OLPC Oceania

see also OLPC Australia and OLPC New Zealand

OLPC Oceania describes OLPC activities in the Islands of the Pacific excluding New Zealand and Australia. Ethnologically the region includes sub-regions of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Geographically it includes thousands of coral atolls and volcanic islands with small populations, grouped in 26 island nations.

OLPC activities in the region are coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), with Dr Jimmie Rodgers as Secretary-General, with additional guidance from members of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), with Mr John Budden as executive secretary.

Current activity in the region includes implementation of a satellite-based Pacific Rural Internet Connectivity System (Pacific RICS) consisting of 16 of a projected 100 VSAT dishes that will provide a broad infrastructure to accomodate large-scale OLPC rollout.

Initial countries include Solomon Islands, Tonga, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. It is expected that other countries will participate later in the year.

To view the current status of progress within a leading site see the Solomon Islands page.

Participating countries

Trial deployments have started, or as of June 2008 are in preparation at the following countries:

1. Solomon Islands
2. Papua New Guinea
3. Nauru
4. Kiribati
5. Vanuatu
6. New Caledonia
7. Niue
8. Tuvalu