Talk:Repair centers

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This and many other pages unrelated to the support FAQ are being tagged with that header. We need separate headers and navigation for repairs and local SIGs. --Sj leave me a message 10:41, 21 January 2008 (EST)

These are draft discussions. Please feel free to comment, contribute, add, etc.

Next steps

Assumptions

  • "Repair centers" can refer to individuals (including SGers), schools, nonprofits, companies... any group interested in helping people get their XOs fixed.
  • Repair centers can charge, be free, whatever they want financially.
  • Repair centers do not get marching orders or funding from OLPC-the-nonprofit. (Financial and logistical independence.)
  • Repair centers are an educational process.

Program goals

  • Minimize shipping
  • Minimize bottlenecks
  • Minimize necessary infrastructure - "we're in business to put ourselves out of business"
  • Maximize user control and choice
  • Maximize available service
  • Encourage peer to peer repair support - "repair local act global"
  • Any given XO owner should have at least 3 different routes to repairing their laptop, including fixing it themselves. (Corollary: tools for repair should be available, as well as parts.)
  • Anti-vandalism repair program design - make it hard to cheat people and easily for anyone to track down and correct it, without putting legal/financial responsibility on OLPC itself.

Legal stuff

  • OLPC is not liable for anything repair centers do. The burden is on repair centers and users to understand the legalities behind repair-related liabilities in their country.
  • We should get volunteers to research and compile guides to relevant legal information for various countries repair centers might be starting up in (do this on the public wiki).
  • We must make it clear to potential repair shop starters/workers that they will be held responsible if they break stuff; OLPC can't help them.

Rights and Will Nots

OLPC will not

  • prevent independent groups from setting up their own certification processes as long as repair centers are not forced into using them and they are clearly marked as not being official OLPC certifications (please reword this; it's klunky.)
  • restrict access to new or reconditioned parts

Repair center rights

  • You have the right to start up, operate, and close down when and how you wish.
  • You have the right to privacy; you do not need to advertise, be listed, or share information about yourself with anybody in any way.
  • You have the right to choose your credentials. OLPC does not have or endorse an official repair certification, but you may choose or create a certification system yourself as long as it is clearly marked as not an official OLPC certification. (please reword; klunky.)
  • You have the right to make a profit in a way that does not obstruct the rights of others, including XO users and other repair centers.
  • You can offer and charge for any services you wish, including repair programs, warranties, etc. but it is your legal responsibility to handle and fulfill them financially and otherwise.
  • You have the right to serve whom you please, and to turn down jobs you don't want. (For instance, a repair center may restrict itself to only serving children from a particular school, or decide to specialize in display problems only.)

Repair centers CAN NOT:

  • have an exclusive territorial or other monopoly over any user group
  • directly hinder or prevent any other repair center from operating

User rights

Inspired by the Maker Bill of Rights

  • You are free to obtain parts and service from any person or group you wish.
  • You are free to fix your laptop yourself; you do not have to go to a repair center if you do not want to.
  • Buyer beware.

Repair center paradigms

  1. Ship part to user, DIY repair
  2. Ship part to user, user looks up repair centers in some directory, contacts them individually for help
  3. User looks up local repair centers in directory, contacts them directly to order parts and get help
  4. User ships XO to repair center, repair center ships back a working XO immediately for a flat rate, repair center gets parts and fixes broken XO then adds to "working XO" stack
  5. (variant of above:) Different centers specialize in different parts - when a user sends in a broken laptop, that part of the laptop gets replaced with a working part, and the broken part is repaired (or if complicated, sent to the specialist). When repaired, the part goes into the working-parts pile.
  6. User ships XO to repair center, repair center gets parts, fixes laptop, ships same XO back to user
  7. User contacts SG, SG walks them through diagnosis with a help@ RT ticket, when they figure out what's wrong user is pointed towards instructions or local repair centers
  8. After-school XO repair class/program, students (not necessarily limited to kids) fix XOs for "homework"

Financing paradigms

  1. OLPC sponsors/certifies nobody and does not run its own "official repair shops" (although it will probably provide some helpful resources, hints, and gathering places for repair centers to use). Each repair center is financially and logistically on their own.
  2. If OLPC offers parts at a premium, and also offers a 'pedigree', repairs could become a donation source. This requires OLPC to manage, support, finance, and assume legal responsibility for such a program, though.

Questions / under debate

Official certification debate

"Official certification" refers to an "official" OLPC-administered certification (possibly with training) that repair shops can get.

PRO:

  • Keep people from getting ripped off by scam artists
  • Community recognition and respect
  • Nice to have an "I'm good at this!" badge

CON:

  • Bottleneck; "We're in business to put ourselves out of business"
  • Paper does not determine talent - possible to forge
  • Independent groups can and will set up their own cert processes so we don't have to; see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Content_stamping.

Copycat parts

Discussion opinion on this topic was split, and the final answer needs to be determined by OLPC and its partners.

Everyone agreed that copycat/unofficial parts would happen, and shouldn't be unilaterally stopped. There was disagreement on whether there should be "official" and "unofficial" parts (as "quality guarantees") or requirements/recommendations for manufacturers to make their parts traceable back to them (legal/copycat concerns vs users being able to track/recommend particular parts to each other).

  • What components are open/not-open in terms of licensing and design?
  • Does OLPC or its pratners have any issues with people designing, producing, and selling copies of existing XO parts?
    • Will there be any "official" OLPC parts or products, and if so, how will they be identified?
    • Are there any ID/logo/branding or source identification/disclosure rules they should follow or avoid?
    • What will be encouraged, discouraged, and enforced?
  • Does OLPC or its partners have any issues with people designing, producing, and selling other (non-copycat) XO parts/accessories?
    • Are there any ID/logo/branding or source identification/disclosure rules they should follow or avoid?
    • What will be encouraged, discouraged, and enforced?
  • How does this work with international patents/trademarks/copyright laws?

Resources needed

This is a list of resources OLPC might consider creating.

  • Tech documentation to go off teamwiki onto public (mchua: It's unclear what further documentation is needed; please list specific stuff we need access to but don't have and we can try to get access to those in particular.)
  • A place where all repair centers can list themselves ("Yellow Book") and be reviewed (separately?)
  • Sample repair contract templates for download and use - completely optional, but encouraged for people to keep track of repairs they do or have done.
  • A place/way for people to upload the aforementioned repair contracts, so that a neutral third-party has records that can be accessed in the event they're needed.
  • Suggestions for ways repair centers can track and organize their information
    • Templates/examples on public wiki
    • http://openplans.org
    • "RT for repair centers" guidebook (and offers of free hosting)
    • other solutions?
  • Repair info on laptop libraries
    • a page with instructions for repair, as in Disassembly]
    • "User's Bill Of Rights" informing them that they can hack their laptop and choose who to entrust it to, and tips on how to be smart about it
    • A page on what part designs are/aren't open, and where the open part schematics are available (should also be available online)
    • A link to the repair centers info page
  • On the public wiki: a grassroots-maintained resource on any legal issues involved with running a repair center, manufacturing/selling parts, etc. for various countries

Getting parts

Supply chains

What can we do?

  • Brightstar is shipping central
  • Megafranchise model
  • Independent hackers and their small companies (a-la adafruit, sparkfun)
  • Community "XO Labs" also serve as repair centers

Availability

  • Both new and reconditioned parts should be available.
  • There should not be "One Righteous Source" for parts - people can buy and sell parts to each other privately, as always.
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