[Sugar-devel] [UKids] Re: The future of Sugar on XO-1s

[Adam Holt]

On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 11:40 PM, Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com> wrote:

>
> Hi Adam
>
> On 10 April 2016 at 22:05, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org> wrote:
>
>> On Apr 10, 2016 9:37 PM, "Dave Crossland" <dave at lab6.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > On 10 April 2016 at 20:35, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Just imagine if OLPC had not chosen to run off with $40 Millon in
>> community-driven revenue
>> >
>> > I don't understand this. What are you referring to? :)
>>
>> Give1Get1 revenues were approximately $40 Million. A listening
>> organization could have (and would have) taken a portion of that
>> surprisingly clairvoyant learning moment into its soul, divining its
>> community purpise, rather than banking it.
>>
> Any amount of revenues can add up to less than zero being banked. How much
> do you think was banked?
>
> If a purchase was $400, then to see $40,000,000 in revenue they would have
> had 100,000 orders. I've been diving into OLPC/SL history the last month or
> so, and I seem to recall (but have no reference URL to hand) that the 1st
> G1G1 round in 2007 sold 116,000 units and the 2nd round in 2008 only sold
> 12,000, a 10x drop. These figures are probably incorrect. I just found
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Foundation which has text for 990 forms,
> but no links except for
> http://wiki.laptop.org/images/e/ed/OLPCFAud-2007.pdf which shows they had
> $29M of net assets by 2008-01. Well, close enough.
>
> But in what way did they "run off" with this revenue? As a G1G1 round 1
> customer, I paid my $400 and I got my laptop. I don't think anyone who
> bought one didn't get one. Are you saying that some corresponding laptops
> were NOT given to poor kids as promised, and the foundation just netted the
> cash? :)
>

I have yet to meet those almost 100,000 kids, but 8 years is a long time,
so I will keep searching for them.  If mistakes were made due to lack of
international accounting maturity, that is to be expected in a young
organization finding its feet -- even if that never happens -- and another
organization if forced to replace it.

Teachers I work with in Haiti aren't surprised that same-day flights were
purchased for over $20,000 by OLPC high-up(s) in 2008, comprising more than
their lifetime incomes.  Teachers in Haiti can sometimes be more mature
than the rest of us, with off-list reality in their face every day.
They're intimately aware that lowercase "accidental" corruption and
uppercase "intenional" Corruption are part+parcel of human development.
While holding out hope that OLPC Inc, Sugar Labs & All will not be part of
Poverty Inc in this next round: https://youtu.be/OBJToHDbifQ?t=960

Kids in Haiti who don't have access to promised laptops understand that
Give1Get1 and http://laptop.org/haiti whores (donors in Canada & the USA
especially) were taken advantage of.  Why sugar-coat the truth?  Kids,
Parents, Educators in Haiti would much rather come to grips exploring
what's next alongside, rather than be infantilized yet again.  Do watch the
film if you take these issues seriously~

I could find nothing in https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/ for any other public
> financial statements. Where are the statements for the foundation and the
> association? Is the foundation still a going interest?
>
>> Nobody's saying the road less traveled would have been cake (I hope) as
>> many of the same Technocracy First / Human Education Later mistakes were
>> bound to happen, as we can see today in Wikipedia's leadership power
>> vacuum, some of us never learn naturally :)
>> http://mollywhite.net/wikimedia-timeline/
>>
> That's a fascinating link :) And this is great: "To suggest a change,
> email me or submit a pull request on Github."
>
> Wiki < Git
>
>> But 8 years later, Tony Anderson is 100% correct: an entirely different
>> road was right there in front of us, if we'd chosen to deliberate together,
>> in a united voice...
>>
> See, for me $500 is a small amount and 8 years is a long time ;) Recently
> I was gleefully amused to realise that one of the most proactive fontforge
> developers (fontforge is the leading libre font editor application) is 20
> years old now, can't remember what web publishing was like before Google
> Fonts, because it launched when he was 14.
>
> I'm fascinated with the history of OLPC and Sugar Labs, but I don't see
> any benefit in evaluating it positively or negatively. What happened has
> happened, and its important to hear what has happened, but only to inform
> what happens next.
>
> That different road is still here in front of us today! :)
>
> I hear your frustration about the past. Would you be willing to check your
> emails to public forums before sending them, to carry a positive tone and
> perhaps even with fun and joy, and language suitable for kids to read? :)
>
> Cheers
> Dave
>
> --
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
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> --
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>
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