Talk:Main Page

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Archives : 2006

Stratifying donation

I was wondering if when donating, a placard could be placed on the laptops, maybe with some text provided by the philanthropist (if not specified as anonymous). Maybe this breaks the spirit of OLPC, but it may help to bolster donations (for all those who have not mastered the art of altruism). 71.224.60.238 09:46, 7 December 2007 (EST)

Italian Version

Added Italian version of the wiki home page. I hope that it could be ok. I'll improve it tomorrow :)

--Frafra 01:36, 26 July 2007 (GMT +1)

French Version

I can offer my help by translating this page into French.

• Is the OLPC team interested ?
• How could I add the link in the translations bar when it's done ?

--EdX 16:38, 8 March 2007 (EST)

Ok, I found it alone, to add the link I will edit The OLPC Wiki/translations

--EdX 11:23, 9 March 2007 (EST)

Spanish link

[[1]] --Dagoflores 23:42, 16 January 2007 (EST)

Power options

 Walter, I ordered the laptop under the buy one give one program.  Will there be an opportunity to change out the battery for a hand crank (or one of the other off the grid options) later?  Specifically is the charging upgradeable and changeable once the laptop has shipped?  I agree with above commenter that the green cred is seriously diminished without that.  I want to be part of the army of change, by using mine at T-mobile enabled public venues where others can experience it first hand.  Without the hand crank I am just another desperate idiot trying to find an available outlet before I loose power.  Availability of power is not just an issue in third world countries, it's also an issue at/in airports, parks, beaches and planes.  With the hand crank/foot pedal/pull cord I would be a walking evangelist for the power of the XO to free all who use it from the tyranny of power outlets.  I can see my 4 year old saying "mommy, can my new friend billy pull the cord?"  --ExperimentsInHonesty 18:45, 14 November 2007 (EST)

Languages and countries

for Albania, India, SpanishWiki, see /Archive 1.

vetting spatial metaphor in the wiki

Actually, the OLPC Human Interface Guidelines do such a good job of vetting spatial metaphor and using it only to mean real human-navigable space, as is fitting for mobile devices, that it's a shame to have "/go/" in the wiki URLs, "go" and "here" and "site" (all of which imply non-spatial page flipping) in the mediawiki interface. There's a relatively good list of all such metaphor and consistency problems in the standard mediawiki interface and it would be beneficial to follow the lead of the OLPC HIG and remove all spatial metaphor that doesn't imply real motion through real space. The non-English speakers will thank you for it especially.

Substitutes worth considering: "/get/" instead of "/go/" (as in REST), "this wiki" instead of "the site", "this page" instead of "here".

There's really nothing more important than consistent use of metaphor.

Also lowercase is preferred, OLPCwiki is an acceptable name, OlpcWiki is not. WikiWords are a scourge that create endless namespace problems.

First URL link (www.fuseproject.com) nonfunctional

Please remove the link to http://www.fuseproject.com . It is neither functional with Firefox (1.5.0.4, X11, U) nor with Konqueror (3.5.2). The site immediately wants to open a popup window on Firefox and http://validator.w3.org/ shows 18 errors. This makes the site completely inadequate for the first URL given. --Frief 16:22, 8 August 2006 (EDT)

Your point is well taken. Alas, we don't have any leverage over what these guys do with their website, only the ID they are doing for us on the laptop. That said, I use Firefox 1.5.0.3, and while I don't like the fact that it opens a pop-up window and even though Tidy reports 21 warnings, I can view the site without any problems. I would prefer to err on the side of providing more rather than fewer links to our sources. --Walter 17:10, 8 August 2006 (EDT)

My mail to webmaster@fuseproject.com returned (550 User unknown). I cannot get access an imprint, so I don't know whom else to address there. From what I see with wget the site seems to require popups to be enabled, javascript to be enabled and macromedia shockwave flash to be installed and enabled. If OLPC was to specify a policy for URLs I hope that at least two of these prerequisites are not required. Given that the site deviates pointedly from what would be expected by an Open Source audience I would be surprised if the issues could be resolved within, say, three months. --Frief 19:19, 8 August 2006 (EDT)

Give One, Get One

Q: How do I get a laptop for my kids?

A: North American users can in December 2007. See http://www.xogiving.org/ for details. Please refer to Ask OLPC a Question about Distribution for a better explanation. Also, Ask OLPC a Question for other questions regarding the project.

---

Hard Questions for OLPC

There are a number of issues that need serious consideration in this project:

1) The features being designed are exciting. Given the creative commons approach, one can be assured that these features, as happened with Linux, will appear on systems from multinational corporations to student computers in all schools. The technological advances and advantages will be neutral and accessible to all...

We are encouraging others to adopt and adapt our ideas.

2) With the exception of developmental issues needing the size of laptops, the developed world is going small. Think Ipods with movies, MP3, cell phones and PDA's. Think cell phones in remote villages in wired environments. Think about the need to work and learn since one of the major issues for developing worlds is the need for children to contribute substantively to family income. Wearable and small is the trend. Think cost to governments to off set income loss for school age children not working.

It seems there are two threads here: one having to do with form factor and the other with child labor. In regard to form-factor, it is our premise that a screen of reasonable size and resolution is important to activities such as sustained reading, programming, and visual expression. I am not sure that wearable and small is up to the task. Regarding child labor, I am not sure that the trade off of giving children an opportunity to learn is a bad one.

3) While the aim is for the $100 computer, real costs which will far exceed the cost of the laptop, is the bandwidth. Think about cell companies, cable and satellite companies who give away phones to sell bandwidth and content.

I am not sure I understand the question posed here. The mesh has no additional cost associated with it and it lets the community more efficiently share whatever infrastructure is available, so I don't understand the comment about real costs far exceeding the cost of the laptop. That said, where possible, we are find partners to help defray the cost of connectivity.

4) Social impacts are changes in learning from individual to groups. Think smart mobs and mmorpgs. This implies changes in how students receive knowledge and are evaluated causing new paradigms to impact on the cost to revamp the education system.

There is no question but that the education system will change as a generation of children and teachers come to school with different skills and expectations about learning, collaboration,and communication.

