December 2nd, 2007
And more from the OLPC front
Ivan Krstić posted an interesting piece on his involvement in the first OLPC rollout. Mr. Krstić is the director of security architecture for OLPC and is on a leave of absence from Harvard to participate in this project. Obviously, a fairly smart guy.
His blog gives us quite a bit more insight regarding wireless infrastructure, server backends, and rollout plans than we’ve otherwise been able to extract from the OLPC. It also brings up the question that most of us OLPC skeptics have been asking:
…in attempting to establish the worst-case scenario, I might have asked “how can we be sure?” one time too many. Eventually, Nicholas [Negroponte] responded with “well, we’ll just mail you along with the first laptop shipment, and then you can be sure just how things will work.” And thus, when Uruguay officially became the first country to place an order for XO laptops, OLPC purchased a ticket that had me landing in Montevideo, the capital, the same day as the first batch of machines. My mission: make sure nothing breaks. Translation: when something breaks, fix it.
So what happens when Ivan Krstić isn’t around to fix that which is broken? What other support structure exists to deal with the complexities of the servers and wireless access points, let alone the PCs themselves? And how well will this whole process go in a country that hasn’t already been piloting the OLPC for some time (Uruguay was an early pilot)? As usual, time will tell. However, if anyone out there happens to be involved in some of these rollouts, talk back below and let us know how they are going.
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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