[OLPC India] Pilot project at Auroville

[JV Avadhanulu]

Dear OLPC India Team,

Auroville is a unique international city in Tamil Nadu (India), 10km north of Pondicherry, founded in 1968 in accordance with the Charter of Auroville. The city aspires to be an international center for collective life in pursuit of Human Unity and related Education and Research. The city now has a population of 2,000 residents from 41 countries. The goals, plans and the direction of Auroville were endorsed by UNESCO on several occasions. The progress made by Auroville and the unique sustainable development modes adopted by Auroville have generated an enormous amount of support for Auroville within India and abroad. L’Avenir d’Auroville--Auroville’s Future, the Auroville Planning & Development Research Organization, is mandated to plan, develop and construct the Future City for an international community of 50,000 people. Right from the start, the concept of Auroville as a 'Univercity' fired the imagination of many. Auroville aspires to be an open and dynamic centre of learning and teaching; a place where, ideally, all residents are students as well as teachers; and a place where the basic economy will be an exchange of knowledge, an economy of teaching and learning. Sri Aurobindo International Institute for Educational Research (SAIIER) was created in 1984 to continue and broaden the work that was already under way in developing the educational capacity of Auroville, and to support advances in educational and cultural research. Presently, there are some 120 researchers, twenty two units including ten schools and six unique Educational Centers working under the SAIIER umbrella.

I am JV Avadhanulu, Coordinator of Information Systems Infrastructure, L'avenir d'Auroville (Future of Auroville). I looked at XO-1 ( I have a unit with me for the past 15 days) and find that OLPC can transform education to a new level in Auroville Schools and hence Auroville. Apart from the schools, I think XO has the potential to be deployed as an information and interaction terminal in Auroville. This may be a unique application for XO / OLPC. I am seeking your help and advise to conduct a pilot in one school and then roll out in other schools. I need your advise on how best to accomplish this, especially in the light of the negative stance taken by the Government of India.

I look forward to your response.

Regards,
JV Avadhanulu
Coordinator, Information Systems Infrastructure,
L'avenir d'Auroville (Future of Auroville)
+91-9443797563
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