The question then is "why not just take 1000 computers and do several tests of concepts in the field. The issue is not having the creative technology but understanding the issues that such a deployment will raise within the communities. How about a test in Bangladesh, Guatemala and an English, Spanish or French speaking community in Africa.

We have been doing "tests of concepts in the field" for 30+ years. The challenge is how to scale those experiences, not just replicate them yet again in small pilots. --Walter 17:56, 6 April 2007 (EDT)

tom abeles tabeles@hotmail.com 19 March 2007

For the children

I wonder the feasibility of OLPC,if there is no internet,it doesnt help to fill in the digital gap.Besides,For the poor country like China (where I was born),the rural educational expenditures are very limited,and some primary school teachers in the country side only earn 50 US dollars a month and the payments are often fallen behind,you may understand the major problem for the developping country.They just need to invest more money to basic educational infrastructure,not the expensive little machine.--193.54.193.1 23:20, 19 March 2007 (EDT)

Do not be mistaken; though wiki.laptop.org focuses on the machine, the actual project recognizes that this is about the learning, not the technology, and Negroponte and others have been driving the larger issues to that end. --ScottSwanson 16:25, 20 April 2007 (EDT)

Arabic Translation

I would like to translate those pages to Arabic. How can I do that?

Nalrawahi 14:24, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

Welcome! Take a look to Translating and if you then need help, please drop a note! :) --Xavi 14:37, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

Wiki feature request

I observe that one can edit without having logged in. Even when one fills in the comment summarizing the import of the edit, there is no clue there that the history will display your internet address rather than your name, if you have not logged in. It would be better if the attribution about to be recorded showed there. More of us would sign in. But even just a question like Have you logged in? would often be enough of a reminder for many of us.

My personal 'hack' was to change my Special:Preferences... under the Editing tab, I have the Show preview on first edit checked and unchecked the Show preview before edit box. That way, I have some 'visual clue' if I'm logged in or not when editing a page through the position of the edit pane... Cheers, --Xavi 12:47, 19 April 2007 (EDT)

OLPC's spanish translation

I am just starting to help the project translating to spanish and I see there are different versions for the acronym OLPC ("una laptop por chico", "un portátil por niño", ...).

Is there an "official" version? I think it is a main issue since the acronym often appears.

Welcome! :) as for the OLPC term, since I have sort of monopolized the Category:Translations lang-es, I have (personally) settled for the Una Laptop por Chico version, basically because the strict abbreviation (ULPC) would be much closer to OLPC—instead of ULPN. Somewhere I've posted a small point trying to raise the issue, but no answer came back. Either way, that is something worthile debating and adopting some kind of 'standard'. Another thing to 'debate' is the El/La Portátil/Laptop issue... Glad you joined! --Xavi 13:42, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

Thanks! :-) You are right: abbreviation ULPC is much closer to OLPC than any other possibility. I do not know whether it works so for the rest of languages. Anyway I will use "Una Laptop por Chico" until there is no official decision about it. Oki? --imedina 11:30, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

Xavier and Iñigo, I admire your devotion to translating the OLPC web site. You are doing a great job. However, I would like to open the discussion again regarding the choice of terms chicos versus niños.

I agree that chicos is closer to the OLPC acronym in English, though here are some points to consider using niños:

1. We are talking about children from ~ 6 to ~ 16 years old.

2. Using chicos on the website might sound cool to some ears, but if we are consistent it might not sound OK to anybody's ears if we use the term chicos for technical and educational literature, more formal settings, or even some casual settings. See examples

a.- "La Psicología del Chico"

b.- Los chicos prefieren aprender jugando...

c.- Los chicos y lo maestros aprendieron collaborativamente...

d.- Los chicos chiquitos enseñaron a los chicos grandes...

e.- El chico es por naturaleza inquieto...

3. Niños is a more exact equivalent of Children, and Chicos would be more like kid, kiddie, young one, young 'un (because Chico also means little), tot, tyke, and lad and is more local, regional, dialectal, familiar, and informal. That is to say, it is not the universal way of saying Children in the Spanish speaking world. I must also point out that both Chicos and Niños are masculine in Spanish, but can be used to refer to Boys and Girls or Children. There is almost no way out in Spanish other than Niñas y Niños, which you might consider using.

4. About the "Laptop" term, I find it OK, since we usually use Hardware and Software without translating it. However, some people or even countries are very much against these kind of borrowings. And the term "portátil," is not exclusive for "computadora portátil," but for any portable device. I think it will be impossible to obtain everybody's acceptance regarding how to refer to Laptop in Spanish, and of whether its masculine or feminine. However the term Niños is undeniably universal in the Spanish speaking world.

Regards, --Carla 13:31, 5 June 2007 (EDT)

Points noted :)

(1) "Niño" wouldn't apply in a homogeneous way either within that age bracket.

(2) True, spanish tends to be more formal sometimes, and "Chico" will not cut it there—although in more formal settings the term "Infantil" (ie: La Psicología Infantil) would be the chosen term

(3) Yup... I doub't we can come up with a 'universally valid' term... I think the best we can aim for is a 'universally acceptable' one—which would probably be "Niño": everybody can understand it, although probably not as the first choice.

(4) good point about the 'attribute' of portability, and we agree. Finally, the gender... spanish is plural=masculine unless all individuals are feminine... I wouldn't spend too much time in trying to export the PC-ness of english into spanish.

There are some ideas, or rather a debate-space in Translating/Spanish terms that hopefully we can use to communicate. Cheers, --Xavi 10:46, 11 June 2007 (EDT)

Open source?

"Give me a free and open environment and I will learn and teach with joy."

Is Open Source still a core project commitment in view of recent news? Thanks.--luke 12:39, 29 April 2007 (EDT)

• OLPC to Run Windows
• Will corporate greed kill OLPC?

