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=General News=
__TOC__
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This is a page from 2009 for unofficial notes about OLPC country discussions. It is mostly opinion and country specific news.
== See also ==
* [[Deployments]]
* [[How can my country get involved]]?
* [[OLPC status by country in 2007]] is a historical page that summarized country planning back in 2007.


== Overview and news ==
[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/3db9ff39067bd09e8525717c001172dd?OpenDocument OLPC News (27-05-2006)]


Before the start of production in late 2007, many countries expressed interest in the technology. As in all large products, there is a marching progression of details, counter-proposals, trials, wide trials, and testing. Many countries agreed 'in principle', equivalent to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the sales process. The exact participation of countries
A two-day meeting was held at OLPC for representatives from the launch countries. This was the first meeting held in the new OLPC office space in Cambridge. The first day's agenda was focused on “learning learning.” Day Two's agenda targeted issues of deployment. In attendance were representatives from [[OLPC Argentina|Argentina]], [[Brazil]], [[China]], [[OLPC Egypt|Egypt]], [[OLPC India|India]], and [[OLPC Nigeria|Nigeria]]. Guests included Clotilde Fonesca from the Omar Dengo Foundation in Costa Rica, Bette Manchester from the [[Maine Laptop Program]], Hal Abelson and Pete Barr-Watson from [[Creative Commons]], and Andres Chisco from Brightstar.
is constantly changing, as is the state of the world: Thailand had a coup, and Nigeria had an election.
2707111925802073996774


As in all sales, nothing is certain until purchases are finalized and units are shipped.
=Country News=


One user has put these forward as fact, but without references:
The announced plan calls for five countries to commit to purchase one million units each before production begins. We seem to have two at the moment, Brazil and Libya. There are unfounded rumors in the press about others. If you don't see a deal announced on [http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf $100 LAPTOP NEWS FOR THE COMMUNITY], it is unlikely to be real.


'''Orders:'''
==Argentina==
* Uruguay, Peru, United States (Alabama)


Targets for the laptops donated by the [[G1G1 2007]] program:
[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/c2ef55091517da0985257231006b355c?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-11-25)]
* Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Mongolia, Afghanistan


'''Deployed Units:'''
Antonio Battro, David Cavallo, and Nicholas spent two days in Argentina working closely with education minister Daniel Filmus, and Alejandro Piscitelli and Laura Serra of educ.ar, the independent government organization coordinating OLPC activities.
* Uruguay: 420,000
* Peru: 300,000
* Mexico: 50,000
* Rwanda (2009): 50,000
* USA (AL, PA): 20,000
* Nicaragua: 5,000
* Paraguay: 5,000
* Nigeria: 5,000
* G1G1 (give): 75,000 to be distributed among a number of countries - Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia
* G1G1 (get): 75,000 to the US and Canada


'''Total:''' 1,005,000
==USA==
[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/laptops-1005.html MIT News Office October 5, 2005]


== Levels of country engagement ==
Gov. Mitt Romney wants Massachusetts schoolchildren to get the $100 hand-crank laptops developed at the MIT Media Lab.


=== For local communities ===
==Spain==
Here are things that a country community should set up as it is getting started:


* A country page, such as [[OLPC Peru]]
[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/700ff9bb015b18088525719f0004a31e?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-07-01)]
* A country mailing list -- or an existing mailing list that will be used


Extremadura is the poorest region of Spain; it is also the site of the first large-scale deployment of Linux desktop systems in the world, primarily into schools. Over 80,000 desktops have been deployed to date, with near saturation (>50%) in high schools, but fewer numbers in elementary schools (typically in computer labs). The deployment is seen as a success, and is now spreading beyond schools and libraries to the regional government as a whole. Jim visited the project in order to gain insight into the issues that arise in the schools. Although Extremadura's experiences are only partially applicable to ours, they are generally positive.


=== For deployments ===
==[[Brazil]]==
In order for OLPC to fully support
[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/0c450a98ea9c0a15852571a5007753c1?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-07-08)]
* Local keyboard and keymaps
* Technical variables : a smoke test
* Testing Browse, Chat, and Write in that language
* For upcoming roadmaps : prepare an integration and test plan in line with the existing schedule for new releases
* Feedback loop for reviewing the user experience -- how is a country's chosen language, keyboard, activity-set working for them? who is helping maintain same?


== Details by region ==
The main headline and story on the front page of Friday's edition of Valor, one of the major business newspapers of Brazil, affirmed the government's intention to enter into agreement with OLPC this year. The story highlighted Cezar Alvarez, a top staff member of President Lula, who is in charge of all projects for social and economic inclusion. There were also two other related articles in the Business Section, including a picture of a smiling Prof. Marcelo Zuffo holding a development board and discussing how the work-groups and Brazilian labs intended to build related products and services on top of the platform.


=== America ===
Positivo, a major educational publisher and services company that provides one of the major educational portals demonstrated their adaptation of their portal and content to run on the laptop and within the screen size. They intend to have all their content ready in time for the introduction of the laptop in Brazil.
====[[OLPC Argentina|Argentina]]====
* 2006 : A commitment from Argentina was announced, but has not been confirmed since production started. [http://weblog.educ.ar/olpc/ OLPC Blog in Argentina] in Spanish. A few hundred machines are in-country, but were caught up in customs for a while; no known active school pilot.
* 2007 : University groups are actively interested
* 2008 : Working on hardware certification; Ricardo Carrano's mesh work. 3 active contrib-program projects.


==== [[Brasil]] ====
* LEC projects; Porto Alegre work w/B2s. Planning to upgrade to MPs and new builds
* Older projects include a school in Sao Paolo

Brazil is putting its plans for school laptops out to bid. This process began in December 2007, but has not concluded. The government failed to inform bidders that import duties were to be waived.

<!--
''Updates'': [http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/0c450a98ea9c0a15852571a5007753c1?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-07-08)]

The main headline and story on the front page of Friday's edition of Valor Econômico, one of the major business newspapers of Brazil, affirmed the government's intention to enter into agreement with OLPC this year. The story highlighted Cezar Alvarez, a top staff member of President Lula, who is in charge of all projects for social and economic inclusion.


[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/03d0ab0637293da8852571d60078ae79?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-08-26)]
[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/03d0ab0637293da8852571d60078ae79?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-08-26)]
Line 42: Line 82:
The presidency has created a new working group inside the Ministry of Education to focus solely on laptops and learning. The group is comprehensive, covering all the necessary departments: basic education; teacher and content development; technology; distance support; and integration and coordination. This group will coordinate all activities needed for the deployment of laptops.
The presidency has created a new working group inside the Ministry of Education to focus solely on laptops and learning. The group is comprehensive, covering all the necessary departments: basic education; teacher and content development; technology; distance support; and integration and coordination. This group will coordinate all activities needed for the deployment of laptops.


[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/c2ef55091517da0985257231006b355c?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-11-25)]
Nov. 25, 2006


Nicholas and David spent Friday in São Paulo, to meet with President Lula. Rodrigo Mesquita, to whom we owe our presence in Brazil, organized and attended the meeting. Lula publicly reaffirmed Brazil’s commitment to one laptop per child. He expressed a deep connection to those in Brazil that lack opportunity, his belief in the children, and his faith in the importance of connected laptops available to all.
Nicholas and David spent Friday in São Paulo, to meet with President Lula. Rodrigo Mesquita, to whom we owe our presence in Brazil, organized and attended the meeting. Lula publicly reaffirmed Brazil’s commitment to one laptop per child. He expressed a deep connection to those in Brazil that lack opportunity, his belief in the children, and his faith in the importance of connected laptops available to all.
-->


==[[Libya]]==
==== [[OLPC Colombia|Colombia]] ====
[http://news.com.com/A+laptop+for+every+Libyan+schoolchild/2100-1044_3-6124650.html New York Times story]


* [[user:RafaelOrtiz|Rafael Ortiz]] and [[User:PilarSaenz|Pilar Saenz]] in-country helping with their deployment
[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/2cc25a58f0d1a6e8852572070033befc?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-10-14)] Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
* They're setting up their own [http://colombiaolpc.org websites] and [http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/colombia lists]
* Engaged groups : the city of Itagui (near Medellin); the Marina Orth foundation


==== [[OLPC Haiti|Haiti]] ====
Libya and OLPC signed an MOU in which they agreed to work together towards the deployment of one OLPC laptop for every school-age child in Libya and contributing laptops to poor African nations. OLPC will provide the support needed by Libya to plan and carry out such a deployment. The signing took place during a visit by Nicholas, Walter Bender, and Khaled Hassounah, where they met with members of the newly formed [[OLPC4Libya]] steering committee. The committee was presented with the outline of a comprehensive plan to distribute the laptops, create connectivity and server infrastructure, and prepare teachers and students. Libya will send a team to the OLPC office in Cambridge to focus on software (Linux), infrastructure, and education content.


* Recently in-country : Bastien, Wanda
==India==
* Local leads: Guy Serge
* Mailing lists : olpc-haiti, one on a separate server run by Bastien


==== [[OLPC Mexico|Mexico]] ====
Carlos Slim has ordered 50,000 units, and has promised more. TelMex is coordinating part of the deployment

* There is interest from ITESM in the south in helping out with their university population


==== [[OpenWijs.nl Nicaragua|Nicaragua]] ====

Februar 16, 2009
The Dutch foundation OpenWijs.nl, inspired by the concept of OLPC, started September 2008 an educational eTwinning project in El Rama, a rural city in Nicaragua with 54.000 inhabitants. The project was funded by the local government of the city Maastricht (the Netherlands) and set up in close collaboration with the city bond Maastricht – Rama. Two volunteers have been in El Rama to train 21 teachers of primary school Horacio. Most of them had never used a PC before. When they knew how to use the XO they have discussed with the educational expert how to use it in their lessons. Therefore they tested several activities and visited the internet, also with pupils in the classroom to learn how to guide them.

Between September 2008 and Februar 2009 two primary schools in Maastricht started also with an OLPC project. Two teachers and two ICT- cordinators have been trained. All pupils group 8 (10 – 12 years old) received their own XO and used it at school and at home. Pupils, teachers and parents are satisfied with the XO, Sugar and the educational activities. The hardware could be faster and supplied with more internal memory.

