[IAEP] XOs used in primary elections in Uruguay

[Yama Ploskonka]

A generally private-but-the-taxpayer-pays-expenses company in Uruguay,
Conex, is said to have charged the Electoral Court US$ 2 million for
software that was used in the recent primary elections in Uruguay.

Central to this was the use of XO laptops, locally knows as "Ceibalitas"

Now, in the middle of a pass-the-buck media war, the XO's filled-up
memory and in some circumstances slow response are blamed for some
issues during the counting of votes and the data transmission to Montevideo.

Conex insists those problems had an easy solution that insufficiently
trained users did not follow.

Connectivity problems, lack of extension cords also occurred, among other.

My opinion is that this was a valiant attempt to use the XOs for Real
Life needs.

Also, I would like to see Conex upstreaming some of what they charged (I
have no knowledge of any upstreaming that has happened by Uruguay in
many years, and over a million XOs, except in a courageous and devoted
individual basis) for the "free" operating system and software that they
got - though I agree that the current browser is very heavy, and slow
responses and bad connections are obvious results.
Maybe if they had developed a lighter browser - maybe even a text based
one.
Since an efficient system or UX has seldom been a priority in XO/Sugar
software development (looks and ideology preempt UX), it is possible
they never thought of such an option.

Too bad, since originally the Ceibalitas were to be "it" for the
National Elections in October. THAT would have been a great thing, IMHO.


Link to article (Spanish)
http://www.elpais.com.uy/informacion/organismos-se-culpan-demoras-eleccion.html

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