[IAEP] RFC: Supporting olpc-ish Deployments - Draft 1

[Rafael Enrique Ortiz Guerrero]

Hi all.


Thank you Michael and Pia for this..

I have to say that although these questions and concerns are indeed needed ,
they are only counting one side of the history, like asking what would be
the best for OLPC to give or the resources that OLPC can give..this is bad
centered,
OLPC deployments need more independence, the deployments run by governments
need to have straightforward relations with the volunteers, and volunteer
driven small deployments need more independence to manage it's own resources
and address and resolve the concerns and questions stated here.

If the deployments manage to have more independence from OLPC central,
i can assure you that OLPC resources wouldn't be so needed as they are now,
and can be focused in other tasks.

SugarLabs is taking this focus for it's deployments, to have federated Local
Labs with some common ground rules but with the possible maximum
independence. This independence guarantees real empowerment, distribution of
task and efforts, it's not only what SugarLabs can give to Local labs but
also what Local Labs can give to SugarLabs, in my opinion and experience
this is the best way that SugarLabs can support deployments.

For more info:

http://sugarlabs.org/go/DeploymentTeam
http://sugarlabs.org/go/Local_Labs


Rafael Ortiz


On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:14 AM, Michael Stone <michael at laptop.org> wrote:

> Folks,
>
> Pia Waugh (greebo) and I have spent a fair bit of time in the last month
> talking and thinking about what we can do in the next few months to best
> support present and future olpc-ish deployments (typically with XOs,
> typically
> running Sugar) and we'd like to share some of our thoughts with you. These
> thoughts are presented in draft form in order to solicit your feedback,
> which
> is eagerly awaited, and will likely be incorporated into future drafts.
>
> Regards,
>
> Michael
>
> ------------------------------
>
> 1. Motivation
>
> We think that many deployment-related needs are not being adequately met,
> particularly in the areas of:
>
>    * knowledge-sharing and the ability to benefit from others' mistakes.
>
>    * volume and quality of aid available for conducting deployments.
>
>    * bandwidth, latency, and SNR of channels to other communities which
> work
>      with deployments; e.g. other deployments, educators, software teams,
>      distributions, researchers, consultants, and volunteers
>
> 2. Use Cases
>
> We're particularly interested in addressing these situations and needs:
>
>      D1) I'm running a deployment...
>            a) ...and I need help! Who shares my problem? Who can help me?
>            b) ...and I want to do more! Who/what can I work with?
>            c) ...and I want to share! Where do I go? What is needed?
>
>      D2) I need to talk to people deploying XOs.
>            a) Where do I go?
>            b) What can I expect?
>
>      D3) I'm working on a deployment plan.
>            a) Where to I start?
>            b) What have I forgotten?
>            c) Am I using best practices?
>            d) Can I get a review?
>
>      D4) I need to know...
>            a) real deployment numbers,
>            b) maps,
>            c) examples,
>            d) photos,
>            e) techniques,
>            f) contact info,
>            ...
>
> 3. Existing Resources for Use Cases
>
> Before we started, there were three basic mechanisms for addressing these
> use
> cases:
>
>    1) read the Deployment Guide and the Deployments page(s):
>
>         http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_Guide
>         http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments
>         http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments_support
>
>    2) ask olpc-techsupport at laptop.org. (Only available to large
> deployments?)
>
>    3) poke people on IRC.
>
> These three mechanisms are problematic because none of them can be relied
> upon,
> alone or in combination, to adequately address any of the use cases listed
> above.
>
> 4. New Resources for Use Cases
>
> So far, we've created two new resources which help bridge the gap:
>
>    4) weekly deployment support meetings, with minutes at
>
>         http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_meetings#Meeting_notes
>
>       which get aggregated each month into
>
>    5) a Deployment FAQ,
>
>         http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_FAQ
>
>       similar in form and spirit to the G1G1
>
>         http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ
>
> We think that these two new resources, in combination with the pre-existing
> resources, will help us provide the next level of support for our use
> cases.
>
> 4. Projects
>
> We presently have several ongoing (interrelated) projects which you might
> like
> to become (more deeply) involved in:
>
>    P1) Keep improving the deployment support meetings
>
>        -- so far, so good!
>
>        -- your participation in these meetings is our best current source
> of new
>           content for the Deployment FAQ and for...
>
>    P2) Organize material captured in the meetings as FAQ entries
>
>        -- the meeting minutes are chronological, which is good for minutes,
> but
>           not particularly helpful for random-access reads.
>
>        -- FAQ entries seem like a good compromise between maintenance cost,
>           timeliness, and satsifaction of the use cases
>
>    P3) Update the Deployment Guide
>
>        -- The Guide is now ~1 year out of date
>
>        -- and it leaves too much to the imagination: just look at its
> advice on
>           critical areas like connectivity, content acquisition, and means
> of
>           participation in the larger community of 1-1 educational laptop
>           programs in general and XO deployments in specific.
>
> 5. Status
>
> Project P1 (meetings) is rolling along quite happily only one month after
> its
> inception but it could use your help in order to become even more vibrant,
> dense, and ingrained in the olpc-psyche.
>
> Project P2 (FAQ) is just beginning -- we've done a first rough-cut which
> you
> should review for us and help us edit down into something awesome!
>
> Project P3 (Guide updates) is just a twinkle in our eyes -- and it needs
> your
> help to fly! In particular, three different mechanisms have been
> tentatively
> proposed for how to accomplish the update(s):
>
>    a) By sprints, like the FLOSS Manuals sprints that created the XO and
> Sugar
>       manuals.
>
>    b) By accretion, like the rest of the wiki, performed on a piecemeal
> basis
>       by participants in the deployment support meetings.
>
>    c) By issue-tracking, like software releases.
>
> 6. Questions:
>
>   * Does this analysis hold water?
>
>   * Is there anything we could spend our time on which would yield a
> greater
>     return on investment?
>
>   * Are there any fixable roadblocks which prevent group ____ from
>     participating?
>
>         (e.g., pervasive use of IRC for meetings?)
>
>   * <your question here>
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
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