[OLPC India] what are the next steps ?

[Satish Jha OLPC]

Dear Satya,

You can easily tell the minister and anyone you needs to know:

Buying XO is like buying Linux based a couple dozen applications + Windows
XP + MS Office use capability and get it all for less than half the price
and throw in the laptop for children better than anyone ever produced  for
free!!!

If someone still does not get excited, then their motives are not clear..
they are not making an objective choice..

The cost of deploying 150 (though we do not sell less than 5000!, we will do
it for you to showcase it) is 150 x Rs 15000.. this includes all the
necessary infrastructure including server and a couple of weeks of an expert
being there with the team..Or Rs 2,250,000..

Contrast this to Rs 23000 per laptop that Goa is reported to be spending..
we do not know if that includes Linux and XP + MS Office use capability.. So
its a third less.. HCL may sell for Rs 10,000 and that is just hardware.. If
there is no need for a deployment expert, you take care of it all the other
infrastructure, then XO can be provided to you along with dual boot
(Linux+Windows) for Rs 9999..(at current $ rates).

Please do send me the details and will explore how best to support you to
showcase it.

Thanks

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 11:44 PM, Satyanarayana Murthy Saladi <
saladism at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi dear Satish,
> Thank you for the prompt responses to the mailing list.
> I am a keen follower of OLPC and my own  involvement has started with an
> email to Walter in Jan 08 regarding deployment in Yanam. I am forwarding the
> mail to give some back ground.  At that stage Walter said start a
> translation effort in Telugu, which I have done. I am the language
> coordinator for Telugu. Our efforts are at
> https://dev.laptop.org/translate/te/
> How ever I have not managed to find, how to procure. We lost our chance
> this year as the minister is going ahead with 150 HCL MiLeap laptops this
> year partially because I could not give him any more information. He is
> concentrating on secondary schools as they are closer to higher education
> and employment. My questions are how can I take this forward so that at
> least we have a  chance  next year.
> 1) what are the minimum numbers required to get XO produced with
> Telugu/English keyboard.
> 2) Is there any help/guidance to volunteers like me to get Curricula to
> school servers (similar to OLPC Pootle).
> 3) What is deployment cost for say 150 laptops including school server.
> I know the numbers I am talking are very very small.
> But can I take this forward any more. Is there anything else I can do?
> cheers,
> Satya.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Satyanarayana Murthy Saladi <saladism at gmail.com>
> Date: 2008/1/13
> Subject: OLPC deployment In Yanam, India
> To: arjun at laptop.org, walter at laptop.org
>
>
> Hi dear Walter and Arjun,
> I got your names from community mailing list.
> I am doctor from Yanam, India currently working in UK.
> I am very excited about OLPC project. I spoke to the Member of Legislative
> Assembly for my place <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanam%252C_India>
> Yanam <http://yanam.nic.in/>, Mr Malladi Krishna rao, who is also
> Minister for Tourism in Union territory of Pondicherry<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pondicherry>,
> India. He is very progressive and he is an extremely capable politician. He
> said he will be able to get initially 300 to 400 laptops from a charity
> which he runs. He initially wants to do this through a charity rather than
> through government and wants to know if he can get Rs 6000 -Rs 7000 range(
> $150-180). But he does not know about the project and constuctivism concept.
> Today is the first time he heard of this project. I think once convinced he
> is capable of providing the laptops to all 6000 children<http://yanam.nic.in/statsyanam.htm>in my place ( my hopes).
> The laptop will be needed in Telugu. I spoke to Free Software Foundation
> of India <http://www.swecha.org/node/25> and they said they will help in
> localization.
> I am not a technical person but I use Ubuntu and can troubleshoot my PC
> with internet help.
>
> My questions are
>
> Is it also possible to start a pilot in my place?
> Is it possible to do a demonstration with Telugu localised laptop?
> In terms of educational content you put in the servers, is it available in
> Telugu?
> In terms of internet connection, I am sure Mr Malladi will be able to
> arrange through Reliance as he managed to get things done for my place from
> them before.
> Who do I need to do to take this further?
> Any advice is very much appreciated.
> Thank you.
> yours sincerely,
> Satyanarayana Murthy Saladi
>
>


-- 
-- Satish Jha
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