[OLPC India] Digital Bridge

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 8:33 PM, Nagarjuna G <nagarjun at gnowledge.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 9:40 AM, Saurabh Adhikari <adhikaris at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Representation:
> >
> > Just like we can buy and use say a Maruti or GM or Ford or Toyota or any
> > other car but we cannot "represent" their company to carry out any
> business
> > without an specific agreement to do so.
> >
> > The contact address for OLPC India is <Contact-OLPC-India at laptop.org>
> >
>
> I agree with you that not just anybody can represent an organization,
> there must be a clarification that is better than the analogy given
> above.  The analogy indicates strict ownership of OLPC India.  If you
> wish OLPC India to be a community driven organization, as is the case
> with other free software projects, we wish it to be different.  Some
> more clarification is required on who can represent?
>
> --
> Nagarjuna
> _______________________________________________
> India mailing list
> India at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/india
>


A significant source for such confusion lies with the categorization of OLPC
and olpc. Nicholas himself has stressed upon the distinction where OLPC is
the company (now two organizations - OLPC Association and OLPC Foundation)
and olpc is the community of volunteers worldwide - everyone from coders to
content creators, to translators to enthusiasts. In a recent interview,
Nicholas said "The idea was to spirit a more grassroots approach to olpc
(lowercase) than the distinctly and uniquely top down methods previously
used." Full interview and presentation at
http://olpc-france.org/blog/2010/01/interview-with-nicholas-negroponte-olpc-and-volunteers/

As for what belongs to OLPC, the software layer is all FOSS, including the
BIOS level stuff, so its copyright of many thousands, but free and open and
now managed by Sugarlabs. The hardware is indeed OLPC, although Nicholas has
said in some of his interviews that OLPC would like for the industry to copy
its design and manufacture the machines - the more the better (read: cheaper
due to economies of scale).

olpc communities are all over the world and thriving. These communities are
there to support and foster the cause, and don't really need any
"permission" to setup or operate. We (OLPC-SF) just happened. No grand plan,
no movements, just a bunch of like minded people, and believe me, we get
very little by way of permission or guidance from the mother ship in
Cambridge! Yet, we now have 8 privately funded micro-deployments.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_SanFranciscoBayArea

By the way, Saurabh, I haven't seen anything in your e-mail address or
signature, but am I correct to assume that you work for OLPC India (
http://olpcindia.net/) ? I haven't been able to find you on
http://olpcindia.net/en/vision/people/index.html either.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Information Systems
Director, Center for Business Solutions
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://cbs.sfsu.edu/
http://is.sfsu.edu/
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