In Februar 2009 we hope to start the eTwinning by supplying 80 pupils in El Rama with their XO. However now OLPC stops with the GiveMany programme it is not clear how to succeed. Maybe we can get some XO's from the ministry of Education who received in September 2008 3.000 XO's from TelMex and didn't use them untill now (!).
This ministry is very happy with the OLPC projects from OpenWijs.nl and of Waveplace, an American foundation active in the Caribbean. For the next project the ministry will pay the Technico for El Rama who will support the teachers.

*[http://www.rama.nl/xo Dutch website about the eTwinning project]
*[http://www.rama.nl/espanol Spanish page about the eTwinning project]
*[http://www.rama.nl/english English page about the eTwinning project]
*[http://www.openwijs.nl/welcome The Dutch foundation OpenWijs.nl, unfortunately mostly not translated yet]

==== [[OpenWijs.nl El Salvador|El Salvador]] ====

Actualmente El Salvador ya cuenta con 2500 XO'S de OLPC en diferentes centros escolares, por el momento se estableció el plan piloto, los maestros, directores y encargados de aulas informáticas recibieron una capacitación de mes y medio sobre el uso de la herramienta XO, no solo en el área técnica, sino también en el área didáctica.

Se puede observar más acerca de este proyecto en el CRA (Centro de Recursos para el Aprendizaje)que el ministerio de educación de El Salvador, con su departamento de tecnologías informáticas creo para unificar los esfuerzo de la utilización de los recursos.

http://www.miportal.edu.sv/Comunidad/blogs/cat/default.aspx

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_El_Salvador

==== Peru ====
A modest order in Nov. 2007, was followed by an appropriation possible at the end of December for a larger order next year. The first appropriation for 100,000 units came through in Dec. 2007. Since then they have committed to 810,000 units in 2008.


==== [[OLPC Uruguay|Uruguay]] ====

December 14, 2006
President Tabaré Vázquez officially announced his and the country's intention to enter into OLPC and to provide every child in Uruguay with a laptop within two years. Uruguay did a test run in early 2007. In October 2007 an order for 100,000 laptops was placed, making Uruguay the first country to purchase a full order of laptops. An additional 200,000 more laptops have been ordered to cover all public school children between 6 and 12 years old.

*[http://www.presidencia.gub.uy/_Web/noticias/2006/12/2006121402.htm Press release in Spanish]
*[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/6c4312716311c13d852572460072a3fb?OpenDocument OLPC News announcement in English]

See also [http://radian.org/notebook/first-deployment Ivan's report].


==== Others ====
* Panama -- they have their own activity developers, and national chess player interest

=== Asia ===

==== [[OLPC India|India]] ====
3 Jul, 2006 The [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1698603,curpg-1.cms Times of India reports] that the government of India has rejected the OLPC program for now.
3 Jul, 2006 The [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1698603,curpg-1.cms Times of India reports] that the government of India has rejected the OLPC program for now.


'''Latest:'''
=OLPC Groups=
OLPC project gaining momentum in India through the formation of an OLPC-India foundation. See [[OLPC_India|OLPC India]] page for the latest details and [[Khairat_Chronicle|pilot project]] for details on the pilot project.


==== [[OLPC Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] ====
''see also:'' [[Category:Countries]]
October 2008: OLPC project has started! The Ministry of Education, Ministry of Communications and IT, Afghan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (USAID/ASMED), Roshan and PAIWASTOON joined the forces and kicked off the OLPC in Afghanistan. The deployment of 10,500 laptops is expected to affect over 85,000 children as the project will be deployed into schools in form of computer labs so to reach bigger audience. In addition, laptops shall serve to parents too and help them educated in areas of increasing the living standards (e.g. how to start a business, how to grow better crops, what are the typical market prices for xy goods...). For details about OLPC Afghanistan visit www.olpc.af (Not much there, better is probably [[OLPC_Afghanistan]].)


=== [[OLPC Korea|Korea]] -- driven by a few citizens ===
[[OLPC Albania]] [[Albanian]]
''The content in this section is written by '''[[XO Korea]]''', not'' OLPC.


'''Korea''' and [[XO Korea]] has a somewhat peculiar OLPC aspect different from other nations; an active OLPC participant without any governmental intervention. Though there is no official announcement from its government level, a few citizens living in the Jejudo Island have been actively prepared XO deployment in Korea, and, undoubtly, there will be XOs all around the nation in a few years, if their efforts are NOT in vain.
[[OLPC Argentina]] [[Spanish]]


Currently [[XO Korea]] is a small citizen group, led by Do Young-Min, 도 영민, without any official relationship with the OLPC Foundation, but, in a few weeks, there will be well organized citizen group to deploy XO, to provide XO related services to schools etc., and to develop a game, [[XO City]], which all of [[XO Korea]]'s efforts are on.
[[OLPC Brazil]] [[Portuguese]]


<!--
[[OLPC Chile]] Spanish
Another peculiar aspect of [[XO Korea]] is to make (rather than ''develop'') a few XO variations, [[Larger OLPC]] and [[Mesh Phone]]. Those machines are just shape variations of XO laptop without any revolutionary brand-new technologies such as dual mode display or mesh.


