OLPC Sri Lanka

One Laptop Per Child in Sri Lanka

OLPC has become a hot topic, olpc initiatives are under way around the globe. It is always good to see what this OLPC is and what are the benifits Sri Lanka can gain, basically how it can be used for sutainable development.

Following are some thoughts about the OLPC, positive and negative, without going for radical "YES" or "NO".


Some positive aspects;

• Can reach five children with OLPC when we reach one child with normal PC.
• Inbuilt Wi-Fi mesh network capability is ideal for an eVillage.
• Minimal power consumption (<2w)>
• Rugged encasement and rubber sealed keyboard make OLPC resistant to water, dirt and hardy use by kids.
• Can be used for peer learning within a homogeneous children’s group in a village or a children’s home, etc.
• Good teaching and learning assistant
  

Some negative aspects;

• Specifically designed for kids, so have to target only that age group (normal PC for everyone)
• Cost of ownership is higher, initiatives like Nanasala tries to reduce the cost of ownership by promoting common/shared access.
• Does not promote the sharing of resources
• Does Sri Lankan every child need a his/her own laptop, can our economy bare it?

Sameera.

(500 - X)th Telecentre Launch (Nanasala)

"One of ICTA’s top priorities includes completing the 1000-strong Nenasala network along with the support of the Presidential Secretariat." - ICTA


The Telecentre (Nanasala) is a very good way of taking the dividends of ICT to rural poor to bridge the digital chasm. We all should appreciate the efforts put in by ICTA to make it happen.

~BUT~

Have we achieved the expected results? How many of them are operating right now? That is why I called it 500 minus Xth launch instead of 500th launch. This is the high time ICTA should look back to see where things went wrong.

We are still in the process of learning "how best we can use ICT in the process of development", so we are not too late to get our self corrected. Let's make use the lessons we learnt and try do something more productive than running behind numbers.

Then, end of the day we will be able to achieve the ultimate objective the “knowledge society”.

Sameera.

With or Without Wires

Moving from wired technologies to wireless is happening all around the world. Wired and wireless technologies have their own pros can cones. Why people are moving towards wireless, what are the benifit of wireless technologies to third world countries or so called developing countries like Sri Lanka.

The recent examples are introducation of CDMA phones, WiMAX, etc. in Sri Lanka. People realised the difference. Those are less costly, why? The maintenance of a wireless network is comparatively less costly for the ISPs, so that benifit come to end user, they can pay less. But quality? the quality of a wireless connection may not match the quality of a wired connection all the time., but we pay less, so get less. In the future hope wireless may match the wired.

So let's use appropriate technology.