David Cavallo was the first person from One Laptop Per Child that would actually speak to me. He and I discussed OLPC's dual mode screen at an IADB meeting while Nicholas Negroponte was trying to get me kicked out.
President Lula and David Cavallo in 2006
Since then, he's been an integral part of OLPC, leading its educational efforts and South American activities. Recently, he moved to Rwanda to lead the OLPC Learning Center, the clearinghouse for laptop deployments in Rwanda and across Africa.
But then David disappeared.
No one I know has seen David recently - in Rwanda or in Boston. In fact, rumor is that he's not even with OLPC any more. As in he's left the organization! Now that would be a shock, akin to Walter Bender's departure.
Along with Walter, David was the educational brain trust for OLPC. If he has left, then who is the educator at OLPC? Or has even the pretense to be an educational project been lost?
David, where in the world are you?
He was last seen on June 22, 2010 offering a demonstration of the XO to the cannibal Itzu tribe in the remote village of Mbungo.
We've found David Cavallo!
He is now a Research Scientist at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL), College of Information Studies, University of Maryland. So David has left OLPC.
You can watch a brown bag talk on his experiences in Rwanda/Brazil/Peru with OLPC and what he's going to do at Maryland at this link http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hcil-brown-bags