More Apparent Departures from One Laptop Per Child

20 Mar 2008
   
   
   
   
   

Post Accuracy Update:

While I wrote this post in good faith and feel it was accurate at the time, the OLPC website currently lists Gary Dillabough and Joe Jacobson as still on OLPC's Board of Directors. I may have been incorrect in my observations or the Laptop.org website was refreshed subsequent to publication.

Either way, this post is now inaccurate - only Seymour Papert has left the Board, and that's for health reasons. May he get well and apologies for any confusion.

End Update

I was looking at the Laptop.org site today, bemoaning the loss of Ivan Krstić and Mary Lou Jepsen, my two favorite people at One Laptop Per Child, and I noticed they weren't the only ones removed from the OLPC people page.

Taking a closer look, and comparing it to the archived version, there are four other absences that stand out. Gone from the listing of OLPC's advisors and Board of Directors, are:

  1. Mitchel Resnick, MIT, advisors
  2. Gary Dillabough, eBay, Board of Directors
  3. Joe Jacobson, MIT, Board of Directors
  4. Seymour Papert, MIT, Board of Directors (still an advisor)
I am not sure what their absence signifies, but now Nicholas Negroponte is the only Board Member with a direct connection to the MIT Media Lab. Could this MIT house-cleaning be part of the:
"drastic internal restructuring coupled with what, despite official claims to the contrary, is a radical change in its goals and vision"
that Ivan mentions as the reason for his departure? No matter, changes are afoot over at OLPC and I can't wait till we, its supporters, donors, and contributors know more.

5 Comments

Posted by Wayan Vota on March 20, 2008 in People: Leadership
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5 Comments

wow...

Not a good sign...

James C. | March 21, 2008 3:51 AM | Vote up Vote down (Score: 0)

Note that according to Wikipedia, since his accident in Hanoi, Dr. Papert hasn't really been capable of serving as a director.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Papert#Accident_in_Hanoi

Tim | March 21, 2008 9:16 AM | Vote up Vote down (Score: 0)

Here's a tidbit! Open source Moodle core programmer Martin Langhoff http://docs.moodle.org/en/User:Martin_Langhoff has recently joined OLPC. Martin is the architect of the emerging "Moodle Client" that will likely soon be running on OLPC hardware. This will allow student to work in their online course while offline, and sych once they are ready to connect. I'm guessing Mr. Negroponte has decided it's time to downplay all the glamor over OLPC hardware, and get down to the real business of what this miracle will do for students.

Bryan Williams | March 21, 2008 11:32 AM | Vote up Vote down (Score: 0)

I still see Walter Bender (OLPC) ,Gary Dillabough (eBay)
Joe Jacobson (MIT) listed as members of the board of directors. This is at http://laptop.org/vision/people/. Take a look at the the list of board of directors on the left side of the page.

Rob | March 21, 2008 12:10 PM | Vote up Vote down (Score: 0)

Well, I'll be... The only change showing now is the absence of Seymour Papert. That's very odd, since I ran the pages through a side-by-side comparison and those names were conspicuously absent. It could be my error or a update refresh hiccup ont he part of OLPC. Anyone have a good cached timeline to see the changes when Kristic was removed?

Wayan | March 21, 2008 12:30 PM | Vote up Vote down (Score: 0)
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