North Korea is not on the horizon yet. On current form, it will be the last country on Earth to allow laptops in. But who knows? They are talking about ending the Korean War officially, with a Peace Treaty and all, and about reopening the railroad lines for trade between South Korea and China.
[[OLPC China]] [[Chinese]], [[Mongolian]], [[Tibetan]], others
-->


=== Africa ===
[[OLPC Egypt]] [[Arabic]], [[Coptic]]


'''Nigeria'''
[[OLPC Ethiopia]] [[Amharic]], others


'''Three New State Pilots:'''
[[OLPC France]] [[French]]
In 2010 three SEED OLPC pilot projects were started simultaneously at three Nigerian schools in '''Rivers State, Bayelsa State and Akwa Ibom State.''' For more information visit: [http://www.planetseed.com/one2one]


[[OLPC Germany]] [[German]]


[[OLPC Greece]] [[Greek]]


==== [[Ethiopia]] ====
[[OLPC India]] 22 official [[languages]], 10 [[writing systems]]


==Status Quo: XO5000 at a glance==
[[OLPC Israel]] [[Hebrew]], [[Yiddish]], Arabic, English
The current implementation of 5000 laptops follows a one year test phase in two primary
schools in Addis Ababa. The 5000 laptops are deployed in 4 schools in Ethiopia (2 in
Addis Ababa, 2 in rural villages):
Two primary schools in Addis Ababa
* Atse Naod
* Menelik II
Two rural primary schools
* Rema (solar powered) / Amhara
* Mullo Sayyoo / Oromiya


Relevant Ethiopian Principles, Capacity Building, the educational concept, textbook availability & localisation and other relevant aspects are described in a handbook developed and approved along the first year of testing.
[[OLPC Laos]] [[Laotian]]


Roll-out-activities cover training (teachers will receive training on how to use the computers as well as how to implement interactive tasks in their lessons), implementation&support (digitization of content, distribution of laptops, execution of curriculum based education using XO laptops) and monitoring & evaluation.
[[Libya]] [[Arabic]] [http://news.com.com/A+laptop+for+every+Libyan+schoolchild/2100-1044_3-6124650.html New York Times story]


''More details'' - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ethiopia
[[OLPC Nepal]] [[Nepalese]]


[[ OLPC New Zealand / Pacific]] [[ Maori]], [[English]], [[Samoan]], [[Tongan]], [[Fijian]], [[Cook Island]], [[Pidgin]], [[French]]


==== [[Rwanda]] ====
[[OLPC Nigeria]] [[Yoruba]], [[Hausa]], [[Igbo]]
Rwanda was a target country for [[G1G1 2007]]. The government has not placed any orders of its own.
: [http://www.nigeriaembassyusa.org/diaspora.shtml diaspora project]


* 5000 heading out into the rural places now, flashing by mid-August; another 5000 heading out next month.
[[OLPC Poland]] [[Polish]]
* Juliano is currently the local contact, working with RITA and the government education groups. RITA has PDFs of part of their curriculum.
* Need Kinyarwanda/French options


[[OLPC Russia]] [[Russian]], others


"In recognition of children being Rwanda’s most precious natural resource, the government of Rwanda has committed to provide one laptop per child to all primary school children within five years.
[[OLPC South Africa]] English, [[Afrikaans]], [[Xhosa]], others
This commitment was confirmed as H.E. President Paul Kagame met with Prof. Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairperson of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) at Urugwiro Village on Tuesday."

==== [[Libya]] ====

In spite of the MOU described below, there is no deal yet. If there is a deal, it will likely be much smaller. It is reported that Libya is considering other computers. [http://news.com.com/A+laptop+for+every+Libyan+schoolchild/2100-1044_3-6124650.html New York Times story] &middot; [http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/2cc25a58f0d1a6e8852572070033befc?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-10-14)] Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

* Update: all is on hold at the moment.


==== [[OLPC Nigeria|Nigeria]] ====
An early trial in Galadima was the subject of many reports and photographs.

Since the latest election, the new government has shown no interest in OLPC XOs. It may be considering other computers. Although we have not seen an announcement of a Nigerian deal, it is listed in an OLPC press release as one of six countries signed up for the laptop.

=== Europe ===

==== [[OpenWijs.nl the Netherlands| the Netherlands]] ====

Februar 16, 2009
The Dutch foundation OpenWijs.nl, inspired by the concept of OLPC, started september 2008 an educational eTwinning project in El Rama, a rural city in Nicaragua with 54.000 inhabitants and Maastricht, the Netherlands. The project was funded by the local government of the city Maastricht and set up in close collaboration with the city bond Maastricht – Rama.

Between September 2008 and Februar 2009 two primary schools in Maastricht started with an OLPC project. Two teachers and two ICT- cordinators have been trained. All pupils group 8 (10 – 12 years old) received their own XO and used it at school and at home. Pupils, teachers and parents are satisfied with the XO, Sugar and the educational activities. The hardware could be faster and supplied with more internal memory.

Two volunteers have been in El Rama to train 21 teachers of primary school Horacio. Most of them had never used a PC before. When they knew how to use the XO they have discussed with the educational expert how to use it in their lessons. Therefore they tested several activities and visited the internet, also with pupils in the classroom to learn how to guide them.

