Talk:Deployment Guide

I wonder where I can see the stages of XO deployment all in one place. What I mean is, Where did they go first, and how many? How many countries now, and how many kids own them?

Some day I will find the time to update the map... Uruguay has been rolling out in rural communities since last November; Peru is just starting—with a target of reaching 6000 one-room school houses in the most rural regions by Q3 2008; Mexico is just gearing up, as is Mongolia, Haiti, etc. --Walter 12:02, 21 March 2008 (EDT)

Walter, I believe that you need to hire some staff. We have been getting conflicting stories about the Mexican purchase and deployment. Where is the straight story on this Wiki? How many units, on what schedule?--Mokurai 20:21, 24 March 2008 (EDT)

Not sure how staffing and rumor control are correlated. 50K laptops to Mexico; deployment starts soon. --Walter 20:44, 24 March 2008 (EDT)

A Spanish version of the deployment guide would be very useful. There was a question about buying laptops from an NGO in Argentina. --Cbigenho23:26, March 24 2008 (PDT)

FYI, we are trying to work out a related algorithm for deployment decisions, mostly related to infrastructure and the school server.

Preliminary ideas are posted at:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Scenario_taxonomy

Thanks,

Gregorio 09:24, 27 March 2008 (EDT)

Navigation

This is clearly intended to be read sequentially, so I'm going to add Next Section links at the bottom of each sub-page to improve read-through navigation. This will work for every page but Glossary, so I'll leave that one out. Cjl 20:49, 26 March 2008 (EDT)

It would work for Glossary if I made a Deployment Guide/Glossary page with Deployment Guide header and footer with the body of Glossary as a transcluded page. I'll put an example of this at Deployment Guide/Glossary/temp to test the transclusion formatting. I have not linked it into the navigation yet. Cjl 19:04, 31 March 2008 (EDT)

Good idea. I think should work by inclusion. If it doesn't work, try making the Glossary a subpage like the others and then use a redirect from the original. --Walter 19:06, 31 March 2008 (EDT)

The result is not exactly as I would like it to appear. It would be nice to -noinclude- the templates and TOC from Glossary, but I'm not exactly sure how to arrange that. If someone with more wiki transclusion experience could make some edits, this might just work out. It's less than pretty as it is right now Cjl 19:23, 31 March 2008 (EDT)

I did some testing and I think I have it. By bracketing the body of Glossary with <onlyinclude> and </onlyinclude>, just inside the template assignments, the desired effect is achieved, without any impact on Glossary. I'm going to be bold and make these edits as there is agreement on principle. Cjl 22:11, 31 March 2008 (EDT)

Content Development?

Shouldn't content development be part of the deployment guide? Every country wants to be able to develop constructivist content that meets their particular needs. Berrybw 11:49, 8 April 2008 (EDT)

It is a good point, but I am not sure what to say except: See Content bundles for details on how you can convert existing media assests—books, websites, multimedia, Etoy project files, etc.—into a content bundle that can be installed on the XO laptop. --Walter 12:50, 8 April 2008 (EDT)

Maybe we should include more references to collections, a la, [1]. --Walter 15:17, 11 April 2008 (EDT)

10 Communication - email lists

Membership on a list or wiki should be no more than one form, one email confirmation, and hitting "reply" should by default get your answer to the whole list. This might change for some very special lists that need controlled traffic, but nothing more complicated that this should be the default. For existing lists you can participate in see http://lists.laptop.org

BTW, would be nice to have there info on how to contact each list admin, and how to request a list (yes, those on the know are told to contact help@laptop.org, and those even more in the know get Samuel direct. If a noob makes to the lists page, it is not clear what to do. Or emailing mailman is the way? I'll test that right now)

A key element of deployment success is to establish a communication channel with OLPC. Use the e-mail lists (server and devel have been the most useful for me) and you can try help @laptop.org and community-support@lists.laptop.org too.

I also recommend that you establish some relationships and communication channels with people working for OLPC and build a community of volunteers that can provide support. I'm not sure exactly how you make contacts with OLPC workers but you can try scraping e-mail addresses off the lists and contacting people directly. Gregorio 08:53, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

Connectivity Suggestions

Make sure you decide in advance what kind of internet access you will have in the schools. If you will use a wireless access point make sure to test it and in particular test it with the number of XOs which will be using it to connect to the internet. This is a list of APs http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Wireless_Access_Point_Compatibility that have been tested. However, as of this writing all these tests were for a single XO. Try e-mailing the server list to get the latest on what is working in schools with many XOs.

See also the school server section. Determine where the school server will sit (e.g. in the school or over a Wireless LAN or WAN from the school). Make sure you track the BW between the XOs and the XS and between the XS and the internet.

Decide if you will use mesh networking. If so (I believe that OLPC assumes people will use that) make sure you have a school server and decide if you will use an active antennae (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Active_Antenna_Reprogramming) or a wireless AP.

Mesh connectivity is a very active area of development so stay close to the latest test results: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Test_Config_Notes#Wireless_.26_Network and make sure you share questions and results with the devel and server lists.

Gregorio 08:58, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

School Server Suggestions

Decide if you need a school server. Make sure you have a budget and power in the school to support it. See also connectivity suggestion above. If you want a school server (recommended), build a list of software that you will use on the XS. Here is one link to what it can do: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Service_Description

Here is a long list of possible uses for the XS. Its a rough working page where we flushed out ideas for what the XS would do in Nepal: http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=Nepal:School_Server_Specification

Here's a better formatted explanation of what Nepal deployed: http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/123

Here's a link to installing the XS: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Installing_Software#OLPC_XS_160

Here's a link to how to build a Fedora machine with LAMP modules:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/InsideSystemStorage?entry=understanding_lamp_platform_for_web

More school server links available at: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server#XS_Documentation

Make sure to use the server list communicating what you do and any questions you have.

Gregorio 09:15, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

Logistics Suggestions

Put a plan in place to test the XOs when they arrive. Here is an example: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Nepal:_XO_Testing_Plan

Don't underestimate the effort needed to create a custom image. Unless you are using the supported build (either 656 or 703 as of this writing) with absolutely no changes you will need to research how to make any changes.

Check the appendices on this guide. Lots of good added detail is there.

HTHs

Gregorio 09:22, 2 May 2008 (EDT)