Part of being open is being open to all. We are open to Microsoft, or anyone else, developing software for the laptop. That said, OLPC remains steadfast in its commitment to FOSS and, despite what you may have read in the press, we will be shipping Linux on the laptops. --Walter 16:33, 29 April 2007 (EDT)

Walter, Thanks for your reply. Appreciated. Excerpt from p.2 of the second linked article:- "Project founder, the former Director of MIT Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte, has now revealed that the organisation sent early production samples to Microsoft so that Redmond engineers could work out how to squeeze XP onto the diminutive device. Worse still, it is now reported that OLPC engineers have been working with M$ engineers on porting the proprietary operating system onto diminutive machine. And although the OLPC organisation still insists the machine will not ship with Windows pre-installed, it seem inevitable that Microsoft will seek to influence the deployment of computing power in the third world to its advantage."

So was there any such cooperation with Microsoft. If so, how does that square with your core commitment? Thanks once again for replying so promptly.--luke 16:41, 30 April 2007 (EDT)

We may have to agree to disagree. We certainly have not gone out of our way to encourage Microsoft, but we have not tried to stand in their way either. We have answered questions when asked (although, ironically, their policy of not allowing their developers to look at open-source code has slowed their development process--they have had to reinvent a number of wheels). As I said earlier, we believe that being open means being open to everyone. --Walter 17:54, 30 April 2007 (EDT)

"We may have to agree to disagree" - I'm just trying to find out what happened....and it seems from what you say that what happened was that OLPC were responding to questions when asked by Microsoft engineers. Take care.--luke 22:57, 30 April 2007 (EDT) //p.s. (added 03 May) - OTOH I just noticed this from Wired:The One Laptop Per Child's tiny XO computer got an added boost from its maker specifically to enable it to run Microsoft Windows, says the project's founder Nicholas Negroponte. Speaking with Wired News editor Kevin Poulsen over e-mail, Negroponte said that an SD card slot was added to the OLPC machine so it could meet Windows' minimum performance requirements. "The XO always ran Windows... that is why we added the SD slot," he said. Negroponte's comment was in response to Friday's news that the OLPC would hit the market later this year as a Windows-capable device. Even though the machines would ship with the OLPC's Linux-based Sugar user interface installed, the alliance with Microsoft seemed to be out of line with the OLPC project's commitment to open source software.

This will presumably have the effect of adding to the unit cost, as well as the more obvious implications - luke

I haven't seen the email and don't know the context, but the first-hand history of why there is an SD-card slot on the machine is: (1) We needed to add an ASIC to improve NAND access; (2) We took this as an opportunity to add a video camera contoller at minimal additional cost; (3) At essentially no additional cost, we added an SD-card slot to give the kids more options re storing their videos (at the time, we were only planning on .5G of on-board NAND. While it is probably a cleaner solution for MS to take advantage of SD rather than USB, there was not and still is not room on-board for Windows and there has been from Day One external expansion capability. --Walter 13:48, 3 May 2007 (EDT)

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Also, I asked Michael Calore a question to try and clarify his position, since his blog entries seem confusing on these matters. e.g. see this entry from the Friday, three days earlier. Maybe his tongue is in his cheek, but it doesn't seem to be even slightly amusing.--luke 02:30, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

A "participant wiki" for...participants form various countries?

Hello OLPC, I was just wondering:

There is a "Teamwiki" where members who manage the initiative (XO testing, in this case), logon to post details of test-related activities and issues. Thats really a great way to keep OLPC informed about whats going on.

My question is, will there be a "Participantwiki" where teachers and students from each country can share their experience online for OLPC as well as other countries (and their participants) can share the rich, diverse experience too? Such a wiki wouldn't be too different from the Teamwiki except in the sense that it won't be restricted. --Ahmad 09:31, 2 May 2007 (EDT)

Hello Ahmad -- please consider this the participantwiki; it is both a source for information about the project and a place for everyone to share their experience without restriction, from taking part in the project as a school or student, to mentoring schools and student and creating materials for the project. Sj talk 16:19, 22 May 2007 (EDT)

So whats the deal with the wireless drivers that use the marvel chipset? Are they still closed?

Looking for a classroom to participate in an XO exchange

Hi,

My office is considering an order of 20 XO's for a group of students in our district. Our hope is to partner with a classroom in a developing nation that also uses the XO laptops. We're willing to offer training and support for both classrooms, but need help in finding a classroom to partner with. I've searched a few sites intended for this type of project, but haven't found any XO classrooms. Suggestions?

Thanks Bjafeman 19:21, 7 December 2007 (EST)

My suggestion would be to contact your local Rotary Club. This could be an international project they might like to be involved with. Your local Rotary Club could have or develop contacts in a developing nation and partner with a club there for a project. If you need help, email me. ki6iyu

Translation

Hi, everyone

I hope to translate SUGAR and other Activities, which, by default, will be provided with XO to children, into Korean. However, I can't find PO files for them. Please let me know where can I find those PO files. ...Sincerely

What I've found is not the POT (template) but some PO files—check Sugar i18n#Sugar in your language it should take you the git tree. Also, you may want to look at Customizing NAND images. --Xavi 21:01, 30 May 2007 (EDT)

Only one question

Will pupils with an OLPC-laptop be able to browse the world wide web and will they be able to use sites like google or wikipedia!? Are there any screenshots with the olpc laptop and a browser??? Which browser do you use (Firefox, IE, anything else)? --Michael Reschke 19:39, 23 July 2007 (EDT)

The browser is based on the same underlying technology that powers the Firefox browser. --Walter 18:30, 26 July 2007 (EDT)

Of course this only works if the school/village has an Internet gateway and the education ministry allows students to access the open Internet and the country allows their Internet users to have access to foreign websites. In most cases you should not expect that the students will have access to the world wide web and will not be able to use sites like Google and wikipedia. Chances are, WWW resources are in a foreign language like English which the kids do not know. And the speed of access will be slow due to limited bandwidth which is due to the high cost of telecommunications in the under-developed countries where many laptops will be deployed. Brazil is a notable exception to this rule since it is relatively wealthy and has the ability to make the bandwidth available if they desire. But even in Brazil, I think they will prefer kids to surf local sites in the local language. If a school or education-ministry or country is willing to foot the bill for wide-area IP internetworking, they will likely want that access to be used to access relatively local educational resources, not random sites in a far-away foreign country like the USA, where people have different (and strange) ideas about how the Internet should be used.

