Virtusa Supports One Laptop per Child Program

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Virtusa Corporation, a global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, has initiated a novel pilot program towards supporting the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, a UN endorsed Open Source proje

Virtusa Corporation, a global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, has initiated a novel pilot program towards supporting the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, a UN endorsed Open Source project. Through the Virtusa Tech Reach initiative, the company is leveraging its Quality Assurance (QA) expertise and practices to help improve overall product stability of OLPC laptops at zero cost to the OLPC initiative.

Open source software is a software whose source code is openly published, often developed through voluntary efforts and is usually available at no charge under a license. However, many software testing teams are paying over the odds for highly priced software test automation tools.

As part of the support, Virtusa has done a combination of both software and hardware testing on the new XO-1.5s laptops, and multiple versions of their customized Redhat-based operating system. The team has worke

d on 12 laptops by dedicating 40 man-months so far. The testing has resulted in 800+ test scenarios for the laptops.

According to Internet Telecommunication Union (ITU), India and Sri Lanka have a low internet penetration of about 7% and 5.5% respectively. With an objective to reduce this digital divide, the OLPC program provides each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful and self-empowered learning.

Targeted at children from ages 5 to 12, the open source software provides them an opportunity to fully own the laptop, which is an open source machine. The childrenand their teacherswill have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.

Therefore, OLPC will not only revolutionize the way children learn, but will also scale up the eco-system of sharing between diverse set of communities existing in these countries. Kerala a