James Cameron's engaging OLPC's emergent last-mile communities forthrightly (below) is *precisely* the ingredient that was missing in 2008 (evolution of<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Buying_XOs"> </a><a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Buying_XOs">http</a><a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Buying_XOs">://</a><a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Buying_XOs">wiki.laptop.org</a><a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Buying_XOs">/go/Buying_</a><a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Buying_XOs">XOs</a> was much later). Back in that pre-Twitter era when it was somehow considered Perfectly Ok and Normal to step on one's one community, as nothing more than pretty Give1Get1 fundraising whores. As Tony very accurately noted -- OLPC would be an entirely different creature today (in every regard) if in its formative years it had not eviscerated the principled humanitarian backbones of Richard Rowe / Calestous Juma / Larry Weber. Just imagine if OLPC had not chosen to run off with $40 Millon in community-driven revenue and community-driven int'l development, if it had had the Clarity of Purpose to Listen, alongside its very own boots-on-the-ground (Rowe & Juma above on Negroponte very own board, etc) re-investing in its very own last-mile community-driven Successes....... Take a look at how far the world has come full-circle a decade later, asking for exactly this grassroots-community-driven development Negroponte consciously (and often unconsciously, unknowingly) impatiently blockaded: <a href="https://youtu.be/OBJToHDbifQ">https://youtu.be/OBJToHDbifQ</a> <div class="gmail_quot<blockquote class=" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 08:47:35AM -0400, Dave Crossland wrote: > > On 9 April 2016 at 06:31, James Cameron <[1]<a href="mailto:quozl@laptop.org">quozl@laptop.org</a>> wrote: > > The XO-4 is in production. > > What's the minimum order from OLPC? :) You are asking for the minimum order quantity (MOQ) of the XO-4. I don't know, it's not my task, and I don't feel I can escalate the question for you. I'm an engineering contractor with specific tasks, not an office bearer or manager. The XO-4 MOQ could change day by day, as exchange rates, shipping, metal prices, component prices and their MOQ shift and change. Two of my tasks are firmware based production testing and first article inspection (FAI) approvals. Here's how some of the process works: A configuration is a set of component specifications; e.g. keyboard type, language, model, peripherals, storage, CPU, RAM, camera, wireless, battery. A stock keeping unit (SKU) is a unique configuration to be manufactured and tested. We have a list of SKUs on our Wiki at <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Manufacturing_data#XO-4" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Manufacturing_data#XO-4</a> An order comes in from a customer with a configuration. When the configuration is in our list, we use that SKU. Otherwise, a new SKU is added. An FAI occurs once for each SKU. After that, the SKU can be manufactured for other orders. Changes to the source of components in a configuration may trigger another FAI. An FAI does not list quantities. Quantities inform my customer support task. To provide support, my lab has representative SKUs. Having a sample of each component is critical for support. Having one of each SKU would be perfect, but prohibitive. So I have to get an idea of the quantities to keep the cost of the lab down. In the past two years there has been production of as few as 100 units of an SKU. The lowest XO-4 MOQ observed. But, as I said at the outset, that doesn't always hold true, and it isn't a number to be taken as a promise. If there is a serious purchaser, they should be talking to OLPC directly, not to some random stranger they meet on a public mailing list. ;-) -- James Cameron <a href="http://quozl.netrek.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://quozl.netrek.org/</a> _______________________________________________ Sugar-devel mailing list <a href="mailto:Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org">Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel</a> </div>