Category Archives: OLPC

Happiness is a warm bundle

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Activity and collection designers have gotten a lot of attention in recent days.  Some of the heated discussions at FUDCon targeted the rpm v. xo debate — concluding among other things that content bundles and installation for non-technical users are regularly neglected by packaging systems (as root access is required for a lot of package work).

Numerous related projects were mentioned [CPAN, Ruby Gems, autopkg, Firefox extensions], and Michael Stone and C. Scott Ananian both got their licks in.  At the same time, a recent discussion about “making activity designers happy” brought up other ways to simplify making and publishing activity bundles.

What are your own bundle stories?  Have you plumbed the depths of Activities/All and come up wanting?  Does the Software Updater do it for you?

XO Camp on TV

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… Justin.tv, that is.  See us at http://justin.tv/xocamp .  You can also call in to our conference line:  866-213-2185 (code 1671650#)

We’re currently wrapping up the first day, talking about the latest sweet changes to Turtle Art and a Portfolio.  Earlier we had a lot of discussions about requirements from deployments, future roadmaps; and reports from the weekend’s FUDCon and Sugar Labs and Codex Mag meetings.

Update: We’ve started with Day 2; check the wiki schedule for timing updates.

Read more details, and find slides, images, and transcribed Q&A on the OLPC conference wiki page.

Slash fic

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Ed Cherlin is a volunteer and community member.

There is a fairly long and rambling thread on Slashdot starting from the recent announcement from OLPC.  That discussion contains a lot of uninformed naysaying, but there are also some good posts.  I just spent some time there answering questions and correcting misinformation. Since most of the naysaying on Slashdot (the polite parts, anyway) is pretty much the same as what you read in the respectable business press, I thought it worthwhile to review some of these opinions, correct confusions, and highlight the good parts.

Now you may wonder why we aren’t hearing any comments on the layoffs. Well, that’s Slashdot. I have to take the comments as they come. This is what people are talking about.   OLPC is dead, according to the naysayers, killed by some combination of Intel, Microsoft, Asus, Arrogance & elitism, scale, or not selling to the first world.

    Greatly exaggerated, as Mark Twain put it. Curiously, none of the commentators said, “All of the above.” Each has a favorite theory, and is sticking to it. This smacks of The Blind Men and The Elephant, except in this case without the elephant.

    OLPC the organization has its share of problems.  OLPC “It’s an education project” is in great shape, from my point of view, and OLPC XO the product has had a fantastic launch year, in spite of hardware and software issues, high expectations, and so on. How many new computer models get a million orders in the first year? How many non-profits have ever received a million orders for a computer?  But let’s take these one at a time.

    Continue reading →

    Outside linking in : roundup

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    A lot of other blogs are linking here, and a lot of articles are linking to the wiki or recent post.  A selection:  ipodindia, dualiko, the-informer.info, ajun.org, inteeer gadgets, freegadgetnews, spotgadgets, gps-navigation, wiredpen, ontorebd.

    Internationally : e-day.it and pasteris.it, and a few German-language posts

    Yama posted one of his inimitable essays, pony and all, on the blog that everyone can edit.   John Paczkowski wins the prize for the catchiest post.

    Comment here if you want your own thoughts added to this list.  I’ve also seen a few good threads for pulling out more ‘best of OLPC commentary’ quotes… some of them with helpful reflections.  Those are worth listing, as well.

    Refocusing on our mission

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    It pains me to post this, and we have striven to avoid this over the past few months, but it is unavoidable.  We are streamlining our operations this month, cutting staff and contractors by roughly 50% (from every team) and laying out broad targets for the coming year. 

    This will certainly be much discussed at FUDCon this weekend and XOCamp next week; you are all invited to join those talks, near or far (Brian J is helping to stream the sessions).  

    Here is Nicholas’s announcement on the upcoming changes:

    Like many other nonprofits that are facing tough economic times, One Laptop per Child must downsize in order to keep costs in line with fewer financial resources. Today we are reducing our team by approximately 50% and there will be salary reductions for the remaining 32 people. While we are saddened by this development, we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries. We thank team members who are departing for their contributions to this important mission.

    This restructuring is also the result of an exciting new direction for OLPC. Our technology initiatives will focus on:

    1. Development of Generation 2.0
    2. A no-cost connectivity program
    3. A million digital books
    4. Passing on the development of the Sugar Operating System to the community.

    With regard to deployments:

    1. Latin America will be spun off into a separate support unit
    2. Sub-Saharan Africa will become a major learning hub
    3. [In addition to Sub-Saharan Africa] The Middle East, Afghanistan and Northwestern Pakistan will become a major focus

    Separately, OLPC will be dedicated to bringing the cost of the laptop down to zero for the Least Developed Countries — the $0 Laptop.

    Restructuring brings with it pain for friends and colleagues who are being let go. These are people who have dedicated themselves to the advancement of a noble cause, and to say that we are exceeding grateful for the time, the ideas, the energy and the commitment they have given OLPC does not — cannot — adequately express our admiration or our gratitude. The fact that there are 500,000 children around the world who have laptops is testament to their extraordinary work and is already a key part of OLPC’s legacy.

    The future brings with it some uncertainty and difficulty, but also the excitement that comes with the rededication to a cause, and a new path that will allow us to realize the moral purpose of OLPC. I hope that each one of you will remain supportive of OLPC, and its mission of opening up a universe of knowledge to the world’s poorest children living in the most remote parts of the Earth.

    — Nicholas Negroponte

    Please stay tuned – more updates will follow on the points above.  For now, your comments and feedback are welcome, as always.