A news article about the project and OLPC-Pune has been published in the DNA News Paper dated 30th April 2009
One Laptop Per Child project comes to Pune
210 XO machines have been provided in India so far
Rajesh Rao(DNA)
The One Laptop Per Child Association Inc (OLPC), a US-based non-profit organisation, has started its Pune chapter.
A group of volunteers met in the city on March 1 to launch the project based on the pragmatics of child development and learning through laptops.
OLPC was founded by Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder and director of the Media Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to provide education to poor children. The Mumbai and Pune chapters are the only two active branches in India. The OLPC started its India operations in September 2007 through Digital Bridge Foundation (DBF), an NGO at Khairat village near Navi Mumbai. The members of OLPC India stay in touch with each other through the Google group forum.
"Currently, the biggest task is to find sponsors to fund this project. We also want volunteers to join us as mentors, forerunners and responsible players," said Amit Gogna from DBF.
Till date, 210 XO laptops (see box) have been provided in India, including 28 in Kairat, 100 in Latur, 10 in Nashik, 40 in Bangalore, 12 in Auroville (Tamil Naidu) and 20 in Dugawar (Uttar Pradesh).
The 15 members of the newly formed Pune group — who have divided their work under three areas of learning, technology and outreach — are in the initial phase of understanding the project and learning the technology. "We have decided to complete the activity by July 1; create a wiki page for top-level activities; work on the content and make a proposal for the funding of the project in Pune," said Pradnya Naik, one of the members of the Pune group.
The initial priority is to find potential sponsors for the first deployment of the XO laptops, she added.
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ReplyDeleteOLPC has not authorised this body.. There is OLPC India that oversees India operations.. However, we appreciate volunatry efforts except that these should be transparent and factual..
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