Manuals

A manual for Group 1: a Simplified users guide is being developed.

A second manual for them : via Nortel LearniT

with videos...

A manual for Group 0: including people who just want to know a bit more about the laptop, is available from our demo library. (to be wikified)

History

Some early discussion about a manual with Asher Heimermann were very useful. See also contributions by Anne Gentle, Todd Kelsey and Ed Cherlin on this wiki.

Technical audiences

There are at least four technical audiences:

Group 0: All people who just want to know a bit more about the laptop

Group 1: Kids/novices - tutorials, self-tour, etc.

Group 2: Teachers/parents/adults/etc. (people developing/presenting content, facilitating activities, etc.) There's a lot of crossover between Group 1 and Group 2, especially in the beginning stages of the program. - tutorials, activities, etc.

Group 3: 1st-tier support (site experts, server/internet connection maintainers, etc.) - people representing the site. There's a lot of crossover between Group 2 and Group 3. - "training" program as part of rollout; needs to define roles/responsibilities/expectations as well as technical stuff. See Deployment_Guide pages.

Group 4: 2nd-tier support (server installers, troubleshooters/fixers, etc.) - people representing the organization(s) deploying the olpc program - again, "training" program as part of the rollout. Similar coverage of roles/responsibilities/expectations, though with a more technical bent than the Group 3 stuff. See Deployment_Guide pages.

There may be additional, more technical audiences (hackers, developers, etc.); because of the self-supporting nature of the program, this group would probably best be served by a wiki/listserve, etc.--open, bidirectional communication.

Startup sheets

A "startup sheet" for support and maintenance should probably cover a few basic things. Sheets for a few audiences; at least groups 2 (config and troubleshooting) and 3 (distributing) above.

Basics

• Care and feeding of the laptop (don't leave it out in the rain, don't jump up and down on it, etc.)
• First-time use (hopefully OLPC has come up with a coherent out-of-box scenario)
• How to charge up the laptop, and how to know when it needs charging. (This could be a new concept for many people in your target audience)
• How laptops link to each other in a mesh, and how they link to a server for Internet access
• How to access a browser and type in a URL--such as the support URL for OLPC.

What happens if the installer can't establish an Internet connection? How will that be handled?

Mailing List

There is a mailing list with weekly manual/documentation updates (the olpc library mailing list): [1]