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!