[OLPC India] Disappointed in the progress being made in India

[Sameer Verma]

Asko Kauppi wrote:
> As much as I do understand about the Indian way, it's more of a grass  
> roots "things just work among the chaos" than of organized  
> governmental control. This is just a statement, or an observation and  
> one of the reasons I like India very much.
>
> At this stage for OLPC, it's clearly easier to get governments s.a.  
> Libya involved where governmental control is stronger. Also, India  
> itself is too big; states of it should be regarded individually quite  
> the same as European Union states are. They differ widely.
>
>   

Indeed. I would even argue that states in India vary more so than what 
we see in the EU, especially if we look at it from the lens of cultural 
variables. IMO the reason (and a strong one) for working with India as 
one country instead of different states was and still is largely 
economic. The problem of acquisition, distribution, infrastructure 
(upstream supply chain) will probably continue to make sense on the 
national level, but the downstream supply chain from schools to teachers 
to children (or any combination thereof) may be another issue.

> My point is optimistic about the long term success of OLPC approach  
> also in India. The best way to prove is simply to have start cells,  
> schools adopting the technique and way of thinking, then proceed from  
> these. Maybe the local communications companies (Airtel etc.) could  
> be involved as sponsors, to get the schools connected to Internet.
>
> It would maybe be better for such cells to be in the villages rather  
> than in big cities. 

We had a long discussion in my class (I teach Information Systems) about 
OLPC yesterday. Interestingly the topic of interface came up often. 
Students/children who have never used a computer will react differently 
than those who have been conditioned to use one. Going further, those of 
us who are more conditioned to use Windows will react differently (+ive 
or -ive) to a Mac, GNOME, etc. So, clearly we have two categories (if 
not more) of students: pre-conditioned to use some form of computing and 
those with no pre-conditioning, the hypothesis being that their 
reactions will be significantly different. Of course we don't have all 
the data as yet, so that's where the pilots come in.

Going further, students/children in villages will probably have no 
pre-conditioning, but those in the cities may have already used a 
computer before. If this is the case, then one strategy for both groups 
may not make sense.

> This would also bypass the unfruitful "it's not a  
> real PC"  debate which I think any current Indian IT person would  
> happily bring up. To me, India seems very very very Windows  
> oriented. :)  For now.
>
> - asko
>   

I find it interesting that those who have used Windows or Mac before, 
struggle with Sugar (my observations only), but those who have never 
used a computer, jump right in and figure it out! So, in the long run, 
if the interface just works, the OS becomes insignificant. As for being 
Windows oriented, well, so is the US. Adoption however will depend 
(among other things) on the level of voluntariness, ease of use, 
relative advantages, etc. In most organizations, one doesn't get to 
choose the OS. Windows is all you get!

In fact, on our campus, most "corporate/enterprise" IT solutions fail 
because enterprises tend to be more homogeneous in their software and 
hardware than universities. Our students bring all kinds of combinations 
of hardware and software to campus. We have the likes of IBM scratching 
their heads to support e-mail for our campus' technological diaspora :-)