[OLPC India] Partnering with OLPC in India

[Sameer Verma]

On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 10:14 PM, Satish Jha OLPC <satish at laptop.org> wrote:
> After various discussions with industrialists, activists, policy makers,
> media folks and OLPC colleagues we have established teh following framework
> for partnering with OLPC in India. It will be reveiwed periodically from the
> perspective of reaching the goals of One Laptop Per Child in India and that
> is to help every child etering the primary school have access to a personal
> XO.
>
> Partnering with OLPC India
>
>
>
>
>
> OLPC India has a substantial mandate – to help every child across the length
> and breadth of India to have the benefit of digital learning technologies
> that OLPC creates, or may create, to help them become  global citizens.
>
>
>
> The challenge , at the initial stage, is  to annually engage about 20
> million children entering the primary school system across the length and
> the breadth of the nation. Clearly, it requires each and every one of us to
> come forward  to help each of these children having the educational
> facilities that technologies of our times can afford.
>
>
>
> While we hope the governments of all the states will come forward to embrace
> it as the learning tool of choice for all their primary school going
> children, we need the support of individuals with resources to contribute,
> corporations that believe in their corporate social responsibilities,
> foundations that aid developmental initiatives, members of Parliament and
> Assemblies  who have discretionary developmental funds at their disposal and
> everyone else who is committed to making India a nation of people with all
> the necessary skills that 21st century  demands from us.
>
>
>
> To this end, OLPC India will partner, collaborate, cooperate and engage with
>  everyone willing from within the nation and anyone from abroad.
>
>
>
> OLPC India will follow the model outlined below:
>
>
>
> Lead Partners: Each of the Lead Partners will undertake to support at least
> 5%  of all children entering the primary schools across the country. They
> will have a seat on the Board of Directors of OLPC India and an opportunity
> to participate in shaping its goals and directions as well as co-development
> of any technology where they are demonstrably ready, able and willing to
> join hands.
>
>
>
>
>
> National Partners: Each of the National Partners will undertake to support
> at least 1% of all children entering the primary schools across the country.
> They will have a seat on the Advisory Board of OLPC India and an opportunity
> to participate in co-development of any technology where they are
> demonstrably ready, able and willing to join hands with OLPC.
>
>
>
> State Partner: Each of the State Partners will undertake to support at least
> 5% all children entering the primary school within a state. They will have a
> seat on the state level OLPC Advisory Board and will have an opportunity to
> participate in localization efforts. An organization may choose to be a
> Partner in several States.
>
>
>
> District Partners: Each of the District Partners will undertake to support
> at least 10% of all primary school entering children within the district and
> will have a seat on the District Level Advisory Board. An organization may
> choose to be a Partner in several Districts.
>
>
>
> Block Level Partners: The Block Level Partners will undertake to support at
> least 20%  of all primary school entering children within the Block and will
> have a seat on the District Level Advisory Board. An organization may choose
> to be a Partner in several Blocks.
>
>
>
> Village Level Partner: Each of the Village Level Partners will undertake to
> support all children entering the primary school within a village. They will
> have a seat on the state level OLPC Advisory Board and will have an
> opportunity to participate in localization efforts. An organization may
> choose to be a Partner in several States.
>
>
>
> Individual Partner: Individual Partners may undertake to support any number
> of children starting with just one. They will have no organizational
> privileges but will be able to join relevant listservs and engage in OLPC
> discussions in the area of their choosing.
>
>
>
> Give One Get One (G1G1): Any organization willing to support G1G1 in India
> must commit to have 100,000 XOs in inventory for sales as requested by the
> G1G1 buyer. The other 100,000 will be distributed to needy children in
> regions selected by OLPC India.
>
>
>
> --
> --
> Satish Jha
> President & CEO
> OLPC India
> One Cambridge Center, 10th Floor
> Cambridge, MA 02141
> T:+1 301 841 7422
> F:+ 1 301 560 4909
> India: +91 99 75 68 39 50 www.laptop.org _________________________________
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satish_Jha
>
> _______________________________________________
> India mailing list
> India at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/india
>


Hi Satish,

Some questions for you:

1) Can you describe what "undertake to support at least x%  of all
children" entails? Are we talking paying for the laptop, helping with
their education, etc?
2) When you say localization, is this the language/script
implementation part or something else?
3) Where do you see the volunteers fit in this picture? Many
volunteers on this project do not live in India.

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/