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Re: [school-discuss] One Laptop Per Child?



This reminds me, a couple months back Doug Loss had mentioned that he was going to visit South Africa and meet with the people at NetDay (and was looking for ideas towards articles)  http://www.netday.org.za/.  Being that NetDay is an NGO, and has worked to implement sustainable technology solutions for schools for some time, hearing their thoughts/experiences/opinions in relation to some of the ideas shared here could be insightful. 
 
Not sure what to think about the ideas of localized software and resources and where the responsibility to provide that is.  I agree with the idea that a lot of these projects are people applying their expertise in a way that they can.  With OLPC, a lot of the applications will utilize the mesh networking features, if there are some basic tools such as a word processor, music sequencer, and graphics programs - as the kids share the various creations amongst one another it seems like the tools would find localized application.  More defined localization in specific areas would be a luxury considering the resources it would take to implement them up front (if education is scarce in a places, wouldn't that make those who have the understanding of a culture and how to present content to it even more scarce?  Furthermore, if one did have that understanding, and the ability to design these resources in this way, I would wonder if localized resources helped them craft this ability..or if it was something learned elsewhere)  Anyhow, because the project has focused on FLOSS there is a good opportunity for someone to be in the best position to someday provide the localization that would fit their environment.  If localization is looked at as an obstacle, is there a better way of handling it?