Do you have any data to back up your numerous assertions? --Walter 12:15, 19 August 2007 (EDT)

Skins

Actually, I liked the old skin better. Wikipedia, or monobook, or whatever, is too generic. I know, I can change it for me, that's not the point. 190.56.23.118 12:31, 11 August 2007 (EDT)

Where is the OLPC Skin? :-( --84.153.84.236 04:32, 22 August 2007 (EDT)

To chose a specific skin you go to Special:Preferences under the 'Skin' tab. The OLPCish looking skin is 'ShikiWiki'. But I think you have to be a registered user. Xavi 10:03, 22 August 2007 (EDT)

Is it possible to buy an XO?

I was watching 60 minuts the other day and they clearly state that you can purchase one of these laptops as long as you donate another 100$ to buy one of the needy kids one...wich is understandable...but according to the hundreds of sites that ive been to there is no way to get your hands on one....i am disapointed...and confused.. were can i buy one... if its possible anyway....www.onelaptopperchild.com

US and Canada citizens will now be able to acquire one under the G1G1 (Give 1, Get 1) program in November for two weeks only. Check out http://www.xogiving.org/ for details. -- ScottSwanson 12:34, 24 September 2007 (EDT)

Distribution of Computers

I had heard about this project some time back, but my interest was renewed yesterday when I heard a story on NPR. But the real reason the story got my attention is because I am preparing to work on a project to equip a computer lab in a school in Nagpur, India. I am a member of the Rotary Club of Miami, Florida and through an intermediary received a request from the Rotary Club of Nagpur Ishanya, India to help them with this project. We will be doing this on a volunteer basis using our own funds. If we can get the computers for $200/unit, needless to say more students will have access to computers.

While I am only working on equiping one school in India, I thought about the potential of using the network of 1.2 million members worldwide in over 32,000 clubs established in more than 200 countries. It may be advantageous for OLPC to work with Rotary International [www.rotary.org] to distribute these computers to the children of the world.

Most developing countries do not have the resources to buy computers and if given the choice between providing food, potable water or medicine--a computer and education will always be at the bottom of their list. In 1988 Rotary International [2] had a vision of a world without polio. We did not ask the governments to fund it. We did not ask governments to do the work. We just asked them to allow Rotary to help their people--most countries did.

It has taken almost 20 years and about $600M; tens of thousands of Rotarians partnered with their national ministries of health, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and with health providers at the grassroots level in thousands of communities to vaccinate every child in every nation. At this point with a few exceptions Polio is almost wiped out.

In my opinion, a better vehicle to distribute these computers to the children of the world would be through a partnership with Rotary International. Volunteers and private funding has a much better record of meeting people's needs than through governments that often displace the support given to help their people.

You can buy machines at around $300 per unit in quantities of around 100, falling to $250 for 1000, falling to $200 for giant quantities. Look on olpcgiving.org for the 800 number for the Give Many program. I suggest that Rotary International should get together an order of at least 1000 computers - your club could give to India, you could talk to Palo Alto,CA club about giving to a library in the Yucatan, etc. 20 clubs giving 50 coumputers. If it worked out, you could look at scaling that up into the tens of thousands it would take to really saturate a target province / population. You should also make sure that the OS exists in your target languages first.

ps. Re goverment priorities: Here in Guatemala, there was recently a doctor's strike because the government had stopped buying medicine, whereas it would be unthinkable for them to stop paying teachers (a month or two late as always). Education is a real priority everywhere (which is not the same as saying that it is effective or well-funded, just that there is some money there).

OLPC/Curriki in Mexico

In our school, EGAP [ http://cmpublish.itesm.mx/wps/portal/egap ], we have been thinking about how we can integrate Mexico in the OLPC project. This letter presents to you our proposal, which is open to changes according to your suggestions.We are a multidisciplinary group of students (bios in attached document) who want to generate content for the XO in Spanish. After doing web based research we found Curriki as the best option to introduce us in the production of educational content with open source standards. Thus, we want to generate content that serves both Curriki’s and OLPC’s priorities.

Our project is “Geomapping in Americas’Elementary Schools” which involves creating an interactive map of the Americas with geographical and sociological information that would help teachers in social science courses for children between 9 and 10 years old. The map will consist of two layers, one with graphical content and the other with language. Thus although the project will be in Spanish it can be easily adapted to other languages. This map will have images, colors and designs according to every country, as well as specific elements like flags, structure and other basic information. We are going to use Flash as a graphical base for the project. Our project will have to day as deadlines; first, for the information content, we will have the text and class contents (20 lessons) in a publishable format by October 26. The graphical part of the project, maps and design, will be finish by November 15.

In order to construct the map, we will research geography education in 4th and 5th grade in Latin America, U.S. and Canada, text books, remarkable research and interview geography teachers.

It is important to highlight that we already contacted the offices of the PHD and the Master program in education in our university this to get feedback and permanent reviews of the pedagogical and instructional design of the content. Also, we will prepare lesson plans on geography which we will link to the map. Finally, we will make copies of the product for elementary schools in our city, in order to have monitoring capacity.

We look forward to hearing from you and will wait for your response so that we can incorporate any changes and suggestion you may have.

Best Wishes

Fernando Rojas Andrews MSC Candidate in International Law A00881041@itesm.mx EGAP Building, Sixth Floor.ZIP 66269 +(5281)86258366

Bios

Dante Sanchez He was awarded in 2003 with the State Youth Leadership Prize and Candidate to the National Award of Youth Leadership; studied a Master Degree in economics and public policy at the EGAP in Monterrey Mexico. Dante has work as a Civil servant, NGO's volunteer and assistant in educational institutions; also he has worked for the World Bank as a Development Marketplace Program Evaluator and collaborates in projects of Education Measuring for Developing Countries sponsored by the OECD. Specialized in regional development and education, has worked at the ITESM since 2005.

Fernando Rojas He is a lawyer who studies the Master in International Law in EGAP. He also is currently working as a Research Assistant in the Master in Public Policy. He worked in consulting projects for the Mexican Education Minister and the UN. He is interested in Open Source, International Tax Law, Computer Law and Justice. Also he took a course of Information Technologies at the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard) and a course of American Law at the Law Center of Georgetown University.

Hector GHF He has a young creative mind. He studied Marketing in Mexico at the prestigious School of Business of Tecnologico de Monterrey. He has worked for companies like Disney, Coca-Cola, and Kellogg supporting marketing strategies within; however he recently changed his administrative focus to a more creative approach working as an Assistant Producer in animated and live-action advertisement for international markets. He has worked as an independent illustrator for museums and children's books. Also, he freelances as a Graphic Designer when he has the chance. He has lived in Mexico, United States, and Argentina, this last being his current location.

Nestor Guerrero He is a Mexican Master in Public Policy and Politics student in EGAP. He is a Bachelor in Computer Science Engineering of Tec de Monterrey. Actually he is half time working as Research Assistant in a Cathedra of Public Administration, Government and Citizens. His principal interest areas are electronic governance, open standards in public information, web services in public administrations, creating public value through information systems. He enjoys traveling and working with people from different countries.

Ricardo Martinez He is an EGAP grad student in Public Administration, currently working as a Research Assistant. He did my major in Political Science and Public Administration in the Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM). He has been working in Governance issues and in Public Security. Also he took the Information Technologies and Innovation in Government Executive Program at the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard) in summer 2007 where he heard about the OLPC program.

Mailing list page

What happened to the mailing list link that used to be in the sidebar? It seems to have been removed in favor of the "IRC and Email" link, but that page has nothing about e-mail. —Joe 22:44, 6 October 2007 (EDT)

One Laptop in America

Moved question to Ask OLPC a Question/New.

OLPC Namespace, cleanup

cleanup ideea:

OLPCWiki: to [[OLPC:]] and split the FAQ and related questions into the core sections (FAQ/Our mission)

links from FAQ to community Portal and vice-versa

merge Talk:Main Page into Community Portal

merge Wiki with talk:Main Page

link to xoxo and other communit ynews from [[community portal]

link to static FAQ from the FAQ page

Sj talk 16:26, 16 October 2007 (EDT)

OLPC EN PERU

OLPC en Perú

Luego de la aprobacion por mayoria de la partida que autoriza la compra de laptops para las escuelas más pobres del Perú, les comento que un video que ilustra el piloto de Arahuay ha sido publicado en www.infordata.tv

Les adjunto el link para que puedan dejar sus comentarios.

http://www.infordata.tv/vervideos.php?id_video=52&categoria=tecnologia

Olpc news Website

Acessem Já Olpc News

Notícias,informações e análises... você encontra aqui!!!!!

"A Educação é a arma mais poderosa que você pode usar para mudar o mundo!"(Nelson Mandela)

Toronto-Manila Content Generation - G1G1 Window

We are early retirees wanting to foster the development of OLPC pedagogical content for the Tagalog, Inuit and English languages. We have enlisted the participation of Dr. Michaele Robertson of the University of Toronto School and Dr. Mercedes Rodrigo of Ateneo University in Manila. The OLPC-PH team and Mel Chua have also been engaged.

The project would entail the deployment of 25 machines in each locale, part in the developer community and part in a model classroom environment.

Our name is Prosser not Gates so we are hoping to realize this goal through the G1G1 window whereby the Give 1 machines would be dispatched directly to Dr. Rodrigo in Manila or to Dr. Robertson in Toronto for on-shipment. The Get 1 machines would be delivered to Dr. Robertson.

Otherwise we would have to wait until you achieve general availability which would be a pity.

We realize you folks in Boston are very busy but hope you will be able to find some bandwidth to consider this proposed use of the G1G1 window.

Truly, Yolanda Prosser (Retired Schoolteacher) G J Prosser (Retired Banker and Sloan Fellow)

Check out the give many program - [3]. You are talking about spending $10,000 for 50 laptops; under this program you'd spend $30,000 for 100 laptops (and would be donating 50 laptops to a location of OLPC's choice). That's the best that's on offer. Or you could just do normal G1G1 and spend $20,000 for 50 laptops. Homunq 22:15, 3 November 2007 (EDT)

Clarification: I don't know much about the project, haven't yet met Graham and Yolanda in person or talked with them extensively online, and can't speak for their proposal one way or the other, but when Graham mentioned it briefly via email I suggested that they post a proposal on the wiki (more detail always helps) and suggested the same thing as Homunq with the GMGM program for slightly later on. Just wanted to clarify that "engaged" doesn't necessarily mean "endorsed" yet. Mel Chua 19:45, 6 November 2007 (EST)

OLPC news blog

This topic grew to be too big, and has been removed to the discussion page at OLPC News.

Fiji

Educational Foundation for the Children of Fiji It's purpose is to build a All ECO- Conservation state of the art school campus

for 10,000 students in Fiji that has been entrusted for 550 years or the life of the school the ages of the students will be K-College. 

These students will be eqipped to go on to become the future leaders that God intended for them to be. Our Goals are to equip, encourage and empower. Carol Wachniak VP

Durable laptops for children with disabilities "schools"

What a brilliant idea, at last a durable computer for a child. I am so disappointed that these computers are not able to be purchased by the general public. Not only are these laptops brilliant for children in developing countries, but for students in schools with disabilities they would be a god-send. Please please make these laptops available to the general public and in Australia too!

Why?

Kids in developing nations are starving...maybe meeting their basic needs (food and shelter) should be your focus.

May be its time to educate them rather than just feed them. Let's look to future not just today. One of those kids will have a chance to change his/her community to be independent. Bahram Nov 24, 2007

I agree about the problem of starvation and malnutrition. And about the problems of war, disease, oppression, land mines, slavery, and all the others that deny our children livelihoods, health and even life. They are not in question. The question is not even what you and I individually should do. It is what we all should be doing. And that means everything, not just a bit here and a bit there. It also doesn't mean that we should work on only one part of the solution.

Someone needs to focus on immediate survival issues of food, health, water, war, and other troubles of the poor. If that's you, thank you. We need more of you. And somebody needs to focus on education in order to break the cycle of poverty. That's us. We need more of us, too. It isn't either/or, it's both/and.

