[OLPC India] Technical volunteers for OLPC in and around Delhi

[Sameer Verma]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 1:14 PM, Saurabh Adhikari <adhikaris at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  I keep getting questions on the relationship Reliance has with OLPC India.
>
> From all I have gathered, there seems to be no formal relationship at all.
>
> Some people point to the Digital Divide oundation. I understand that they
> have no relationship with OLPC India either.
>
> However, the perception seems that there is a relationship of some kind. I
> think it will helpto clarify the position unambiguosly in the media so that.
>
> Meanwhile, I understad that there is need for volunteers with technical
> skills in understandin OLPC both with Fedora and Windows. Do we have anyone
> around Delhi who may be able to help meet a couple of prospects?
>
>
>
>  Sincerely,
> S Adhikari
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> India mailing list
> India at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/india
>
>
Saurabh,

This is getting tiresome. I sincerely do not understand why you are having
so much trouble understanding the role that people have played and continue
to play in OLPC deployments in India. Its a rather simple work ethic.
*Anybody* can role up their sleeves and participate.  I am curious though as
to why you keep getting these questions. Are you an employee at OLPC?

Here's some info on Reliance. Ever hear of Khairat? No? Try Google.
http://www.google.com/search?q=khairat Heck, at this point, I'd even say,
try Bing. http://www.bing.com/search?q=khairat

That deployment was done by OLPC, Amit Gogna (who you were wondering about
in your post earlier) and a bunch of others. I met some of them in India
last year. They are located at Reliance's campus east of Mumbai. This is the
Digital Bridge Foundation, not the Digital Divide Foundation, as you
erroneously pointed out. They are real. I am sure you can meet with them if
you ask nicely.  From this article:
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,62044520,00.htm

"The Digital Bridge Foundation, part of Reliance ADA Group, owned by Indian
billionaire Anil Ambani, is providing the technology backbone and logistics
for the installation of OLPC's white and green XO laptops in primary
schools. "

As for whatever "OLPC India" is supposed to be? Well, nobody seems to know.
This list is dead for all practical purposes, other than occasional posts to
purposefully vague newspaper articles. As far as I am concerned "OLPC India"
is pointless unless it *does* something. "olpc india" on the other hand
seems to be getting some place. Notice the difference in upper and lower
case. http://blog.laptop.org/exploring-sustainable-education/

I would also suggest looking at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_India and see
some of the other deployments such as being undertaken by private citizens
and schools. Yes, we all wish things were a little more open and
communicative, but that's wishful thinking.

In the mean time, I'd encourage you (and others that you keep hearing from)
to actively build a community around FOSS projects, content, languages, etc.
because whenever this project does take off in India, all those communities
will be sorely needed.

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/
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