[Its.an.education.project] [Community-news] OLPC News (2008-05-04), Tech Team

[Edward Cherlin]

On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 10:16 AM, Kim Quirk <kim at laptop.org> wrote:
> A note from the editor:
>
> I have been reading the discussions this past week on the mission and
> direction of OLPC and OLPC's outreach to the community. I'd like to
> reiterate that we at OLPC are committed to create Sugar as an open source
> project, as it provides a great opportunity for both learners and for
> contributors. Sugar in combination with the XO hardware extends this
> opportunity even further through the mesh, power management, and robustness
> features of the hardware required for many of the environments where we want
> to provide help.  We have sold or given away hundreds of thousands of
> laptops running Sugar on GNU/Linux on the XO. We plan to continue to do
> that.

Thanks for saying so plainly.

There are a few residual questions about these matters, having to do
with Nicholas Negroponte's remarks about Windows-only XOs, and Sugar
on Windows as a Trojan Horse. We understand that having XOs that only
run Windows does not mean abandoning Linux on XOs.

> This year's Tech Team budget allows us to almost double our personnel
> in development, test, and support. We are very excited about being able to
> hire at this level over the next few months.

How about a Doc lead and some full-time professional writers and trainers?

BTW, who is handling the work that Walter Bender used to do on
keyboard layouts, IMEs, and country configurations? There is a rumor
that somebody is needed for this.

> OLPC has had an amazing amount of contributions from volunteers in the
> community in all areas including development, test, support, translations,
> documentation, marketing/messaging, and even business expertise. We truly
> value these contributions. What we haven't done well (at least recently) is
> to support people who are trying to help us.

Exactly.

> We need to fix our
> communications with volunteers and community groups. We need to be open and
> transparent without compromising the confidentiality of others that we might
> do business with. This is difficult but it is not rocket science.

I find it more difficult to keep secrets than to communicate openly,
but maybe that's just me.

>  I think we
> can do it. Sometimes when everyone is overworked, it is much easier to focus
> on the details of the day than to see the bigger problems.

It would be possible to offload some of that overwork onto volunteers,
if you asked.

> I intend to make
> some specific recommendations towards better communications in the next few
> weeks. Your comments, thoughts, and ideas are welcome.

I have no problem about OLPC management and staff keeping details of
ongoing negotiations with countries and other possible program
participants confidential. I am concerned about the case in which a
possible buyer has made its interest publicly known, and the community
would like to help plan with localization, teacher training, and other
matters that require coordination and outside support. I don't know of
a good reason to keep that part of it secret. I would also like to
encourage countries and states to make their interest publicly known
as early in the process as possible, so that the community can make
preparations to support the languages and cultures needed, help with
educating stakeholders, and so on.

For example, rumor has it that 19 US states are in discussions with
OLPC. I am aware of discussions with Maine (which uses Apple laptops),
Massachusetts under former Governor Mitt Romney, and Illinois HB5000,
The Children's Low-Cost Laptop Act. Are there 16 other states that
don't want public input on their inquiries? If so, somebody should say
so. But if any other states are willing to have public comment and
public assistance, then the community wants to be able to work with
the states and with OLPC on the necessary preparations. There was also
some talk of finding (apparently) established partners to deal with
states. The volunteers can be called on to create whatever partner
support is needed.

There are other matters that the community would like to discuss with
management and staff on a regular basis. Some of them are laid out in
the Wiki, on the Controversies page. We would prefer not to have these
be controversies. It appears that some of the controversies are due to
Nicholas Negroponte speaking in a manner which is easy to
misunderstand, and failing to clarify the matter when asked.

> - Kim Quirk
> Dir of Tech Team
[snip]
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-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay