OLPC Deployment Principles

Draft principles for the deploying the XO laptop in communities

• The XO Laptop should be deployed through a process of community consultation; should only proceed with assent of the entire community, taking account of their needs and concerns; and should be fully integrated into existing systems and tools

• Without compromising child ownership or education, access to the XO Laptop should be available not just for the child, but the family and the community

• Communities should develop their own principles and guidance for coordinating communal use of the XO Laptop

• Where appropriate, children should be included and encouraged to actively participate in using the technology for whole-of-community actions and projects

• The technology should be available to contribute to community efforts and solve community problems and not be leveraged for private personal profit or commercial gain

• Knowledge and data generated with the laptop is in the public domain, and needs to be freely available and shared

• Without discouraging community-level market activity which support sustainability – such as microfinance, technical services, spare parts repairs and maintenance – communities should put in place disincentives to the emergence of a secondary commercial market for the XO.

• Communities should share local knowledge, best practices and lessons learned with like communities and within their sub-regional, national and regional contexts.

• Deployment should, wherever possible, proceed in alignment and harmony with existing regional and national efforts on education for sustainable development, and should be designed to strengthen and enhance those efforts.

- Developed for further discussion at OLPC Asia Learning Workshop, Bangkok, August 2008