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[Wayan Vota]

We have a new contest at OLPC News Forum:

If I could be Nicholas Negroponte for a day...

In 100 words or less, tell us what you would do with and for OLPC if you could be Nicholas Negroponte for one day.  Get creative and get happy.  You can entry as many times as you want but there will be only three winners.

The best three responses (voted on by OLPC News Forum readers) will split $50 in XOexplosion gear and other cool prizes.

The deadline is April 15th so get imaginative now!

[blommer]

If I were Nicholas Negroponte I would:

Not say a word! Stay out of the limelight!

OR

Concede that Sugar is a failure and encourage the immediate adaption of a POPULAR and PROVEN low-weight Linux distro (like Puppy).

[genesee]

If I was Nicholas Negroponte for a day I would run, not walk, away from Microsoft Windows.

[davewa]

If I were NN for a day, I'd find a smart 8-year-old and ask him or her if the Journal is really a good idea.

[fyoder]

I would initiate the development of 'XO Teachers' Edition', a dual boot machine with both Sugar and Xubuntu on an 8 GB SD, with the actual objective of selling tons of them to the developed world and making a load of money to fund OLPC so that it can scale up and do things professionally in pursuit of its core objective of improving education in the developing world.

[mattd]

retire.

*rimshot*

[steve1010]

That day would be busy! First I would make sure I had solid backing for the project! Then I would put to work my best people on making sure the kids and adults could understand how to use the operating system. But in that day I would poll my people and if Sugar was not the best distro then abandon it and make sure kids and adults knew how to use the new one easily. My experience and the experience of countless others is this laptop is hard to use. We need to make it easy and fun! Next I would put together some contests sponsored by some corporations with monetary rewards for the kids and adults to make this the most fun and ingenious piece of equipment XO1 to come out ever! Again get the enthusiasm back!

[Tortuga]

I'd:
* secure a commercial outlet for the XO, something with Dell, Apple, etc.

* reorganize everyone back into development/future vision mode, get more hardware people onboard, work at re-empowering the G1G1 people (beta testing, hacking, and hardware modifications).

* create a follow up group for the explicit purpose of securing all agreements, due diligence, dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's.

* start compiling the experimental XO programs into a more coherent mass, then re-start the promotions with better data and images.

[Brian Basgen]

(1) Become an e-learning organization:
     (a) embracing new technologies beyond the XO
     (b) modernize: become a service only company, stop trying to do everything internally
     (b) create partnerships with industry: focus on open software for learning while competing partners develop various platforms
(2) Change management style:
     (a) focus on the strengths of your team and the OLPC community
     (b) value employee innovation and creativity
     (c) value customer service and community good will
 (3) Embrace bottom-up, in addition to top-down, distribution approaches
 (4) Emphasize collaboration with teachers
 (5) Align focus to demands of children in different markets

[JB]

Hire someone with consumer electronics experience and sell the thing full time to the public for $250.  Use the cash to fund the original mission.  Develop a standard UI with a file manager.

[kentsin]

Put the eee mother board in place of the OLPC's. Invite users (children) into the development process.

Allow other companies to ship their os with the school server for easy replace the sugar (why not let the user decide?).

Allow asus and others to use the OLPC LCD on their products.

Add a touch screen to OLPC.

Online store to sell accessories, replacement parts, contents, G1G1 projects.

Create a digital library for all available text, music, videos. Put them on the school servers, make it easy for users to subscribe and load the content and play with it (iTune?)

Start a project to develop games, course ware, translation, multi-lingual dictionary (free), databases of various topics for use with OLPC and other machines. Invite educators and research to discuss and monitor the results.

Change the policy to deal with govs. talk to individuals instead.

[Tiktaalik]

Re-engage and start over with the open source community. There is barely anyone developing for this system. They've all moved on to the EEE PC.

Were I Negroponte the first thing I'd do is fix the lingering technical problems that have plagued the software: The long overdue update, the wireless issues, and battery life. This will get people to actually start to use their XO Laptops again.

- I'd keep sugar, because it's an interesting GUI that sets it apart from other operating systems, but I'd introduce an "Advanced" version selectable on boot, that keeps the Sugar concepts, but introduces more power and flexibility. A filesystem browser, a more advanced internet browser, IRC, Pidgin.... make it so that technical people don't feel the need to instantly switch to Ubuntu.

- Put more effort toward creating a good Develop activity so programmers can easily create, test, and roll out Activities on their XO Laptops.

- Release the XO Laptop for commercial sale so that more programmers can get on board. It's no fun developing for Sugar if you don't have an XO Laptop, and sales of the laptop are now closed, so there is a limited and dwindling supply of programmers interested in the project. This is the biggest problem that needs to be fixed.

The hardware of the XO Laptop is awesome, but without activities, it's a useless brick, and activities are what will drive interest in the XO Laptop. To get more activities you need more programmers, and to get more programmers, you need to make it more programmer friendly, and actually get it into their hands, and that means selling it in NA.

[GregYohn]

Hola!

Sell the computer to people!

I have potential customers in Colombia that wanted to buy the XO, but I have to refer them to Ebay.com in the USA. They did not even ask for the Spanish version!

[Wayan Vota]

If I were Nicholas Negroponte for a day I would...

1. Focus on selling to the market that has the money, can make quick decisions, and directly influences governmental purchasing decisions: the elite of the developing world. Make the XO their must-have education advantage for their children.  The sign that this child is going to be smarter than the rest.  Then, let the competitive spirit in human nature and then governmental obligations to level the playing field drive XO laptop sales to the more remote areas of a country.

2. Focus operations on reaching and pleasing the elites market.  Be an Apple of educational technology - a seamless user experience from purchase to playtime.  I'd make laptops available locally, for individual purchase or donation, and team up with local IT professionals so they can offer maintenance and support to buyers, even if the average laptop user doesn't really need them.

3. Focus developers on creating hardware and software that, while Open Source, is so emotive that users wonder where this technology has been their whole lives.  That means redoubling the efforts on Sugar and Activities, reconnecting and expanding the Open Source developer community (paying many of the best, even), and making it the standard that all other educational software is compared to. The hardware is already trend setting.

And yes, this entry is way more than 100 words, but I'm not eligible anyway 

[pxharder]

If I were Nicholas Negroponte for a day, here is what I would do:

1. Embrace every open source development activity and actively solicit every developer of operating systems that might run, such as Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, and all others. This way, I'm not focused on the Sugar platform.

2. Look to support my oversees program through sales and support in the developing countries. Bringing these systems to American, Canadian, and European schools can bring a great capability to schools and children, and the money used in the sale of these products can help fund and support the deployments in other countries where funds might be sparce. This way, the charity side is supported by the more wealthier countries.

3.  Embrace programs that can support the use. There are many efforts, private and governmental, such as e-learning, testing, and e-books going on that are looking for platforms to support their efforts.

4. Team with school book manufacturers and provide them with a way to put school books on the OLPC. Content will be king with education and not everything a child needs to succeed is available on the Internet.

5.  Partner with competitors on the Sugar interface to make this a common school-aged look and feel for education computers.