It would cost billions of dollars to feed every undernourished child as soon as possible, and the money is not forthcoming from governments or private donors. I wish it were. We know that part of the problem for potential donors is that feeding the hungry day by day is only a temporary fix, with no end in sight.

It will cost billions of dollars to educate children so that they can get jobs or create agricultural innovations to feed their communities. The money is starting to come forth because this addresses the roots of poverty. One of the reasons that this motivates donors is that it promises to end poverty at a profit all around, so that we won't have to depend on donations to expand to every child on Earth.

I could show you a pro forma spreadsheet of the kind of calculations a government has to make in order to decide that the laptop program will pay for itself from tax revenues on new businesses, even at the relatively high interest rates charged to governments in developing countries. [Earth Treasury proposes to speed up the process, increasing Return on Investment and shortening the payback period, by teaching children how to connect around the world and go into business together.

As to what you and I should do, computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra has a suggestion that I find helps to clarify matters for me: "Only do what only you can do."

Most of us in the laptop project wouldn't be very effective at direct food aid. We find, however, that we are very effective at what we are doing, and nobody else comes close. Please ask yourself what you know that the children need to know, and come to the Wiki to tell us about it. If you happen to be good at food aid or agriculture or nutrition, speak up and we will give you every assistance to get your program out to the children and their communities.

Because collaboration on discovering now solutions is what the laptop is all about.--Mokurai 17:55, 13 December 2007 (EST)

Laptop Project

Wow, you read the news and see bad things - but I read about this in People. I commend and THANK Mr. Negroponte. You are part of, if everyone does some part - the world is a better place. May God Bless You in many many ways. When you are done providing each child a laptop, if every, please consider the United States Servicemen who are overseas but could not afford a laptop. But for now good luck and May God Bless You!

Good Luck with this project.

Good luck with this project! The brilance of this project.... Giving kids the ability to have a open system to explore the inner working of a pc. I know it helped me when I got my first Commodor 64 and opend it up and learned that the fuse could be blown and the system would not work. The process of researching how to fix that problem was very educational. Linux rocks as a os and the basic system this XO is gives the kids the development enviroment to tap into learning how to make it work. The the move to virtual pc os's like http://g.ho.st and others like it with Google going to virtual applications and massive server farms this thin client concept put into the hands of a population is so powerfull. And a crank to power the power the battery... so cool... attach it to a excercize bike and you surf and sweat and build your body at the same time.

Would love to provide my own child whith a labtop

Im a single mother and would love to provide my own child.I think your program is great. But i cant afford to donate.

Sorry, not much we can do. ffm 23:48, 8 December 2007 (EST)

Problem with telephone orders ?

I'm not certain if this is the right place for this question ...

I feel quite passionate about the mission and your project.

However, I feel a bit uneasy at this point. I ordered a G1G1 via telephone on 11/12 at 6:15 AM, EST. Although I received a confirmation number, I haven't yet received an email, nor is my credit card charged. I called the 800 number last week, gave my confirmation number and still haven't heard anything. I wish that something would be published on the OLPC website, since I believe that others are affected as well.

Hi ~ It looks like you've posted this on Wednesday, 11/21. A longer post on this issue can be found on the Ask_OLPC_a_Question page here. As far as I can see here on this wiki and elsewhere on the web, no-one who placed an order by phone has said that the charges have yet appeared on their credit card accounts. On the other hand, as you'll see from the post I'm pointing you to, JC reports that "The supervisor (who was supernice) to whom I spoke to assured me that my queue position is not affected by the delay in getting a confirmation or posting the charge to my credit card which should happen by Friday." ~ Hexagonal 16:07, 21 November 2007 (EST)

Send a virtual XO on Facebook

Facebook users can now let people know about the XO Laptop by sending a virtual XO as a Green Gift on Facebook. Green Gifts is an application that was created by BC Hydro (the power utility in British Columbia, Canada) to promote conservation. When the Give One, Get One campaign was launched, BC Hydro decided to lend the application to promoting the XO and letting people know that they Give One, Get One until November 26th. To encourage Facebook users to spread the word about the XO, BC Hydro is Giving One and Getting One itself -- and giving its XO as a prize to a Green Gifts user.

BBC coverage on YouTube

See here for a BBC piece on the OLPC in Nigeria. --Brianmc 04:35, 28 November 2007 (EST)

i wanna buy one loptop can you please tell him how

my email cellshop9@aol.com

thanks

GOOD LUCK MR N - YOU ARE A TRUE VISIONARY!

Italic text== Headline text ==I just saw this story on 60 minutes this Sunday and I too would also like to commend Mr "N" for his selflessness, his courage, his keen observations and well-thoughtout planning to find a resolution to a global problem. It takes a special person to set aside his career, his security and devote himself to bettering children all over the world. I have read the comments all throughout this blog and am honestly torn by some of them. He had THE vision (NOONE ELSE) and made the sacrifice to make this project a reality, so to sit at your computers at home and criticize his distribution decisions and to especially complain about having to buy another computer for someone else is distrubing to me. While half of the comments are good-natured like this one below - there sure were a lot of back-seat marketers out there. Alot of complaints because they weren't readily available to buy a persons child one who some of them sounded like they needed a lesson in learning patience or at least their parents did. This is a GREAT IDEA TO BEAT POVERTY. This project is not going to hand feed people. It is not welfare. It is not my tax dollars going to waste supporting someone else's drug habit, while the six kids they had to hopefully increase the welfare money, housing benefits, and food stamps, sit neglected at home at night wearing dirty clothes, hungry and unbathed because the water has been shut off. UPON FRUITION, THIS PROJECT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD. HE HAD THE VISION AND SO FAR IT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL; SO I SAY HUSH, AND TRUST THAT THE GENTLEMAN IS A GENIUS AND HE DESERVES OUR SUPPORT, OUR PATIENCE AND OUR PRAISE. Thanks Mr. N - you have restored my faith in possibility. With more people like you, maybe we do have a chance of saving things. GOOD LUCK. I noticed there are worries about the pledges for the last distribution - have you thought about going on OPHRAH - TEN TIMES THE VIEWERS AS 60 MINUTES - this is the kind of thing she loves!!!!! One show with here and awareness is there!!!!!! AND..............TO ALL OF THE WHINERS AND KNOW IT ALLS OUT THERE: Until you are willing to spend your own money, set aside your own life and make your own sacrifices, just HUSH.