In Februar 2009 we hope to start the eTwinning by supplying 80 pupils in El Rama with their XO. Two other cities in the Netherlands want to start also an eTwinning project with their city bond: Zoetermeer - Jinotega / and Nijmegen - Masaya
However now OLPC stops with the GiveMany programme it is not clear how to succeed. Maybe we can get some XO's from the ministry of Education who received in September 2008 3.000 XO's from TelMex and didn't use them untill now (!).
This ministry is very happy with the OLPC projects from OpenWijs.nl and of Waveplace, an American foundation active in the Caribbean area. For the next project the ministry will pay the Technico for El Rama who will support the teachers.

*[http://www.rama.nl/xo Dutch website about the eTwinning project]
*[http://www.rama.nl/espanol Spanish page about the eTwinning project]
*[http://www.rama.nl/english English page about the eTwinning project]
*[http://www.openwijs.nl/welcome The Dutch foundation OpenWijs.nl, unfortunately mostly not translated yet]

Another Dutch foundation is active with OLPC projects in Russia, India, Nepal and Mongolia: Metersmakenvoormillennium
*[http://www.metersmakenvoormillennium.nl Metersmakenvoormillennium]

Marten Vijn has set up an OLPC repaircentre and is supporting small pilots, for example in Leiden
*[http://www.martenvijn.nl]

==== Republic of Macedonia ====
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/macedonia-school-computers

Every Student in the Republic of Macedonia to Use Ubuntu-Powered Computer Workstations

Popular Linux Distribution To Appear On More than 180,000 Classroom Desktops Nationwide

LONDON, November 20th, 2007 - The Republic of Macedonia Ministry of Education and Science will deploy more than 180,000 workstations running Canonical’s Edubuntu 7.04 as part of its "Computer for Every Child" project.

[http://www.ubuntu.com/news/macedonia-school-computers Every Student in the Republic of Macedonia to Use Ubuntu-Powered Computer Workstations] November 20th, 2007

Macedonia is installing 180,000 computers running Ubuntu. Schools run in two shifts, so this gives each of their 360,000 schoolchildren a computer while in school, but not at home.

==== [[OLPC Romania|Romania]] ====

[http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/olpc_romania_political.html OLPC News], an independent news site, has noted reports from Romania that the government has rejected the OLPC program. [http://english.hotnews.ro/Romanian-MPs-drop-One-laptop-per-child-bill-articol_44546.htm hotnews.ro] reports,

House Commission head Lia Olguta Vasilescu said they believed the
700 million euro needed for the procurement of the laptops was too
much an amount and would weigh heavily on the Education Ministry
budget. Vasilescu also said that "beside that the laptops are simple
toys, they’re not even have an expiring date". "We, the Parliament,
do not want to support this project because there’s no money" for it."

The quoted figure of 700 million euros does not make sense, since there are only about 2.5 million K-12 students in Romania, according to UNICEF population figures.

'''Note:''' Only 930.000 kids between 6-14 years.

=== United States and Canada ===
See [[OLPC United States]]

==== Alabama ====
See http://catmaran.com/olpc/#sugxterm for some of their work to sugarize new activities.


== Other OLPC Groups ==

''see also:'' [[:Category:Countries]]

*[[OLPC Albania]] [[Albanian]]

*[[OLPC Argentina]] [[Spanish]]

*[http://olpc.org.au/ OLPC Australia]

*[[OLPC Austria]]

*[[OLPC Brazil]] [[Portuguese]]

*[[OLPC Bulgaria]] [[Bulgarian]]

*[[OLPC Chile]] [[Spanish]]

*[[OLPC China]] [[Chinese]], [[Mongolian]], [[Tibetan]], others

*[[OLPC Colombia]] [[Spanish]]

*[[OLPC Cyprus]] [[Greek]], [[Turkish]], [[English]]

*[[OLPC Ecuador]] [[Spanish]]

*[[OLPC Egypt]] [[Arabic]], [[Coptic]]

*[[OLPC Ethiopia]] [[Amharic]], others

*[[OLPC France]] [[French]]

*[[OLPC Germany]] [[German]]

*[[OLPC Greece]] [[Greek]]

*[[OLPC India]] 22 official [[languages]], 10 [[writing systems]]

*[[OLPC Israel]] [[Hebrew]], [[Yiddish]], [[Arabic]], [[English]]

*[[OLPC Korea]] [[Korean]]

*[[OLPC Laos]] [[Laotian]]

*[[OLPC Libya]] [[Arabic]] <blockquote>[http://news.com.com/A+laptop+for+every+Libyan+schoolchild/2100-1044_3-6124650.html New York Times story]</blockquote>

* [[OLPC Nepal]] [[Nepalese]] - There is another group active in Nepal [[OLE Nepal]]

*[[OLPC Netherlands|OLPC the Netherlands]]

*[[OLPC New Zealand / Pacific]]: [[ Maori]], [[English]], [[Samoan]], [[Tongan]], [[Fijian]], [[Cook Island]], [[Pidgin]], [[French]]

*[[OLPC Nigeria]] [[Yoruba]], [[Hausa]], [[Igbo]]
<blockquote>[http://www.nigeriaembassyusa.org/diaspora.shtml diaspora project]</blockquote>
*[[OLPC Pakistan]]
*[[OLPC Philippines]] English, ''[[Braille]]''

