Skip to content

Rikomatic

Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff

Menu
  • Follow Me on Instagram
  • My Professional Site RangerRik.com
  • Every Roller Rink in California (Map)
Menu

Simputer is a failure (AP)

Posted on April 11, 2005 by

The AP has a story purporting that the Simputer project has largely failed in its goals to bring computers to the rural poor in India. The article notes that many local governments prefer to accept donations of computer equipment from Microsoft and other multinational hardware vendors rather than pay for new technology. It’s tough to argue with free.

Indian non-profits and local authorities are clearly stuck with a tough choice. Do you choose a free “hand me down” computer from a Western corporation that is pre-loaded with software, probably with no provision of technical support or hardware upgrades, using proprietary software that can not be modified? Or do you choose a local-grown, inexpensive new computer from an Indian non-profit that comes with open-source, multi-lingual software and applications, with tech support and available peripherals?

Clearly short-term economics trumps nationalism.

Swami Manohar, co-inventor of the Simputer and CEO of Picopeta Simputers, commented simply that “It has not yet reached the rural market in a big way.”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Freestyle to “Booty Swing” by Parov Stelar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3pMWtX0DdE

Recent Posts

  • My Trip to Nawlins: Laissez les bons temps rouler!
  • Why I Can’t Dance for You
  • Two-year Skate-A-Versary!
  • ILHC 2022: Creating Dance Spaces that Center the Black Experience
  • KQED Arts Feature Video on Lindy Hop!

Categories

  • Books
  • Cats
  • Civil Society
  • Creative Writing
  • Current Affairs
  • Dancing / Music
  • Education
  • Family
  • Film
  • Food and Drink
  • Frankie Manning
  • Games
  • General
  • Health
  • Information Society
  • Machinima
  • Media Reform
  • Music
  • New York
  • Politics
  • Real World Places in SL
  • Religion
  • Science
  • SF Bay Area
  • Television
  • The Spirit
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • Virtual Worlds
  • Web/Tech
  • Weblogs

Tags

b-boy (75) breakdance (50) breaking (26) brooklyn (36) charleston (11) competition (11) coney island (10) dance (17) dancing (30) documentary (15) education (21) festival (12) frankie95 (16) frankie manning (52) frim fram (10) global kids (70) hip-hop (31) human rights (11) inaug09 (11) jazz (12) lindyhop (17) lindy hop (141) lowcarb (18) lxd (11) macarthur foundation (12) machinima (22) memorial (14) mermaidparade (22) mtv (13) performance (16) pmt (10) popping (11) quaker (27) recipe (38) rockclimbing (16) second life (81) shim sham (15) skating (37) soul music (14) swing (51) swing dance (45) united nations (10) virtual world (19) virtual worlds (29) yehoodi (38)
© 2022 Rikomatic | Powered by Superbs Personal Blog theme