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[Wayan Vota]

The official OLPC blog so innocently says that OLPC is "Refocusing our mission" when its clear that OLPC is being gutted. 

• 50% cut in staff & pay cuts for the remaining staff (ouch!)
• A shift to Middle East, Afghanistan and Northwestern Pakistan (hello donor funding!)
• Sugar to be spun off (nice way of saying abandoned)
• Latin America & Africa to be spun off (good luck, everyone, we're outta here)
• $0 Laptop for LDC's (we'll give stuff away if you donate it to us first)

The only good news?  OLPC will be trying to develop a Generation 2.0 XO, a no-cost connectivity program, and a million digital books.  I think only that last one has much hope after the gutting.  Mainly because others are already close to that goal already.

[Wayan Vota]

I wonder if this means G1G1 2008 was a total failure in sales volume? Or if the Microsoft conspiracy theories worked their evil magic?  Or is this another Great Recession casualty?

[ChristophD]

Maybe it's time to look for a new hobby?

Frankly speaking I'm still not quite sure what to make of this announcement...

It's not like OLPC had a staff that was bored as there wasn't enough to do for the ~30 staff and ~30 contractors. Quite the opposite in fact. So even with OLPC getting rid of many responsibilities 32 people isn't all that much when it comes to taking care of the tasks that OLPC will be focusing on:

1. Development of Generation 2.0

This is certainly something I don't understand. If you're hurting for money hardware development is an obvious point to scratch since it's freaking expensive. A lot of learning software and educational content could be developed with the money it takes to do a Gen-2 machine.

2. A no-cost connectivity program

"no-cost". HAHAHA

3. A million digital books

Isn't that what Project Gutenberg and Google are working on?

4. Passing on the development of the Sugar Operating System to the community.

Here's a question I hate asking: If Sugar isn't important enough to be funded who says that OLPC will even use it in the future?

In conclusion my first impression is that this isn't a refocus on the original mission but rather a complete makeover of the organisation into an entity very much driven by developing hot next-gen technology rather than working bringing education to children around the world.

Interestingly the word "education" isn't used by Negroponte in the announcement, not even when it comes to describing OLPC's mission:

"...we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries"

[Wayan Vota]

Great catch, Christoph!

Interestingly the word "education" isn't used by Negroponte in the announcement, not even when it comes to describing OLPC's mission:

[Wayan Vota]

Like many other nonprofits that are facing tough economic times, One Laptop per Child must downsize in order to keep costs in line with fewer financial resources.  Today we are reducing our team by approximately 50% and there will be salary reductions for the remaining 32 people.  While we are saddened by this development, we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments" title="Deployments">developing countries[/url].  We thank team members who are departing for their contributions to this important mission. 

This restructuring is also the result of an exciting new direction for OLPC.  Our technology initiatives will focus on: 

• Development of <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO-2" title="XO-2">Generation 2.0[/url] 
  
• A no-cost connectivity program   
  
• A million digital books 
  
• Passing on the development of the <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sugar" title="Sugar">Sugar[/url] Operating System to the community. 
  

With regard to deployments:

• <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Spanish_America" title="OLPC Spanish America">Latin America[/url] will be spun off into a separate support unit
  
• Sub-Saharan Africa will become a major learning hub
  
• The Middle East, <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Afghanistan" title="OLPC Afghanistan">Afghanistan[/url] and Northwestern Pakistan will become a major focus
  

Separately, OLPC will be dedicated to bringing the cost of the laptop down to Zero for the Least Developed Countries - the $0 Laptop.

Restructuring brings with it great pain for some of our friends and colleagues who are being let go.  These individuals are people who have dedicated themselves to the advancement of a noble cause, and to say that we are exceeding grateful for the time, the ideas, the energy and the commitment they have given OLPC does not — cannot — adequately express our admiration or our gratitude.  The fact that there are 500,000 children around the world who have laptops is testament to their extraordinary work and is already a key part of OLPC's legacy. 

The future brings with it some uncertainty, some difficulty, but also the excitement that comes with the rededication to a cause, and a new path that will allow us to realize the moral purpose of OLPC.  I hope that each one of you will remain supportive of OLPC, and its mission of opening up a universe of knowledge to the world's poorest children living in the most remote parts of the Earth.   

 — Nicholas Negroponte

[Wayan Vota]

Word is that the laid-off OLPC staffers are in a Cambridge bar figuring out what they are going to do now - they were laid off w/o notice.  If any of them are reading this now, I raise my beer to you in salute.  For your accomplishments and endurance. 

[GregYohn]

Hello!

Something tells me the 2nd round of G1G1 was a no show! How many new people have joined this group since they got delivered?

Charitable donors and corporations seeing their net worth fall in half might have stopped giving to OILPC also!

[sracer]

Hello!

Something tells me the 2nd round of G1G1 was a no show! How many new people have joined this group since they got delivered?

Charitable donors and corporations seeing their net worth fall in half might have stopped giving to OILPC also!

Perhaps.  I think that it has more to do with the fact that the G1G1 program this time around lacked the "getting in on the ground floor" idea and urgency of being limited (I was a G1G1D1 donor because I knew that the available units would be gone quickly).

To a lesser extent, I think that the 2nd round of G1G1 suffered from a sign of the (technology) times.  Last year's G1G1 was a no-brainer even at the $400 entry fee because there was no viable ultra-mobile alternative.  Fast foward a year and millions of netbooks later. 

And maybe the numbers of this year's G1G1 participation were brisk but people haven't felt the same urgency to visit an online forum.  (Assuming that there were some repeat participants, and the maturity of the XO out-of-the-box is greatly improved over last year's).

[Gollumer]

"... an entity very much driven by developing hot next-gen technology rather than..."

Oh, Like MIT Media Lab where Negroponte worked for quite some time?

Hmm....

[ChristophD]

Word is that the laid-off OLPC staffers are in a Cambridge bar figuring out what they are going to do now - they were laid off w/o notice.  If any of them are reading this now, I raise my beer to you in salute.  For your accomplishments and endurance.

I'll second that, though in my case I'm raising a glass of Cartavio's "Ron Antiguo de Solera" which I bought when I was last in Peru in 2005...

[ChristophD]

Reading through the comments on the related stories on sites like Slashdot, Ars Technica and Engadget I can't even begin to count the people basically writing "I always said this wouldn't work / OLPC was set to fail from the start / I told you so"... :-(

[eden]

Oh snap.  This should be interesting. 

 

[Gabey8]

Um, if they are looking to provide $0 laptops for Least Developed Countries, they should have G1G1 as a permanent fixture. They should also revamp their donation process so that we never need to see another thread that declares, "I wanted to donate to OLPC/purchase from OLPC but they said 'no' because [insert reason here]".

I'm still digesting the rest of the content of this thread. Man, the one day in the past few weeks that I was mostly offline, and something huge happens.

[Wayan Vota]

I am still miffed that G1G1 ended.  Both years.  That was the single biggest and fastest cash flow infusion they had going.  They were fools to mess up G1G1 2007 delivery and then end it so quickly.  G1G1 2008 was so much better executed, but sadly a few million Asus and Acer too late.

[jah]

Just want to pipe in since people are speculating where the G1G1 2008 donors are...

Right here.. =}

I got this laptop basically because I talked it up really well in front of my step-sister who did G1G1 for me as a birthday gift. I'm loving it cuz I'm a linux geek, and enjoy messing around with a new gadget (especially one with a terminal).

So far as I've gathered from -this- community there has been significant strides in porting Ubuntu to a viable alternative for the XO (Xobuntu?), and so am grateful for that given the somewhat bleak future of Sugar.