*[[OLPC Poland]] [[Polish]]

*[[OLPC Russia]] [[Russian]], others

*[[OLPC Rwanda]] English, [[French]]

*[[OLPC South Africa]] English, [[Afrikaans]], [[Xhosa]], others

<blockquote>[http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/700ff9bb015b18088525719f0004a31e?OpenDocument OLPC News (2006-07-01)]

Extremadura is the poorest region of Spain; it is also the site of the first large-scale deployment of Linux desktop systems in the world, primarily into schools. Over 80,000 desktops have been deployed to date, with near saturation (>50%) in high schools, but fewer numbers in elementary schools (typically in computer labs). The deployment is seen as a success, and is now spreading beyond schools and libraries to the regional government as a whole. Jim visited the project in order to gain insight into the issues that arise in the schools. Although Extremadura's experiences are only partially applicable to ours, they are generally positive.
</blockquote>

*[[OLPC Thailand]] [[Thai]]


[[OLPC Thailand]] [[Thai]]
*[[OLPC Ukraine]] [[Ukrainian]]


*[[OLPC Uruguay]] [[Spanish]]
[[OLPC4USA]] [[English]], Cajun [[French]], Spanish, [[Native American languages]], dozens of immigrant community languages including [[Vietnamese]], [[Lao]], [[Cambodian]], [[Kreyol Haisyen]], etc.


*[[OLPC USA]] [[English]], Cajun [[French]], [[Spanish]], [[Native American languages]], dozens of immigrant community languages including [[Vietnamese]], [[Laotian]], [[Khmer|Cambodian]], [[Kreyol Aiysyen]], etc.
----
* How can my country get involved ? [[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_can_my_country_get_involved]]


[[Category:Countries]]
[[Category:Countries]]
==Related Links:==

Latest revision as of 20:31, 25 July 2013

This is a page from 2009 for unofficial notes about OLPC country discussions. It is mostly opinion and country specific news.

See also

Overview and news

Before the start of production in late 2007, many countries expressed interest in the technology. As in all large products, there is a marching progression of details, counter-proposals, trials, wide trials, and testing. Many countries agreed 'in principle', equivalent to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the sales process. The exact participation of countries is constantly changing, as is the state of the world: Thailand had a coup, and Nigeria had an election.

As in all sales, nothing is certain until purchases are finalized and units are shipped.

One user has put these forward as fact, but without references:

Orders:

  • Uruguay, Peru, United States (Alabama)

Targets for the laptops donated by the G1G1 2007 program:

  • Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Mongolia, Afghanistan

Deployed Units:

  • Uruguay: 420,000
  • Peru: 300,000
  • Mexico: 50,000
  • Rwanda (2009): 50,000
  • USA (AL, PA): 20,000
  • Nicaragua: 5,000
  • Paraguay: 5,000
  • Nigeria: 5,000
  • G1G1 (give): 75,000 to be distributed among a number of countries - Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia
  • G1G1 (get): 75,000 to the US and Canada

Total: 1,005,000

Levels of country engagement

For local communities

Here are things that a country community should set up as it is getting started:

  • A country page, such as OLPC Peru
  • A country mailing list -- or an existing mailing list that will be used


For deployments

In order for OLPC to fully support

  • Local keyboard and keymaps
  • Technical variables : a smoke test
  • Testing Browse, Chat, and Write in that language
  • For upcoming roadmaps : prepare an integration and test plan in line with the existing schedule for new releases
  • Feedback loop for reviewing the user experience -- how is a country's chosen language, keyboard, activity-set working for them? who is helping maintain same?

Details by region

America

Argentina

  • 2006 : A commitment from Argentina was announced, but has not been confirmed since production started. OLPC Blog in Argentina in Spanish. A few hundred machines are in-country, but were caught up in customs for a while; no known active school pilot.
  • 2007 : University groups are actively interested
  • 2008 : Working on hardware certification; Ricardo Carrano's mesh work. 3 active contrib-program projects.


Brasil

  • LEC projects; Porto Alegre work w/B2s. Planning to upgrade to MPs and new builds
  • Older projects include a school in Sao Paolo

Brazil is putting its plans for school laptops out to bid. This process began in December 2007, but has not concluded. The government failed to inform bidders that import duties were to be waived.


Colombia

  • Rafael Ortiz and Pilar Saenz in-country helping with their deployment
  • They're setting up their own websites and lists
  • Engaged groups : the city of Itagui (near Medellin); the Marina Orth foundation

Haiti

  • Recently in-country : Bastien, Wanda
  • Local leads: Guy Serge
  • Mailing lists : olpc-haiti, one on a separate server run by Bastien


Mexico

Carlos Slim has ordered 50,000 units, and has promised more. TelMex is coordinating part of the deployment

  • There is interest from ITESM in the south in helping out with their university population


Nicaragua

Februar 16, 2009 The Dutch foundation OpenWijs.nl, inspired by the concept of OLPC, started September 2008 an educational eTwinning project in El Rama, a rural city in Nicaragua with 54.000 inhabitants. The project was funded by the local government of the city Maastricht (the Netherlands) and set up in close collaboration with the city bond Maastricht – Rama. Two volunteers have been in El Rama to train 21 teachers of primary school Horacio. Most of them had never used a PC before. When they knew how to use the XO they have discussed with the educational expert how to use it in their lessons. Therefore they tested several activities and visited the internet, also with pupils in the classroom to learn how to guide them.

