On 5/26/07, Bipin Gautam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > (*)why government should adopt OLPC in Nepal! > why not, government should adopt OLPC in Nepal? Maybe some else will > elaborate... > > and your Q. > > 1. OLPC has never been tested how can we be sure that it will last 5 > years? > > warranty! > > Remember many computer hardware have warranty for 1 - 3 years. Some > electronics, even as long as 25 years. > > Moreover, Pilot projects are being done at several places to test its > effectiveness and hardware reliability. Thousands of test laptop are > distributed to PROFESSIONALS and EXPERTS. Multiple review means rare > chance of any malfunction to slip by. > > Take an example, even the manufactures recommend to replace your > computer hard disk every 5 years to ensure maximum data security. But > the mean time between your hard disk failure when tested in lab > environment is found to be 25-80 years! > Back to our point, When OLPC said 5 years, then they mean at lest 5 > years. And hardware manufactures will rigorously test their hardware > in extreme of situations to find its limit and publish the minimum > time for least their hardware should work in normal condition.
and adding to that these laptops goes over stress test, so they really become "working" with kids, following is the snippet from latest community news. -------------------------------------------------- Hardware testing: Richard Smith worked on the B3 hardware checkout. Helped John Watlington test all parts of the system, including the firmware protect circuitry. Further testing (separate from the tens of functional tests that each XO is subjected to as part of the manufacturing process) includes such favorites as: * Thermal shock: spending twenty minutes at -20C, then jumping to 60C in less than two minutes; staying at 60C for 20 minutes, then dropping back to -20C in less than two minutes (the whole process is repeated 50 times); * Thermal profile: taking the temperature of most chips on the motherboard, while running a suite of applications at 50C; * Altitude testing: operation tested for 8 hrs at 5.5 Km; * Free-drop steel-ball test (onto LCD); * Free-throw test: simulating a child free throwing an XO, its battery, and power brick onto the floor. ---------------------------------------------------------------- the whole process is open and if we can justify for certain kind of test , the laptops will go over it, and again this is not just about giving a laptop, its about giving a tool which will "work" and we are still some months behind actual production. > 2. Government spends 40 to 50 US $ in a year per student in Nepal. Does > this > > include the cost for teacher, books and uniform for the children. > > (someone else will answer this one ;) as its related to education... Yes , it includes cost for teacher and books will be the straightforward answer, with total amount of budget govt. spending on education (aboutt $99 million) it seems much higher, but it is not just enough. children and teachers lacks tools. And if govt. is to meet goals like EFA(education for all) then it ought to spend, and $44 shouldn't be the restriction to spend upon if we want to cover all issue and give a decent shot of quality education. > 3. Won't there be any extra cost apart from 150$ while deploying laptops > to > > the kids? > > Firstly, they expect the cost will fall down to 100$ in months to > come. But yes like any property, there will be some maintenance cost > except the cost price if the product in a long run. The beauty of this > project is, OLPC hardware has been designed to work on robust of > conditions like surviving a 2 meters fall, water proof when closed, no > moving components inside laptop that would need mantinance, excellent > battery etc. To sum up, the hardware has been designed to be "dumb > proof" to a impressive degree. But like any electronics it will have > its limitations but hardware are so designed to be one of a kind that > would require no or very minor maintenance... which can also be done > easily even when it needs one. to continue, any maintenance does costs, but major benefit of using such specially designed tool is, they are as easy to maintain like a radio, we cannot propose a model to place an engineer in each school to maintain laptops, we will empower the communities, We will propose to create a symbiosis so there would be an opportunity for job, and there will be extra cost, like having connectivity or charging depot if possible, but things like connectivity should eventually reach those area, even if it were not for laptops, so we will have a integrated and multi-stakeholder approach and use local resource as far as possible, due to existing long range wifi and power efficient mechanism, this will cost much less. And $150 is just the cost which will eventually reduced and there will definitely be mechanism for cost subsidies and other support. It is not like when you wake up next day you have shiny laptop and manual in hand it is a process. > 4. After buying laptops will the kids be really free from buying books and > > note books? the question again seems like bit misconception, children are not to buy this laptops. government will buy and distribute those things phase wise so not to crash national economy at once, and laptops are not replacement for notebooks, it is much more than that, if you think it is not possible then just look back to history and see how we shifted from "silalekh" to "bhojpatra" to "offset printing" > 5. If yes what will the kids do when they are out of primary schools, how > > would they know how to write on notebooks? > > Laptop will serve as a strong supplement in not just reading and > writing but in learning as a whole except books in curriculam. Though, > the laptop ahas wonderful features that could replace completely > replace pen, paper or books (yes its that good) Students will > definitely learn to write and read in paper. > > Development is a process, change is a process.... NOT a product so it > will take some time for wide acceptance till people will start > thinking maybe laptop can completely replace paper. > > The laptop will be staked up with books in electronics format that can > be upgraded any day without significant time or delay. The laptop has > a touch pad where you can even write pencil/pen smooth stick or finger > and the laptop will format your writing as it would be in actual copy. > Soon it could be equip with text to speech software to do the same. > (and everything localized) The possibility is endless. Another major principle of this laptop is child ownership, its not like school will distribute those laptop at assembly and get back at evening, children will own this things, and the range of age is 6-16 which will cover much more than primary itself. about penmanship , we know it is just important skill like drawing and art skill, there is a writing area and we are designing softwares to use that area as notepad (jot pad actually), it will feature online ocr, and combine note taking in local as well other language, the community is collaborating on that, we believe combine use of full fledge feature like keyboard , writing pad or other inputs like ASR will lot improve Input system over conventional. > 6. Will there be an another 100 $ laptops for the kids which government > will > > have to buy for them, when they are out of primary school. > > This Q. touches policy aspect & moral aspect...and will be in > discussion during deployment phase. Most likely.... the children will > be allowed to take home the laptop they own. After all, it has been > their window for education. > Consider the emotional impact if i take away your favorite and beloved > possession that you thought its yours all your childhood. Same thing > with XO. > > > 7. How will we get money for computer maintenance, network > infrastructure? > > > > XO has mesh networking capability to communicate with each other. So > some sort of network infrastructure is already available in XO even to > act as WAN with very few or no extra hardware. If you talk about > connecting all laptops to internet... you must already know there has > been serious talk on lifting tax for VSAT. A company (sorry forgot the > name, but its listed somewhere in wiki of laptop.org) has announced > free bandwidth to OLPC project via VSAT. But, again inevitably we'll > need some sort of network infrastructure to support this project. If we think laptop alone this question will probably be answered well by some laptop vendors, but when we think of sysytem as a bigger picture then everything are inclusive ranging from social values of this things to maintenance and support issues, think how not-for-profit Open source project accomplish this, its through community and in the case of olpc laptop, we have our big brother (Govt.) itself in the community. Ask same question for power , connectivity and Water supply infrastructure of the country , the difference in case of olpc is only that we are not talking about some elite urban community, so this kind of structure will be surely large and will be important. At last pardon me but I want to ask some question to you all (please dont answer it to me, answer to yourself) 1) Is it important that all kids should have quality education? 2) Is is mandatory that we should be on one side of digital divide? 3) Is there any other method (efficient, and cost effective) to do same thing otherways? 4) Is all digital advancement(Information and Communication) meant for foreigner not nepali? 5) Shall we always think legacy and act , or try to change the system for betterment? 6) At last, Why shouldn govt not adopt olpc in nepal? Ankur (If you have further quest, please post the question to "olpcnepal" googlegroups) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ FOSS Nepal mailing list [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