Please Link Help to Main Page

I have an OLPC laptop and I can't figure out how to do anything, and I do mean this. Please link some help to the main page. OLPC may be a gem, but unless I can find help, I have a very cute paperweight.

I think it would be a good idea to link to Support in the sidebar as well. —Joe

I just noticed that "Getting Started" links to Support. I'm not sure that's the best choice of words, as it only covers a portion of the page's content. Users who have broken something or encounter a bug may not think to click on "Getting Started". "Support" or "Help" might work better, but then the link is less inviting to first-time users. —Joe 14:55, 18 December 2007 (EST)

Help for new users

If you received an OLPC XO through the Give One Get One program and are having trouble, see the draft manual. If your problem isn't addressed there, or the instructions don't work for you, you can ask further questions on the New Users page.--Mokurai 17:18, 13 December 2007 (EST)

Thanks, Mokurai. Feel free to suggest main page edits as well. Sj talk 13:48, 16 December 2007 (EST)

Boldness taken too far?

The main page has too much bold. I myself am known to bold things on occasion, but think we should tone it down here. Sj talk 13:48, 16 December 2007 (EST)

Promoting One Laptop Per Child

You might be interested that we have written an article about One Laptop Per Child, in a "The Journal News" Newspaper in Education supplement series, available at:

http://www.lohud.com/legacy/nie/NIENovWorldHunger.pdf See page 10 for the article.

The Supplement, "Shaping Global Citizens: The United Nations Millennium Development Goals in Action : Targeting Hunger" was sent to over 50,000 school children, teachers and administrators in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties, suburbs of New YOrk City.

The Public-Private Alliance Foundation, described on the same page, is working with several non-profit organizations to make available computers to community computing centers in the Dominican Republic, and allied efforts have taken place in Madagascar. David Stillman, Executive Director of the Foundation, and Board member Ambassador Francis Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic, recently attended the One Laptop per Child event at the United Nations.

Jeanne Betsock Stillman, Contributing Editor to the Supplement and Secretary Public-Private Alliance www.ppafoundation.org

jstillman@ppafoundation.org

I took My XO to CNN This Morning

My XO managed to get out of the house today. I took it with me to CNN for an interview I did this morning at the DC studio regarding a recent NASA astronomical discovery. I was getting to know it as I waited in the Green Room for my interview time. Everyone wanted to touch it. S

ee http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2007/12/donate_an_xo_la.html for photos.

Keith Cowing, editor http://www.nasawatch.com http://www.spaceref.com

Shipping confusion

I'm sorry to sound so cynical, but just as Canadian donors were being asked to be patient with the shipping process in a vague update (and I was willing to do just that, keeping in mind that the priority is third world children getting their laptops), I find that the shipments to American donors are now being EXPEDITED?!

How is this preferential treatment even remotely fair, Walter? Especially when it's being flaunted at Canadian donors right on the main page of this wiki, one right after another?

Oh Canada... We at OLPC are very sorry about the Canadian shipment situation: we underestimated the time it would take us to fully work out the import duties and taxes and we were not clear in our communication to you. We apologize for everyone with a child who will not receive a laptop this year. You can visit the laptopgiving.org website to download a gift card that lets your child know that an XO laptop is on its way; it is obviously not the same as a laptop, but we hope it helps in some small way. We are working on the logistics of getting XOs to Canada: everyone should have their XO in the January/February time frame. The team at OLPC wants to thank everyone who has thus far participated in Give One Get One. Thanks to the generosity of Canadians, more than 4000 children in the least-developed countries will be receiving laptops in early 2008. --Walter 20:39, 20 December 2007 (EST)

Checking our list... Some of you are comparing notes and noting that some later-day donors got laptops before Day One donors. (I can personally attest to this, since I was the very first person to order a Give One Get One laptop and I have yet to received it.) We did have a glitch and rather than lose a full day's worth of shipping, we shipped to some later-day donors. We did this only after first confirming that we would have enough laptops to ship to the Day One donors by December 24. (We also moved to one and two-day shipping to speed things up.) We appreciate everyone's generosity (and patience); we are doing everything we can to get laptops out as quickly as possible. --Walter 13:06, 21 December 2007 (EST)

I think it's time for an HONEST explanation to Canadian donors, don't you? Please! Do not ignore this, or delete this... Please!

disappointed

I believe I speak for great majority the people that you've disappointed by not being able to deliver your laptops on time for the holiday season. Yes, we're excited for the OLPC cause, but the reality is that you've broken a trust with great contempt.

Early donors that believed in the OLPC philosophy and signed up for this program in the first couple of days now are now being told new deliver dates of mid January. This clearly illustrates the falsehood under which you created this demand without the capacity to fulfill. You continued the ambiguity until three days before Christmas, and now when there are few alternatives, you explain you can't fulfill orders.

You've warmed our hearts thinking we are participating in something good for the holiday season, but you've left our heads cold and suspicious of the appreciation of our donations.

re: disappointed

This is an education project; which can wait until January. -matthew weigel

Some of us were going to take advantage of our vacation time to spend tinkering with the OLPC. I won't have the time or the leave to spend with it if I receive mine in January. That's a big reason why I ordered mine first thing on 11/12. The lack of communication, conflicting statements and lack of candor until there was a growing backlash is unfortunate has potentially jeopardized the project. This will be an educational project in a lot of ways than it was originally intended.

Canada's OLPC contribution

As a Canadian G1G1 participant, I was wondering if it were possible for all of the Canadian laptops be sent to Afghanistan. If this is possible, I believe it would be a very special gift from us to them. Canada has been at war in Afghanistan for several years now, and this gesture would mean a lot. What is being done here will change the world; and the relationships we build with those that have less than us are necessary in entering the 21st century. - matthew weigel

Four thousand plus rugged computers with good mesh networking, with the possibility of those being used in guerrilla warfare? That's scary.

Yes, guerrilla warfare... on ignorance!

