[OLPC India] More than technology, one has to take on the logic of the decision-making process, I guess! FN Goa: Kids to go to school with laptops soon

[Satish Jha OLPC]

I hope there are some members on this list from Goa as well.
For anyone with Goan interest in mind, it may be helpful to present to the
Goan government a rather simple case:

OLPC's XO remains the technologically most suited to learning, child
friendly, robust, screen that is sun-friendly, a keyboard that is spill
proof, a laptop that is dual boot - both Linux and MS XP..

What is more, it comes with MS Office needed for XO loaded. So its much less
than what it will cost the Goan government just to buy a license of MS
XP/office suite.. As good as by the MS for less than half the price and have
a laptop thrown in?

If this laptop were retailed, (not possible as MS would most likely not
allow that to happen as part of its relationship to offer the package to
OLPC for $3) anyone with interest in MS will be queuing up to buy it..

Thanks

 >> Goa: Kids to go to school with laptops soon
>> 10 Sep: Times of India. Kids in Goa could soon be going to school with
>> laptops in hand with education minister Atanasio Monserrate announcing
>> that 12,000 students will soon be given the machines costing about Rs
>> 23,000 each. 168 words. Click here.
>>
>>
http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Goa/Kids_to_go_to_school_with_laptops_soon/articleshow/3465072.cms
>>
>> --
>> FN * Independent Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org
>> Blog: http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com
>> Tech links from South Asia: http://twitter.com/fn
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>>
>
> From the article:
>
> "Education department sources said the government pays about Rs 23,000
> for a computer-printer set given under the cyberage scheme. With a tax
> rebate, laptops can be procured for the same amount, the sources
> said."
>
> At 23,000 per student, that should get you 2.5 XOs per Goan Child :-)
>


 Maybe not as much as 2.5  if the cost of deploying servers, power
> solutions etc. is budgeted for ...but the XOs would definitely score
> over conventional laptops in serving the purpose of being deployed
> because of being designed specifically for kids having a number of
> features like collaboration, rugged laptop etc.et...
>
> It would be interesting however to see (and learn from) other XO
> deployments and how they were budgeted for. Anybody has any pointers
> on that?
>
>
> Arjun
>
> > 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/
> > _______________________________________________
> > India mailing list
> > India at lists.laptop.org
> > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/india
> >
> --
> -- Satish Jha
> T: 301 841 7422
> F: 301 560 4909
> IN: +91 98 75 68 39 50
> www.laptop.org
> _________________________________
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satish_Jha
>
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