Between September 2008 and Februar 2009 two primary schools in Maastricht started also with an OLPC project. Two teachers and two ICT- cordinators have been trained. All pupils group 8 (10 – 12 years old) received their own XO and used it at school and at home. Pupils, teachers and parents are satisfied with the XO, Sugar and the educational activities. The hardware could be faster and supplied with more internal memory.

In Februar 2009 we hope to start the eTwinning by supplying 80 pupils in El Rama with their XO. However now OLPC stops with the GiveMany programme it is not clear how to succeed. Maybe we can get some XO's from the ministry of Education who received in September 2008 3.000 XO's from TelMex and didn't use them untill now (!). This ministry is very happy with the OLPC projects from OpenWijs.nl and of Waveplace, an American foundation active in the Caribbean. For the next project the ministry will pay the Technico for El Rama who will support the teachers.

El Salvador

Actualmente El Salvador ya cuenta con 2500 XO'S de OLPC en diferentes centros escolares, por el momento se estableció el plan piloto, los maestros, directores y encargados de aulas informáticas recibieron una capacitación de mes y medio sobre el uso de la herramienta XO, no solo en el área técnica, sino también en el área didáctica.

Se puede observar más acerca de este proyecto en el CRA (Centro de Recursos para el Aprendizaje)que el ministerio de educación de El Salvador, con su departamento de tecnologías informáticas creo para unificar los esfuerzo de la utilización de los recursos.

http://www.miportal.edu.sv/Comunidad/blogs/cat/default.aspx

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_El_Salvador

Peru

A modest order in Nov. 2007, was followed by an appropriation possible at the end of December for a larger order next year. The first appropriation for 100,000 units came through in Dec. 2007. Since then they have committed to 810,000 units in 2008.


Uruguay

December 14, 2006 President Tabaré Vázquez officially announced his and the country's intention to enter into OLPC and to provide every child in Uruguay with a laptop within two years. Uruguay did a test run in early 2007. In October 2007 an order for 100,000 laptops was placed, making Uruguay the first country to purchase a full order of laptops. An additional 200,000 more laptops have been ordered to cover all public school children between 6 and 12 years old.

See also Ivan's report.


Others

  • Panama -- they have their own activity developers, and national chess player interest

Asia

India

3 Jul, 2006 The Times of India reports that the government of India has rejected the OLPC program for now.

Latest: OLPC project gaining momentum in India through the formation of an OLPC-India foundation. See OLPC India page for the latest details and pilot project for details on the pilot project.

Afghanistan

October 2008: OLPC project has started! The Ministry of Education, Ministry of Communications and IT, Afghan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (USAID/ASMED), Roshan and PAIWASTOON joined the forces and kicked off the OLPC in Afghanistan. The deployment of 10,500 laptops is expected to affect over 85,000 children as the project will be deployed into schools in form of computer labs so to reach bigger audience. In addition, laptops shall serve to parents too and help them educated in areas of increasing the living standards (e.g. how to start a business, how to grow better crops, what are the typical market prices for xy goods...). For details about OLPC Afghanistan visit www.olpc.af (Not much there, better is probably OLPC_Afghanistan.)

Korea -- driven by a few citizens

The content in this section is written by XO Korea, not OLPC.

Korea and XO Korea has a somewhat peculiar OLPC aspect different from other nations; an active OLPC participant without any governmental intervention. Though there is no official announcement from its government level, a few citizens living in the Jejudo Island have been actively prepared XO deployment in Korea, and, undoubtly, there will be XOs all around the nation in a few years, if their efforts are NOT in vain.

Currently XO Korea is a small citizen group, led by Do Young-Min, 도 영민, without any official relationship with the OLPC Foundation, but, in a few weeks, there will be well organized citizen group to deploy XO, to provide XO related services to schools etc., and to develop a game, XO City, which all of XO Korea's efforts are on.


Africa

Nigeria

Three New State Pilots: In 2010 three SEED OLPC pilot projects were started simultaneously at three Nigerian schools in Rivers State, Bayelsa State and Akwa Ibom State. For more information visit: [1]


Ethiopia

Status Quo: XO5000 at a glance

The current implementation of 5000 laptops follows a one year test phase in two primary schools in Addis Ababa. The 5000 laptops are deployed in 4 schools in Ethiopia (2 in Addis Ababa, 2 in rural villages): Two primary schools in Addis Ababa

  * Atse Naod
  * Menelik II

Two rural primary schools

  * Rema (solar powered) / Amhara
  * Mullo Sayyoo / Oromiya

Relevant Ethiopian Principles, Capacity Building, the educational concept, textbook availability & localisation and other relevant aspects are described in a handbook developed and approved along the first year of testing.

Roll-out-activities cover training (teachers will receive training on how to use the computers as well as how to implement interactive tasks in their lessons), implementation&support (digitization of content, distribution of laptops, execution of curriculum based education using XO laptops) and monitoring & evaluation.

