Americans who have no idea at all about what they are doing. ("We will
do our best to deliver the OLPC before Christmas"... come on ! It
looks it is starting like being a toy for children of rich countries)
Though I like the concept of OLPC, I feel the project is on the wrong
track, at least in India. And history is full of great devices which
where abandoned because of bad marketing strategy.

-marc-
http://www.OeuvreDesPains.org