[OLPC India] Let them have laptops

[Sameer Verma]

Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 11:48:06AM -0800, Sameer Verma wrote:
>   
>> A short article from the Indian Express today.
>> http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/267511.html
>>     
>
> I think the real question is whether it is easier to embezzle money 
> tagged for basic needs and traditional education or XO laptops. I am not 
> sure what is the answer.
>   

Hi Joshua,

Apart from the "make a quick buck" strategy, I find that many people are
unable to make the connection between a means to an end, and the end
itself. I see technology as a means to the end goal of empowering the
individual through education. I must clarify that education in this
context is not a degree or diploma. It is largely an awareness that
potentially improves perspective.

The market is driven by perception, and that needs to work in favor of
the project. A whole bunch of things are perceived as threatening or
unknown:

The OS: Why something obscure? Aren't our kids entitled to what the rest
of the world uses?
The machine: At $100, it must be cut rate and inadequate. Our kids must
have real computers.
The approach: The Americans aren't using this in their schools, so they
must be dumping this on us. Its one of those "third world" things.

What I find interesting is that once people actually see this laptop and
use it for a bit, they start to see the implications. They connect the
dots. They see the value proposition of e-books, the child educating the
family when she takes the laptop home, recording some history of each
family through pictures and video, and so on.

Marc Valentin, who is on this list (I don't mean to pick on you,
Marc...just using your perspective as an example :-)) has looked at the
Asus Eee PC
(http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/india/2007-November/000134.html) and
now he has an XO. Obviously, Marc has seen something in the XO, which is
why he is still here! If the value proposition did not exist, Marc would
have purchased a bunch of Asus machines and moved on. I have both
macines at home. Although the Eee PC boots and loads way faster, I would
recommend the XO hands down.

I think that because we (list people) are so close to the
problem-solution domain we easily see the connections, but the public at
large does not. Someone has to spell it out for them. I hope we see more
pilot studies, and more importantly, we see results of pilot studies so
that the public perception improves over time.

This is just the beginning.

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/