Category Archives: Technology

OLPC and FabFi mesh networks bring Internet to Afghanistan

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OLPC is working in 9 schools and 5 cities in Afghanistan. Many of the schools have some limited Internet connectivity at home, but most families still don’t have Internet (though they may get GPRS coverage if they have access to a cell phone) in their neighborhoods or home compounds.

In Jalalabad, this is changing in part thanks to a mesh network run by FabLab Jalalabad. Through their FabFi network, many children with XOs and their families have access to the Internet (and Wikipedia) for the first time. Fast Company wrote up a good story on this, following the New York Times’s lead last Sunday (commentary).

Similar FabLabs with mesh networks have sprung up elsewhere, most notably in Kenya. I hope to see them spread more widely in Africa and Asia – it seems like a robust and scalable model for engaging communities in maintaining their own networks.

Narrative Interfaces for OLPC

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This Friday at 2pm EST, Scott and others will talk about how OLPC creates student-centric learning experiences, and how the software stack could become less shallow in terms of providing a narrative and journey to those experiences.

Those interested in joining are welcome to come to OLPC’s new offices at the American Twine building for the discussion. There will be streamed and higher-res posted video of the sessions as well. See Dr. Ananian’s blog for further details.

Sunlight is the best light: new Qi screens at Computex

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PixelQi showed off its new higher-res 10.1″ and 7″ screens at Computex this week.   By some accounts they are the fastest-growing new display technology in a long time; they are certainly essential for our students’ normal daily use in African schools.

And the Telegraph’s Rick Maybury lampoons the aesthetics of sun shields answers a reader asking why he can’t use his laptop outside.  Hopefully there will be more positive answers to such questions next year, as this sort of display solution becomes commonplace.

OLPC Canada reaches Maaqtusiis School in Ahousat

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Maaqtusiis School in Ahousat yesterday distributed XOs to every student and teacher, and hired a community “champion” to assist with any technical difficulties throughout the school year. This is a model I hope to see other schools follow – and hopefully we will hear more directly from those champions as the year goes by.

Ahousat is one of the 12 communities selected for the First Nations pilot project in Canada.  It aims to distribute 5,000 XOs to aboriginal children and teachers in Canada this year.

 

 

A Nepali hacker’s wishes for the School Server

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Abhishek Singh from OLE Nepal published his long and excellent XS wishlist, generating a long discussion on the server-devel mailing list (1, 2) and other discussion online.   He discusses some specific use cases for current and requested-future features, including:

  • Porting XS to new version of Fedora
  • Support for more architectures
  • Self-tests
  • Web content filtering
  • Shared Journal Backup
  • A platform for socializing
  • Some specific packages needed for the above.

On the list, Martin comments on the package requests, Mokurai weighs in, and Sridhar points out what OLPC-AU has been doing with their XS builds.

 

Nick Doiron returns from heav^B^B^BUruguay, learns from great philosophers

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Nick’s last post from Uruguay waxes poetic about the always-active Ceibal headquarters, recalls his first day in the country, and quotes from some of the great thinkers of our age.  Worth a read.   He may have less time for OLPC in the coming 18 months, but olpcmap is only getting better.