Last July the big deal at OLPC was Intel joining the Board only for disagreements to cause an exit early this year after barely six months.
This happened just as Lancor a Nigerian Keyboard makers $20 million patent infringment lawsuit against OLPC was starting to cause problems with its injunction against activities in Nigeria and Mary Lou Jepsen the founding CTO was moving on to start her own company Pixel Qi.
What is OLPC thinking?
Since then Microsoft has joined OLPC to firmly take over the Operating System driving seat (dual boot or not) causing the exit of the President of Software and Content for the project, Walter Bender, who stepped down in disagreement with the move.
What this has made clear is that within 12 months "Win" has replaced "tel" in an OLPC laptop cocktail that established global momentum without either - go figure.
The implied strategy from where I sit has been to create enough noise about the missed opportunity (i.e. low-cost computing) to get the attention of the deep pocketed players in the market so they do something about it.
This will make sense for OLPC though only if it goes all the way and also gives the XO hardware development to the establishment (HP, Dell, Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba.....take your pick) after leading the way with the XO-2 design being announced next week. That way it will get traction quicker by not needing to focus on the corporate political diversions that continually occur in the for-profit world.
It can then focus on become the "learning education" innovation hub for AMD, NewsCorp, Microsoft, Google, RedHat, whoever the hardware guys are and others in the technology in education as a social responsibility or for profit group.
Why? Because
"OLPC is not, at heart, a technology program, nor is the XO a product in any conventional sense of the word. OLPC is a non-profit organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community."Tomi Davies has graciously allowed OLPC News to re-post this article from his blog Thoughts from Tomi.
In some ways I wish I had never heard of the XO. I buy one and it is great for kids. The church of Christ wants to purchase 100-150 to donate to children's homes and schools. That is impossibe. I am not a technologist; I am experienced with schools and kids and experienced in other countries [19] and immediately realized what the XO could do. I believe OLPC has made some stupid mistakes but the only important question in my mind is can the new one be purchased? When? Will purchases be 50,000 min.? If so, I am going to forget this and get on with my life of helping others.
Oh give it up already Ken, they explained the terms of the GiveMany-GetMany to you and you didn't like them and refused to do busieness with them. Why do you continue to pretend that they refused to make good? You need to get right with Jesus and stop spreading lies, you don't act like much of a Christian and I fear for your soul. They wouldn't haggle with you over terms and they didn't make an exception to those terms for your church project, so render unto Ceasar . . . or shut up.
I sign my name to what I say and stand by.
Look what happened to Ceasar. 150 kids are not getting a good education due to Ceasar's poor management.
Ken,
"I sign my name to what I say and stand by."
And what you originally told us was[1]:
"We want to purchase 100 for members of The church of Christ to take on trips to other countries for schools, etc. They emailed me today that I have to purchase 100 @ $299 each plus $20 airmail and OLPC will donate 50 to one of four countries. I told them that we will purchase them based on our requirements; not OLPC. We will buy the 100 if they will ship us the extra 50 [we pay postage], also.
Otherwise, we are not interested." "
And now, and in many other posts since the original one, you keep telling us:
"The church of Christ wants to purchase 100-150 to donate to children's homes and schools. That is impossible."
Which is clearly false (aka 'telling lies' as per your Bible :). You've been told what the GMGM terms are [2] and yet you insist on haggling and spreading misinformation. Not very nice at all, regardless whether one is a Christian or otherwise...
[1]( http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/anybody_home_at_olpc.html )
[2] OLPC - many ways to give
( http://laptopfoundation.org/participate/givemany.shtml )
I may be speaking anonymously, but I'll use words that I can only hope you might be prepared to take into your heart.
Leviticus 19:9-12
9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
11 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
The GM:GM program is on the right side of verses 9 and 10, and you are on the wrong side of verses 11 and 12. That verse 19:9 is important enough that it bears repeating, and indeed it is repeated in Leviticus 23:32. Ken maybe you should spend a little more time with your Bible and a little less time on OLPCN.
http://kingjbible.com/leviticus/19.htm
delphi, thanks for providing the references to Ken's other posts
Sorry, typo. The second reference should be to Leviticus 23:22, not 23:32 which is about the Sabbath, I may be on the wrong side of that one.
From the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster:
6. I’d really rather you didn’t build multi million-dollar synagogues/churches/temples/mosques/shrines to my noodly goodness when the money could be better spent (take your pick):
A. Ending poverty
B. Curing diseases
C. Living in peace, loving with passion, and lowering the cost of cable
I might be a complex-carbohydrate omniscient being, but I enjoy the simple things in life. I ought to know. I AM the creator.
Spekkio,
D. Getting the XO into the little hands of children worldwide.
If they *do* improve the specs to accommodate Windows, they will be going against what Negroponte said about all the R&D going into implementing the same hardware more cheaply and compactly.
Same as the first commenter. I've been at laptop.org for minutes now, and all I want to know is where to pay for the things...I still don't know. I want I want I want.