[Nepal] statement regarding FOSS and Nepal's OLPC pilots

[Bryan Berry]

There has been a lot of press regarding OLPC's possible shift to
Windows. I want to make it clear that OLE Nepal is committed to both
Linux and open-source content for Nepal's pilots of OLPC.

We have no intention of ever switching to Windows regardless of what the
OLPC organization in Boston decides. We feel that GNU/Linux is the right
choice for education, whether in the developing world or the first
world.

Further, we are committed to releasing all the content we develop or
help digitally publish under open-source licenses. We will rely on the
MIT license and CC 3.0 licenses. Everything we produce ourselves will
allow derivatives. Unfortunately, some third parties (authors) may
require their contributions in areas such as children's literature have
the No Derivatives clause.

I have been in contact w/ OLPC's current head of technology, Kim Quirk,
and she assures me that OLPC will continue to support Sugar on Linux for
the foreseeable future. OLPC has to continue to support Sugar because
it's large pilots in Peru, Mexico, and Uruguay are using Sugar and
aren't looking to shift.

I am also in contact w/ OLPC's ex-president Walter Bender, who is
committed the development of Sugar. We look forward to collaborating w/
him on the future development of Sugar.

OLPC's shift to Windows is reprehensible in my opinion, but that won't
stop the team in Nepal from working on the goals of this project.

To learn more about the OLPC pilots at Bishwamitra and Bashuki, check
out our blog at http://blog.olenepal.org

Regards,

Bryan Berry
Systems Engineer
OLE Nepal