School server

When we deploy one laptop per child, we must also provide the infrastructure necessary to make these laptops useful. These laptops were never meant to be complete self-sufficient, instead they require periodic connectivity to centralized services and shared resources.

A central component of this infrastructure are services supplied by a local school server. These are persistent services required by OLPC laptops which, while conceivably implementable in a fully distributed manner, are more economically provided by a centralized local resource.

The functions provided by this server are open to debate, but at a minimum it provides internet communication and storage resources to the school's wireless mesh.

A single school server is designed to support between thirty and sixty students. An open area of discussion is how several of these are combined to support larger schools.

Currently, the School server is described by these documents:

• The Server Specification describes the School Server hardware and software platform
• Server Services described the services supported by the School Server
• Server Discussion describes services and enhancements possibly supported by the School Server