OLPC presentation to a course on Int'l Business

Presentation at SF State University in Prof. George Lee's class on Int'l Business in China Oct 10, 2007

One Laptop Per Child Sameer Verma, Ph.D. [email_address]

Grown-ups, Take a Number
Give 1, Get 1
One donated in your name
Nov 12: + 2 weeks
25,000 units only
$399
http://xogiving.org/

Outline 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
education (the student-driven learning)
hardware (why your laptop sucks)
software (power of FOSS at work)

Somebody is finally thinking of the children!

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.

a different generation School Galadima, Abuja City, Nigeria http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Galadima

a different generation
-my compi!
Mira Verma

Building Content
Constructionism is a philosophy of education in which children learn by doing and making
Collaborative activities
chat, record and see, music, write, read...
E-toys
Build books with multimedia content
Electronic books created and stored on the school server
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.

Sugar, because its sweet!

Sugar
Focus on 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

Activities
Write
Yes, but does it run Word? No!
Chat
XMPP (open standard) based
Browse
Firefox/gecko + flash + AJAX
Record
stills and video
More activities... http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities

the XO laptop

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 and increase range
Any 5 to 15 volt power supply will do
plugin charger, car battery, crank/yoyo power, solar panel

Charge!

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 hrs
Display refresh possible with board powered off
0.1 watt in grayscale (sunlight readable) mode

Mesh Networking
Mesh does not require central hub-like infrastructure
Wireless mesh works even when board powers off

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

Collaboration
One of the tenets is to be as open as possible
World wide forum for:
Concept, user requirements, ideas
Design of hardware, software, networks
Development done in a “fish bowl”
Testing, debugging, pilot studies
Anybody can participate
Meritocracy rules!

Economy of scale
Mass production will reduce cost
Target $ 100, current $188
Sell directly to governments
multiple of hundred thousands
Infrastructure investment by governments
commitment
continued evolution
Perhaps the cost will go below $100

Economy of scope
XO units for the US market
Run Sugar on a cheap PC
Other vendors
Initial naysayers: Intel, Microsoft
Classmate PC
small form factor (children), runs Windows XP, Linux
$400?
ASUS
Eee pc
small form factor (business), runs Linux
$ 199?

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
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_on_open_source_software
Richard Stallman's Four freedoms
The Open Source Definition

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?
Educators
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators
Translators
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Localization
Developers
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developer
Getting involved
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Getting_involved_in_OLPC

http://xogiving.org/

OLPC presentation to a course on Int'l Business

by Sameer Verma on Oct 11, 2007

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OLPC presentation to a course on Int’l Business Presentation Transcript