More details - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ethiopia


Rwanda

Rwanda was a target country for G1G1 2007. The government has not placed any orders of its own.

  • 5000 heading out into the rural places now, flashing by mid-August; another 5000 heading out next month.
  • Juliano is currently the local contact, working with RITA and the government education groups. RITA has PDFs of part of their curriculum.
  • Need Kinyarwanda/French options


"In recognition of children being Rwanda’s most precious natural resource, the government of Rwanda has committed to provide one laptop per child to all primary school children within five years. This commitment was confirmed as H.E. President Paul Kagame met with Prof. Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairperson of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) at Urugwiro Village on Tuesday."

Libya

In spite of the MOU described below, there is no deal yet. If there is a deal, it will likely be much smaller. It is reported that Libya is considering other computers. New York Times story · OLPC News (2006-10-14) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

  • Update: all is on hold at the moment.


Nigeria

An early trial in Galadima was the subject of many reports and photographs.

Since the latest election, the new government has shown no interest in OLPC XOs. It may be considering other computers. Although we have not seen an announcement of a Nigerian deal, it is listed in an OLPC press release as one of six countries signed up for the laptop.

Europe

the Netherlands

Februar 16, 2009 The Dutch foundation OpenWijs.nl, inspired by the concept of OLPC, started september 2008 an educational eTwinning project in El Rama, a rural city in Nicaragua with 54.000 inhabitants and Maastricht, the Netherlands. The project was funded by the local government of the city Maastricht and set up in close collaboration with the city bond Maastricht – Rama.

Between September 2008 and Februar 2009 two primary schools in Maastricht started with an OLPC project. Two teachers and two ICT- cordinators have been trained. All pupils group 8 (10 – 12 years old) received their own XO and used it at school and at home. Pupils, teachers and parents are satisfied with the XO, Sugar and the educational activities. The hardware could be faster and supplied with more internal memory.

Two volunteers have been in El Rama to train 21 teachers of primary school Horacio. Most of them had never used a PC before. When they knew how to use the XO they have discussed with the educational expert how to use it in their lessons. Therefore they tested several activities and visited the internet, also with pupils in the classroom to learn how to guide them.

In Februar 2009 we hope to start the eTwinning by supplying 80 pupils in El Rama with their XO. Two other cities in the Netherlands want to start also an eTwinning project with their city bond: Zoetermeer - Jinotega / and Nijmegen - Masaya However now OLPC stops with the GiveMany programme it is not clear how to succeed. Maybe we can get some XO's from the ministry of Education who received in September 2008 3.000 XO's from TelMex and didn't use them untill now (!). This ministry is very happy with the OLPC projects from OpenWijs.nl and of Waveplace, an American foundation active in the Caribbean area. For the next project the ministry will pay the Technico for El Rama who will support the teachers.

Another Dutch foundation is active with OLPC projects in Russia, India, Nepal and Mongolia: Metersmakenvoormillennium

Marten Vijn has set up an OLPC repaircentre and is supporting small pilots, for example in Leiden

Republic of Macedonia

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/macedonia-school-computers

Every Student in the Republic of Macedonia to Use Ubuntu-Powered Computer Workstations

Popular Linux Distribution To Appear On More than 180,000 Classroom Desktops Nationwide

LONDON, November 20th, 2007 - The Republic of Macedonia Ministry of Education and Science will deploy more than 180,000 workstations running Canonical’s Edubuntu 7.04 as part of its "Computer for Every Child" project.

Every Student in the Republic of Macedonia to Use Ubuntu-Powered Computer Workstations November 20th, 2007

Macedonia is installing 180,000 computers running Ubuntu. Schools run in two shifts, so this gives each of their 360,000 schoolchildren a computer while in school, but not at home.

Romania

OLPC News, an independent news site, has noted reports from Romania that the government has rejected the OLPC program. hotnews.ro reports,

House Commission head Lia Olguta Vasilescu said they believed the
700 million euro needed for the procurement of the laptops was too
much an amount and would weigh heavily on the Education Ministry
budget. Vasilescu also said that "beside that the laptops are simple
toys, they’re not even have an expiring date". "We, the Parliament,
do not want to support this project because there’s no money" for it."

The quoted figure of 700 million euros does not make sense, since there are only about 2.5 million K-12 students in Romania, according to UNICEF population figures.

Note: Only 930.000 kids between 6-14 years.

United States and Canada

See OLPC United States

Alabama

See http://catmaran.com/olpc/#sugxterm for some of their work to sugarize new activities.


Other OLPC Groups

see also: Category:Countries

diaspora project

OLPC News (2006-07-01)

Extremadura is the poorest region of Spain; it is also the site of the first large-scale deployment of Linux desktop systems in the world, primarily into schools. Over 80,000 desktops have been deployed to date, with near saturation (>50%) in high schools, but fewer numbers in elementary schools (typically in computer labs). The deployment is seen as a success, and is now spreading beyond schools and libraries to the regional government as a whole. Jim visited the project in order to gain insight into the issues that arise in the schools. Although Extremadura's experiences are only partially applicable to ours, they are generally positive.

Related Links: