<incom> re: one laptop per child

[Geert Lovink]

> From: Vince NANA <vinnfish at yahoo.co.uk>
> Date: 10 June 2006 9:03:17 PM
> To: media at web.net
> Subject: Re: [mediaictrain] One laptop per child:
> Reply-To: vinnfish at yahoo.co.uk
>
> Hi colleague,
> I am interested in assisting to bring these laptops into Benin  
> republic for distribution to children in accordance with the desire of  
> the manufacturers/dealers.  Could you help e with the necessary  
> contacts for the procurement.  Thanks.
>
> George Lessard <media at web.net> wrote:
>>
>> From: Geert Lovink <geert at xs4all.nl>
>> Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 21:44:49 +0200
>> Subject: <incom> One laptop per child: 'Why Nigeria is getting the
>> first attention'  (vanguard)
>> List-Id: "a research list on civil society,
>>       ICT and south-south info-politics" <incom-l.incommunicado.info>
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>> One laptop per child: 'Why Nigeria is getting the first attention'
>> By Prince Osuagwu
>>
>> http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/features/technology/ 
>> tec319042006.html
>>
>> Posted to the Web: Wednesday, April 19, 2006
>>
>> That Nigeria is among  the seven countries to receive the first batch
>> of the one laptop per child project of Professor Nicholas Negroponte,
>> the founder and Chairman of the legendary Massachusetts Institute of
>> Technology Media Lab, is a wide spread news but what many people may
>> not know is that it was made possible by a special appeal made by
>> President Olusegun Obasanjo.
>>
>> This was revealed last week, by the project's Director of Middle East
>> and Africa, Mr Khaled Hassounah, during a visit to Omatek Computers,
>> to harness ways of using the company's rich experience in hardware
>> business to give the project a face lift in Nigeria.
>>
>> Hassounah, who said part of his visit to Nigeria was to open
>> strategic communication links with relevant Nigerian stakeholders, to
>> strengthen the project, said that the initial number of countries
>> considered for the first batch of the laptops were six until the
>> project directors received a special appeal by President Obasanjo,
>> during the WSIS in Tunis, to have Nigeria included as one of the
>> first recipients. According to him, considering that Nigeria is a
>> serious and respected country, quick adjustments were made to include
>> Nigeria. Other countries with Nigeria in the first priority list
>> included China, India, Egypt, Brazil, Thailand and Argentina.
>>
>> Meanwhile, Hassounah, further disclosed that in the first quarter of
>> 2007, the first batch of the laptops would be out even as the mother
>> boards would be manufactured by May this year, so that the software
>> manufacturers would test their software on  them.
>>
>> He however noted that some few hiccups ranging from deployment to
>> distribution had been observed while steps have been taken to control
>> them. For him, "some of the problems we identified included that of
>> deployment and distribution. How are the children going to get the
>> laptops and how would most of them who are in the village get their
>> laptops replaced if damaged. These were some of the questions we came
>> to ask but strategies are in place to take care of these when they
>> arise"
>>
>> "Another problem is that of broadband. For instance, in those remote
>> schools where internet connectivity are lacking, and even if the
>> schools are connected, the children might not have internet
>> facilities at home. So how are they going to get connected. What we
>> did was to design the laptop in a way that if about ten houses in a
>> particular remote area have the laptops, once the laptops are turned
>> on, they attract to each other and form connectivity immediately.
>>
>> To gain this unique strategy, we had to reduce the laptop's bandwidth
>> to extend the range of reception and even at that the product still
>> has up to1.28 megabytes which is enough to give Voice over IP" he
>> added.
>>
>> He noted that the laptop would run on Open source software  which was
>> expected to grow the children technologically and as well give the
>> local software industry more business to leverage on.
>>
>> [snipped]
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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