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: <a href="http://sugarlabs.org/go/DeploymentTeam">http://sugarlabs.org/go/DeploymentTeam</a> <a href="http://sugarlabs.org/go/Local_Labs">http://sugarlabs.org/go/Local_Labs</a> Rafael Ortiz <div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:14 AM, Michael Stone <<a href="mailto:michael@laptop.org">michael@laptop.org</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> 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):         <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_Guide" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_Guide</a>         <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments</a>         <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments_support" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments_support</a>    2) ask <a href="mailto:olpc-techsupport@laptop.org">olpc-techsupport@laptop.org</a>. (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         <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_meetings#Meeting_notes" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_meetings#Meeting_notes</a>       which get aggregated each month into    5) a Deployment FAQ,         <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_FAQ" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_FAQ</a>       similar in form and spirit to the G1G1         <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ</a> 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!) <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> </blockquote></div>