Nicholas Negroponte at the Brussels conference TEDx

Back in november 2009, OLPC Europe Invited OLPC expects to France to the Brussel TEDx event, where 'Nicholas Negroponte OLPC TALKED about ( see the video ). Not only this event was great, we aim aussi Had the Opportunity to Meet Nicholas Negroponte and interview HIM. We are Volunteers have, we specifically Focused on grassroots and Their future, and we all hope OLPC Volunteers Around the World Will enjoy thesis answers.

Bastien Guerry: The first G1G1 in 2007 WAS key in building a broad community of Volunteers in the US OLPC. Since That Time, this community HAS grown bigger and bigger, with Many grassroots Communities Around the World. How is working with OLPC icts Volunteers?

Nicholas Negroponte: Volunteers Fall Into Three categories: software development, deployment and body pro bono professional assistance.

Open source is key to OLPC. While the XO laptop dual boots Windows and Linux, A Few Hundred only (if that) out of 1.3 million in the Field use Windows. The rest enjoy the support of Volunteers, at peak icts in excess of 3000 em. Remote places like Afghanistan Have very robust body of Volunteers.

Deployment During The Summer of 2009 included about 100 Volunteers Who's XO Distributed in 19 Countries in Africa and two in South America. THEY Averaged 10 weeks, meeting with the African body for a week of training, as a group, in Kigali, Rwanda. The idea WAS to a more grassroots spirit approach to olpc (lowercase) and uniquely Distinctly Than the top-down methods calculated previously used.

Pro bono professionals - notably: legal, communications and advertising creative - have Provided services to OLPC since inception. What is Common Among Them is not the free, cost saving nature, the Fact That goal box in EACH group is the best in class, far better than you can buy with money Normally. Check out Larry Weber on Google and You Will See why OLPC WAS on "60 Minutes. "

BG: From my experience, OLPC fans are Attracted first by the XO and techno technological aspects of the project. They Want to play with the hardware and software Develop. OLPC year goal is education project. What can we do to encourage grassroots Communities to reach more teachers and to work with 'em is making the XO the best device for New Learning Opportunities?

NN: Two methods:

One naturally happens with young teachers Who find the technology and enjoy the captivating connectivity THEY Would not Have Otherwise. This is particularly true in rural and remote places, where 'young teachers might Not Otherwise want to be.

The Other is a Trojan horse approach, where 'the XO is Simply Offered as eBook year. Need not the teachers adopt advanced digital multimedia means clustering gold Become experts. Need not change the curriculum (Immediately). Instead, the kids come out at night, so to speak, and use the laptop as a laptop.

BG: Being Able to get small Quantities of XO-through the Contributor Program is key in Spreading the word about OLPC and Its Educational Model. Do you plan to extend sa situation and to make programming more "Small Quantities" of XO available?

Small Quantities are hard, for logistics, support and proof of Principles, the lath Being the MOST important. Getting machines to developers Is Another Matter. That Should and Will Be laundry charges.

Simply handling the demand, shipping small lots and dealing with the support of Many small rollouts is more typical of normal market forces and how a small enterprise might grow. After the big goal is proof of principles. OLPC is ict name - one laptop per child - and includes as a Fundamental principle: saturation. Like an immunization program, you just cannot inoculate A Few kids. You have to Give the vaccine to everybody. Reason for this, it really Makes No Sense to do 30 or Even 100 laptops. Worse, When You Have so few, people tend not to let the children take 'em home and, Even Worse, They get used in a lab, children 5-15 sharing one laptop.

In Some Of Those boxes, celebrities thereafter Evaluate the program and say it does not work. Of course, computer labs do not work, IT Other than teaching. We know that. It is like vaccinating ten kids to see if vaccinations work. Think of OLPC as inoculating ignorance again.

BG: Recently Announced That You Will Be Split Into OLPC the OLPC Foundation (dealing with new concepts for the XO) and the association olpc (handling production and deployments). Any impact on the work of the Volunteers?

NN: Both Will Have Volunteers. Those Interested in learning and rollout Will Work with the Association. Those Interested in advocacy, engineering and the handful of Humanitarian Sites Will Work With The Foundation. The number of Volunteers, combinée, Should Rise Dramatically.

BG: Any chance for a new G1G1?

NN: Not centrally, maybe a nation or Two Will Do It. If Two years ago made sense When There Were No Netbooks, There Was a backlog of curiosity, and the idea WAS brand new. Last year it failed to Produce laptops, in part due to the economy, Other Reasons For Those goal as well.

Gen 3.0 Be disruptive and may differ enough to revisit the idea in 2012.

Read the translation French of this article.