About a week ago, I had a serendipitous encounter with Sailesh, a grad student at Fletcher, and it turns out he and his wife, Ishani, were working on a very similar idea in a school in West Bengal, where they set up one center with a couple of computers that ran Ubuntu. They had also installed a local copy of a ’sanitised’ Schools-Wikipedia, which was good to learn about, and something we will consider for the next iteration of the ISO.

Today, Adnan bhai and I met up with them, as well as Brian, who spent a year teaching in West Bengal and was also a computer instructor, and over chaa and samosas, had a great conversation that involved everything from where things are now to where we can go next. I guess the next step is to figure out how to combine forces, and get thing rolling in both Bengals!

After today’s conference call, it seems that to launch the 1st OCEP center is just an elapse of next 2 weeks……….It’s more than 1 year ago, I can still remember how Faisal vai and me was scratching the idea of computer centers in Bangladesh, then we formed a team in BUET. I believe Boston group started thinking on it long long ago….. Initially in Bangladesh side, we did not have much idea about how would be the Computer Centers, but we were brainstorming on it. Actually our initial ideas in Bangladesh side were somewhat different from the actual OCEP center that we are going to launch but the goal is same.

However, after much ups and downs we are finally going to launch our long awaited 1st OCEP center by this month. I am sure this is just a beginning of a new era, sky is the limit here. I am excited to be a part of this venture.

The BUET team has decided to start its first pilot center at Mukundapur, Comilla. We’re meeting over phone tonight at 12:00a EDT to discuss specifics.

Started early at about 6:30, we reached Comilla town at about 9:45. Fetching a baby taxi we started for the destination only known as “BORURAR BAZAR”. With the severe jerking of the road (that is what they call it!) when we were almost sure that we are never gonna reach the school, it appeared standing right infront of us….

The first comment that thrilled me was “dekh dekh, computer vaira ashse!!” (look, look. These are the computer guyz!!). Seeking the voice I found a small boy of at about 10 or 11 who were glowing (literally!) with happiness that we came again! Smiling at him we went to Head masters room. He was a jolly person that i couldnt match with my previous experience of head masters!! (talking about my school life! :D). As we visited there before & they were quite aware that we are gonna provide them with the facility of computer education, they took us to the room as they mentioned as there computer lab (well, will be!)….

It was always fun to find intense faces peeping through the doors & windows with an expression of what are these aliens (!) doing!

As I’m writing this, a team of students from the BUET group is visiting and reviewing at least one prospective OCEP center, maybe two if time permits. The location of the first center will, to a large extent, be based on their findings. It is with much excitement and anticipation that we wait to hear back from them.

As Adnan Bhai mentioned, it’s been about a year since planning to take OCEP off the ground began in full earnest. You may have heard about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), which creates educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a specially configured laptop. You may also have heard about the Computer Literacy Program (CLP) in Bangladesh, administered by VAB-NJ and D.Net, intended to facilitate the access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in disadvantaged, mainly rural communities, particularly amongst children and youth.

OCEP is inspired by similar ideals.

We believe that computer solutions can be high-impact while being low-cost. We are confident that open-source software and solutions are capable of being sustainable and scalable. We trust in the spirit of volunteerism and see it to be the core of this initiative.

Tomorrow, we’ll know where OCEP’s first footprint will be. We cannot wait to see how much farther it will advance in another year!

We’ve gathered at Adnan vhai’s house and briefed about the current situation and we are waiting for the call from the BUET team.

The Open-source Computer Education Program (OCEP) project has been over a year in the making - we’re excited to finally start our first pilot project in Comilla. As term finals at BUET draw to a close, a team of student volunteers from the university will begin implement an OCEP center in a village in Comilla. It will be a month of hectic schedules, insane amounts of work, much anxiety, missed meals and lost sleep, but we do expect to have a functioning center at the end of it.

And with that end of the beginning in sight, we’re starting our first conference call with all of the Boston Group and most of the BUET team tonight now!