Good idea. Do you have a website we can go to when you send yours to Afghanistan? It might catch on.

I'm confused. Isn't that what the the donation plan (aside from G1G1) is for? But yes, please post a link to your blog or site.

Please help the children in Canton, Massachusetts.

Hi,

Everyone involved in the OLPC, from volunteer to donor, cares about children and their well-being, world-wide. So I wanted to ask everyone to examine what is going on in our own backyard.

It just came to my attention that a school for developmentally handicapped children, The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, in Canton, Massachusetts, is allowed by the state to administer electric shocks, to children, as punishment, and as a means of controlling behaviour! And the state has extended this unethical power for one more year!

We are talking about the state abuse of children with handicaps such as autism!

Please! Find it in your heart to write the Governor of Massachusetts, and your local representatives, about this issue. Let's not allow this to happen to OUR children!

These children should be treasured, not tortured! Please, help to stop this abuse! - Brian Lee 70.49.160.147 06:12, 24 December 2007 (EST)

I found the articles here concerning this situation. http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=ca&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1125083453

Did you get your OLPC yet, Walter Bender?

We have not heard any more from you since you posted last week about the "glitch" and advised that alteration in the shipping was allowed because you were assured that there were enough on hand to arrive by Christmas. Well, Christmas Eve is upon us and a lot of us have not received ours OLPC XOs yet that we ordered on Day One of G1G1. Of course, since then a lot of us who ordered on the first day got an email advising us that we wouldn't getting ours by Christmas and we would get them by January 15th. The time has come for you to fully disclose all that you know about the glitch. Also, you advised that you had stepped up shipping to first and second day shipping to help ensure delivery by Christmas. Will you be doing this as well for those us who woke up early on 11/12 to place our orders first and will not be getting them in time for Christmas or are we not worth the extra effort once Christmas has come and gone. The CSR with whom I spoke today had no clue that you had upgraded the shipping and advised they were only going to be shipped Ground even after I directed her to your post home page of the wiki. The lack of communication is really going to greatly hurt this project if it is not fixed immediately. I wonder if countries that were on the fence about purchasing these are going to think twice with the fiasco that the G1G1 has become.

I have not received my XOs yet and if anyone who ordered on Day One also did not receive one, my sincerest apologies. I have not withheld any information and will continue to follow up with the distributor to find out the ETA for our XOs. --Walter 21:52, 25 December 2007 (EST)

Thanks for the information, Walter as little as it may be. You seem to be the only person connected with the project willing to communicate this information to the public. We are getting more information from you than the customer service representatives on the toll-free line after we've been waiting on hold with them for far too long and they seem helpless to pass this information to Brighstar to get those orders prioritized over the orders that were placed much later that have already shipped ahead of the November 12th orders. From what others have reported on other blogging sites devoted to the OLPC, this appears to be bigger than a simple "glitch". Also, they need to change they message on the toll-free number as it continues to mislead the customers that they laptops are shipping the laptops on a first come, first service. The link to tracking the status of the orders is useless as it continues to report to those of us who have confirmed orders placed on November 12th that the reference number and e-mail addresses are invalid. I think all of this is going to not only deter individuals from participating in the G1G1 program but it could potentially deter other organizations from participating in the OLPC when they see how this situation has the appearance of being mismanaged. Now that orders placed as late as early December were delivered before Christmas, the patience of many unfulfilled first day orders is on thin ice.

I think most of us G1G0 1st day'ers have figured out by now what the "glitch" was. Obviously, the data transfer from Paypal/OLPC to Brightstar was faulty. During the batch review of addresses, something went wrong. In the time it took to resolve, that batch of people was skipped and the next batch of valid orders was filled. The comments about making sure there were enough laptops to cover this may have been true but Brightstar is doing it's own thing without supervision by OLPC. I'm sure they got a file of names and a tractor trailer full of XOs and it was up to them to put the two together. The order they're using to deliver surely is not based on ordering position but instead to minimize their costs.

OLPC can't reveal this because it would demonstrate either their lack of oversight or the indifference to 1st day orderers. Remember they're not doing G1G1 in response to folks requests - they're doing it so they can have enough orders so that their vendor has enough volume to make it worthwhile. Recall all the country orders that didn't go through. I think their big mistake was undersestimating the amount bad press and comments this has generated. The one group of people they shouldn't have pissed off was the 1st day order folks - they are the most motivated.

The offer of an e-card was yet another slap in the face. Unless OLPC does something substantive (for me, I'd like to get a free pull charger or maybe another AC adapter) people will continue to complain even after they get their XO. 71.58.75.37 21:09, 26 December 2007 (EST)

I actually wish I wrote the previous paragraphs. I agree with much of what is in there and they are far more sophisticated than the little sarcastic e-mails I sent to OLPC. I only wish it wasn't anonymous. I am old school with regard to standing behind your words.

I was planning on proudly helping with some e-books. Yesterday, I converted about 50% of the first work to pdf pages using openoffice and will convert from there to djvu format. That took a lot of time, but the content is quite good, a free web guide to making classical guitars that I helped a friend cook up a bunch of years ago.

I used the word "was" above because while I will still contribute and OLPC will still get content out of me I am not going to be proud about it. If the organization is intentionally not releasing what happened, I am not proud to be associated with that. If the organization doesn't care, I am not proud to be associated with that. And if the organization doesn't appreciate their responsibility with regard to the situation, I definitely cannot be proud to be associated with that.

Things went wrong with the distribution of the OX laptops for the G1G1 program. Now someone at OLPC with the actual facts such as order databases etc, should call the shipping company and see what happened, then let it be known what happened.

I will help with this effort because as a teacher I believe that education is key to turning around many of the problem areas of the world. I want to be proud of this organization and not ashamed.

--Cdfps 23:34, 26 December 2007 (EST)

Love my XO Merry Christmas from So. California

I received my XO, I am sitting in Starbucks learning to use the how to navigate the through the screens. I showed it to my friend who is a kindergarden teacher and she wants for me to bring it her class to show her kids. She said the key board and color was greatfor kids to use. Great job XO people!!!!!

Thanks, Rod :)

ggsgsfgdgg