Subbiah Arunachalam wrote: >Mr Satish Jha is an accomplished man. He has been a journalist, editor of >a national newspaper, a manager, a consultant, policy analyst and much >more. He writes well. But then while responding to my intervention, he has >not countered any one of my statements, and yet I am sure he would have >made many readers think he has. That is why the Tamil saying I quoted must >be remembered always. Whatever we hear from whoever, we must try to reach >the truth. > >Mr Jha begins his argument with " There are some ideas that stir the >imagination. Or we cannot explain why it caught the attention of as many >people all over the globe in such a short time." I never questioned that a >low-cost device is useful and can help spread education. [Incidentally, >all kinds of things become popular quickly. Mere popularity is not of much >value.] If we look at it as an idea of a low-cost computing device the >credit, I guess, should go to the IISc professors who thought of the >Simputer. And Mr Jha certainly knows why the Simputer did not really pick >up and become a big-time technological breakthrough. I do not know about >Dell taking the idea from MIT, but certainly Simputer was thought of years >ago. >So if we had to celebrate an idea, we should have celebrted the Simputer. >If I may ask, did not Simputer stir the imagination of Mr Jha? That the >Simputer is on the beach and some other product is on the hilltop is >relevant in the context of business, but not in the plane of valuing ideas >or creativity. > > Arun, You may appreciate this:
http://mailman.edc.org/pipermail/digitaldivide/2005-April/002012.html Mr. Jha was not a big fan of the Simputer. And the email he sent to the UN ICT Policy List (which I responded to in that link with no response) was dated 4/14/2005. Right about the time Negroponte's name started showing up in the press. Coincidence or not, it is certainly convenient. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran Coming on January 1st, 2006: http://www.OpenDepth.com "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
