OLPC presentation at SF State University

One Laptop Per Child Sameer Verma, Ph.D.

Grown-ups, Take a Number

Outline Introduction Education Laptop FOSS

Outline- revised for CCCC Introduction Education Laptop FOSS

Disclaimer
I do not work for OLPC!
Enthusiast/developer
Interests: Translations, UI and networking
OLPC: Excellent example of disruptive technology innovation
hardware (aka why your laptop sucks)
software (power of FOSS at work)

Somebody is finally thinking of the children

Laptop
7.5 inch diagonal screen at 1200x900 (200 dpi)
800x600 in grayscale
Sunlight readable!
Wi-fi, USB(x3), mic, speakers, camera, SD
Screen rotates to tablet mode
Water resistant keyboard
walk in the rain with it!

More laptop
Laptop, turned on its head
All electronics are in the upper section, except the keyboard.
Easy to replace either component
Carry handle also acts as base stabilizer
Wi-fi rabbit ears double up as latches
Any 12 volt power supply will do
wall wart
car battery
crank power

Green
Looks green, works green
Fully recyclable
5 year life span
Idle power consumption
Desktop – 80 watts
Laptop – 20 watts
OLPC – 1 watt

More green
Power consumption at about 10% of typical laptop
The laptop lifetime is 5 years or 2.5 times longer than a typical laptop
Half the size and weight of a typical laptop
Goal: not a single XO laptop should end up in a landfill

Power innovations
Batteries that last 4x longer
Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO 4 )
Currently at ~ 5hrs, final goal ~10 hours
Display refresh possible with board powered off
0.1 watt in grayscale mode
Wireless mesh works even when board powers off
Mesh does not require central hub-like infrastructure

Look Ma! No moving parts!
No fans, no hard drive, nothing spins.
1GB Flash + 256 MB RAM
USB storage
SD slot
Only thing that moves is the screen when it swivels over to tablet mode.
AMD Geode processor runs cool.

Linux in the box
Custom Fedora based distro
GNOME-based
Ported applications must follow OLPC HCI guidelines

Sugar, because its sweet!

Sugar
Activities, not applications
Interface – Sugar
GNOME based
Borders + center wheel
Wheel is also a metaphor for available resources
Run your own Sugar environment
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LiveCD

Applications
Word processor
Yes, but does it run Word?
Paint
Instant Messaging
XMPP based
Browser
Firefox/gecko
Record
stills and video

Bitfrost Approach
Open design
The laptop's security must not depend upon a secret design.
No lockdown
There must exist a way for the security systems to be disabled for maintenance.
No reading required
Security cannot depend upon the user's ability to read a message from the computer.
Unobtrusive security
Whenever possible, the security on the machines must be behind the scenes.

Bitfrost Goals
No user passwords
Users as young as 5 years old, cannot remember a password.
No unencrypted authentication
Authentication of laptops or users will not depend upon unencrypted data over the network.
Out-of-the-box security
The laptop should be both usable and secure out-of-the-box.
Limited institutional PKI
Keys will not be used to validate the identity of laptop users.

Education
Its an education project, not a laptop project.
Nicholas Negroponte, Founder - OLPC
OLPC's Goal:
To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.
Yes, but the laptop is way cool!
Sameer Verma, FOSS Enthusiast

My compi
Mira Verma

Building Content
Constructionism is a philosophy of education in which children learn by doing and making.
Electronic books created and stored on the school server
Collaborative activities
IM, Video, Music
E-toys
Build books with multimedia content
Think Lego®

Learning outside the box
With sufficient self-confidence, teachers can learn from children without risk of unraveling the fabric of education—quite the contrary, improving it.
Children must not only own the laptop, but take it home. In so doing the whole family will benefit.
The child is not the object of change but the agent of change.

Free and Open Source
FOSS was the only option that was flexible enough for this project
No vendor lock-in on formats
No royalties on redistribution
Perhaps the first example of a software project that has forced hardware manufacturers to modify their way of business.

FOSS: What does it mean?
OLPC manifesto
Four freedoms
Open Source Definitions

Richard Stallman's Four Freedoms
Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs.
Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

The Open Source Definition
1. Free Redistribution
2. Source Code
3. Derived Works
4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
7. Distribution of License
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

How can you help?
Developers
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developer
Educators
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators
Getting involved
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Getting_involved_in_OLPC

http://opensource.sfsu.edu	45
http://ngu-hammer.blogspot.com	13
http://chunsk71.blogspot.com	12
http://www.slideshare.net	4
http://styx.nied.unicamp.br:8080	4
http://educadis.huascaran.edu.pe	2
http://userwww.sfsu.edu	2
http://www.fod.ac.cr	2
http://proyecto-ceibal.blogspot.com	1
http://ead-app01	1

OLPC presentation at SF State University

by Sameer Verma

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