IIAB/FAQ

How does XS Community Edition help?

Read about Internet-in-a-box and building your school's very own ebook library below. We each have the power to bring a (generally free) Digital Library of Alexandria into the hands of all.

More generally, a School Server brings your classroom/school laptops together, communicating & coordinating learning in ways that deeply empower kids, teachers and community. Inspired by OLPC's XO laptops and the Sugar Learning Platform, but serving all!

Where are the docs for the latest release?

Please see the "Installing" and "Configuring" sections off http://schoolserver.org/0.3

What hardware should I use?

XSCE (XS Community Edition) runs on many different hardware platforms, listed below.

Deployment Managers: an all-inclusive, tough and lower-power unit (great for developing world) is expected later in 2013, using resilient TrimSlice devices. Please check back in coming months!

Technical/DIY Implementers: roll your own on XO-1.5, XO-1.75, XO-4, x86 and x64 -- with experimental support for XO-1 and Raspberry Pi also increasingly possible.

What can I do with ebooks (Pathagar) and Internet-in-a-Box ?

Starting around August 2013 XSCE 0.4 should allow you to build a great collection of electronic books for your school (thanks to Pathagar) alongside the incredible Wikipedia-and-then-some resources of http://internet-in-a-box.org -- that permit entirely new opportunities for semi-connected schools and offline libraries worldwide.

We'd like educators' suggestions especially: how should kids best take advantage of these crown jewels of learning, eg. using their XO's browser in places like?

http://schoolserver.org/maps
http://schoolserver.org/books
http://schoolserver.org/library
http://schoolserver.org/khanacademy

How do I get Internet-in-a-Box updates every few months or semester?

Great question: the magicians behind http://internet-in-a-box.org anticipate this will be critical. Several people are working on streamlining this process, ideally with an on-demand service available on different continents, to wipe your terabyte/external hard drive clean with the latest free maps/encyclopedia/books/video lessons for a very small shipping/service fee. Keep in touch!

How do I provide Wifi (wireless) to all my kids?

Recommendations coming, whether you offer Internet or not, filtered or unfiltered. Please join the http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel mailing list and ask us all there, thanks!

How do I provide Solar Power to my school or orphanage?

Recommendations coming. This is a very hard question depending on the growth path of your electrical needs, maintenance options within the country in question, etc. For now, please review http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_Solar and http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Battery_and_power