One thing that I miss from my old job is that I'm not involved with helping the project any more.

So... I've been following the project closely online.  There is a cool blog post talking about how they're doing their second deployment in Ethiopia .  Plus they have tons of amazing photos.

(Photos by One Laptop per Child)

It contains some giveaway files, such as /var/lib/dpkg/status, which contains:

Package: libnss-dns-udeb
Status: install ok unpacked
Version: 2.7-5
Description: GNU C Library: NSS helper for DNS - udeb

Package: wireless-tools-udeb
Status: install ok unpacked
Version: 29-1
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.6.1-1), libiw29-udeb (>= 28+29pre7)
Description: Tools for manipulating Linux Wireless Extensions

Package: python2.5-minimal
Status: install ok unpacked
Version: 2.5.1-1
Depends: zlib1g-udeb, libc6
Description: A minimal subset of the Python language (version 2.5)

Package: module-init-tools-udeb
Status: install ok unpacked
Version: 3.3-pre11-4
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.5-5)
Description: tools for managing Linux kernel modules

Package: olpcrd-rootskel
Status: install ok unpacked
Version: 1.54
Depends: python2.5-minimal, wireless-tools-udeb
Description: Skeleton root filesystem used by OLPC initramfs

Package: busybox-udeb
Status: install ok unpacked
Version: 1:1.1.3-5
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.5-5)
Description: Tiny utilities for the debian-installer

Package: libiw29-udeb
Status: install ok unpacked
Version: 29-1
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.6.1-1)
Description: Tools for manipulating Linux Wireless Extensions

Package: zlib1g-udeb
Status: install ok unpacked
Version: 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-8
Description: compression library - runtime for Debian installer

Package: debian-installer
Status: install ok installed
Version: olpc-20071227-05:33
Description: debian installation image

The packages installed seem to be udebs, which are basically a lite version of normal Debian packages, designed for specialised uses, such as bootstrapping the Debian installer.

But even worse, it seems that the init script for the XO is written in Python. Seriously. The head of the file /init that runs on the OLPC is:

#!/usr/bin/python2.5
## Add an '-i' to the #! line to enable the interactive shell.
## Remove the -i for deployment, to ensure that an
## error in the script doesn't land us in an interactive shell.
from __future__ import division, with_statement
from initutil import *
from activate import activate
import antitheft
import os, os.path, sys, time

debug = False # set to false for deployment

# let's notify console that we've reached this point and python has launched
print "Hello, (children of the) world!"

No wonder it takes so long to boot up! You have to load a whole Python interpreter before we get anywhere!

I haven't been able to find much documentation on the reasons or inner workings for this bootstrap process. Probably because it's too embarrasing to reveal. ;)

Can anybody confirm my findings?

Supuesta, por que a mediado de la semana, ocurren dos de los sucesos que mencionaba arriba, el primero es que por causas "privatizadoras" deciden suspender de nuevo las actividades académicas en toda la universidad, supuestamente reanudandolas el domingo 12... pero, salvo unos pocos individuos, casi nadie estudia el domingo...

El otro evento fue un encuentro que me tomó de sorpresa, pues nunca estoy enterado de las actividades que se realizan en el campus. ésta es el foro social de las américas, en donde toda la gloriosa universidad se convirtió en un desfíle de colores, sirviendo como punto de encuentro entre mucha gente de muchas nacionalidades, a pesar de la suspension de clases.

Estos encuentros siempre son buenos, pues promueven el encuentro de diversas culturas a nivel continental. y por ende, resulta en diversas actividades en donde se realiza intercambio de conocimientos entre los individuos. Uno de éstos, y que tuve oportunidad de asistir, fue el Freedom Not Fear Day, el cual, como su nombre lo indica, se trató de software libre.

