Deployment Guide/Consultation

1. Consultation

In any OLPC deployment you need have strongly consultation with the school and community you are deploying to well in advance of any actual hardware or technical planning. Use some XOs to demonstrate the capability (make sure you demonstrate the connectivity and collaboration as well as individual activities), and get the school onside.

Make sure you have at the very least:

• The school Principal
• The teacher(s) who will have the classrooms of children with XOs

You'd also gain benefits by including:

• The appropriate department of education if possible. At least let them know about it if nothing else as their support would make a national difference in some cases.
• Parent/community support - you could hold an open meeting for the community to talk about OLPC and it's impacts before doing anything to demonstrate to them, answer their questions and concerns, and also to gain their buy-in and support for the children.

Ensure that you have clear knowledge of (or get clear knowledge of) the cultural implications of an XO rollout, and that you ensure appropriate expectations are set for the community and teachers who will be involved.

Also ensure that the planning of your deployment includes clear documentation and knowledge transfer for the local people, and that there is some form of support. You could use the OLPC support or even create your own if you need to.