[OLPC India] OLPC Small Scale developments India

[ravis]

Unfortunately, macro pictures as you paint have not been as visible in reality.. And the macro picture seems even more encouraging at 11 million cell phones being added every month in India! Then why has India not bought any OLPC XOs yet when Nepal managed to get a decent number, much more resource challenged Rwanda ordered 110,000 and Latin American countries can't seem to get enough of them?OLPC is not a vendor at all.. Once you get into retailing of the kind you suggest, costs will go up by at least 40 percent, like most retailers.In OLPC model, scale is very important indeed. That is what keeps the costs down.Its a ZERO margin model that creates a new dynamics.Capable people who can create OLPC XO that remains a few generations ahead of technology vendors that dominate the retail market do not come cheap. Tose who understand tehnology and pedagogy can hardly be recruited at the cost associated with school education ether. So there is little room for dealing with multitudes of bodies without adequate resources.As of now its some crazy folks who have left global or national executive roles that are funding the India project of reaching out to those who canlay the ground for scale.NGOs in the developing world are part of their skills fabric and may simply not have the resources to adapt to the model (though it may be a far from PC statement for teh NGO community and I would request their patience with it instead) and OLPC clearly does not have the resources to manage the relationships that need to be built for that.Ideally, we should look at OLPC as a pedagogy/technology visionary and creator and neither as a vendor nor social activist. Rather its an organization, even better, a movement, made possible who know how to create technology and have a passion for transforming education instead.---------- Forwarded message ----------From:"K. K. Subramaniam" To:india at lists.laptop.orgDate:Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:41:59 +0530Subject:Re: [OLPC India] OLPC Small Scale developments IndiaOn Sunday 30 Aug 2009 10:52:03 pm ravis wrote:> The one thing that we need to remember always is that OLPC is about> SCALE!It does not work with a few laptops, regardless of how noble the> intent.Ravi,Scale is hardly likely to be an issue in a country that is adding 5+ millionmobile phone subscribers a month and 2+ million laptops a year!OLPC has to be careful not to get its role as a universal education promotermixed up with its role as a XO vendor. Ideally, there should be a separateorganization for each of these roles.As a education promoter, OLPC should partner with regional NGOs and supportgroups. It should leave the decision of sharing laptop between two or morechildren to the parents/providers. It is a complex cultural issue. They mayeventually chose to have one per child, but that should be allowed to emergenaturally, not imposed from "above".As a XO vendor, OLPC has to be prepared to sell XOs in large number of smallpacks - say 5-packs, 10-packs, 50-packs, 100-packs. This will require tie-upswith retailers in metros, towns, online shopping portals who can thenaggregate orders from parents and local governing bodies (public schools).Subbu
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