The OLPC-Pune folks are a highly enthusiastic group. Together with Digital Bridge Foundation, they organized a “Getting Started with the XO” camp on 01-March-2009 at SICSR. A fair number of folks had signed up and, in the end, we ended up having a nice round of discussion about what to do to move forward. Amit would be posting the formal minutes to the mailing list, however, a quick summary of the work moving forward can be listed as:

• Technology related : task break down for a potential deployment, assessing a couple of more candidate sites and rolling out a deployment at a single one, reviewing the mr_IN translations available
• Learning related : Assessing the content available at HBCSE in terms of packaging and distribution via the XO
• Marketing : getting more folks in, creating a messaging that can be handed over to anyone, investigate areas and methods to raise funds for the group.

It was a fun day and well-spent. In fact, for me it was doubly interesting because I got to learn about a team of people from a group called “Make A Difference” (MAD). They are based across Pune, Chennai, Cochin among other places. What is of specific importance is that it is a student volunteer group involved in imparting English communication skills so as to enable a better chance in the employment market. In Pune they are currently 180 strong and, their ‘credit’ system whereby a volunteer earns credits for classes taken (or, loses credits for assignments missed) is something working looking into.

Updates: Pictures are put up here and, the URL for MAD passed on by Runa.