Lo interesante de este encuentro fue que, aparte de ser personajes de diversas nacionalidades, eran personajes de diversas profesiones, dando diferente enfoque a las tecnologías libres según su ramo.  De lo más interesante que puedo reseñar en ese evento fue que presencié el OLPC que tanto había oido hablar desde hace mucho tiempo. la verdad me parecio un artilugio bastante bueno por sus capacidades y adecuado hacia el público que está enfocado.  Y a la vez, este aparato sirvió como punto de discusión entre Heinz (al cual por su apariencia y filosofía lo apodé Stallman Argentino) y la persona que llevaba a promocionar el OLPC (un gringo del cual no me recuerdo el nombre, pero hablaba bien el español, incluso mejor que yo).

Estuvo bastante bien el evento, sin embargo, como era de esperarse, y por los diferentes profesionales que estaban involucrados (muchos de ellos relacionados con ciencias sociales y políticas), tocaron un punto que prefiero evitar, la mezcla entre software libre y política.... algo que no me parece adecuado, y tuve que largarme del lugar lo antes posible. pero en fin, siempre es enriquecedor escuchar opiniones de gente de otras ramas hablando del modelo que está moviendo masas. el modelo de libertad.

Open Innovation and tapping the talent forum

The first thing I noticed was that Rohan Samarajiva, who was in
yesterdays panel, was in this panel too. However this time I understood his talk. It was interesting. He spoke of the fact that Asia can't adopt the business models that were developed in the west, basically because they were assuming that the
infrastructure for ICT exists already and that people can invest a large
portion of their budget in ICT.
Moreover, there is an interesting phenomena where the laws of supply and demand are applied. In the western world model the price reaches an equilibrium at a relatively high price. However, if you drastically cut the price so the worker force can afford the services (those who make only dollars a day), the market grows by the millions and the price becomes profitable again.
Another nice story told in the forum was told by H.Lewis which quoted goes something like this: "There are nearly no researches done who study the social aspect of ICT. Take the phone system for instance, its among the oldest ICT technology we have, but we still have no idea why people call one another. I'll give you an example: a husband calling his wife on the way home from work to ask if the is no milk in the fridge. If this was an important issue he could have check it in the morning or once he gets home. Thus saving on this 'unnecessary call'. The technology people would solve this right away by saying that there should be a link between the fridge and the husband's cellphone and will also design a smart fridge. However, you can all understand that this wasn't the true reason of this call." This was one of many criticisms on the fact that the industry isn't doing long term radical research that won't bear fruit in the first quarter, specifically in the social aspects of ICT.
I left the panel in the middle this time, although I really wanted to stay, it was fascinating! But the room was freezing and my throat was hurting the past two days. We started this joke here, that we always sit a the front rows and then slowly migrate backwards to a more tropical climate. Actually when I migrated all the way out I came across a surreal act - the Thai crew were dressed in Mexican outfits and there were plastic cacti everywhere. Apparently the coffee brake food's theme was Mexico. It seems I migrated too far south.

OLPC teaching session

After the break the youth members split, and a class about using the OLPC was opened. Anthony Wong, who is the director of OLPC Asia and China (Keller's parallel in Asia. BTW I successfully seem to catch him for talks every day so far). I saw the lecture would be only the basics so I volunteered beforehand to be an assistant in the session. So as usual, I was running around helping people with problems in the session. I better stress to the readers that if they think they know how the OLPC would work because its Linux based, they are mistaken. The laptop's system has all the Linux tools, but on top of it there is an interface there is a completely different called sugar. There is no folder structure. Only after 3 days, I figured out how to save on a usb stick in the GUI. During the session Wong showed different children applications. It troubled me since the youth forum members kept asking me about other things - like saving files and editing text and so on. At the end of the session I told him that and that most of them didn't feel they can't do anything with the computer. He however replied that the computer is not for them, it is there so they can show it to their governments with the kids applications. I still disagreed, and that they still need to feel its a fully capable computer in order to convince anyone to invest in it. I also had a conversation with the head of W3C Israel over skype at the end of the day, who agreed with Wong. He said that it needs to get ministers to say "wow", I do see that he has a point, but I think it won't work if the youth members won't show know its a computer, and not just a toy.

Elections

After the Session Walda Roseman (aka "the mother of the youth forum") announced that we shall now vote for the two youth forum members that would represent the youth forum's closing declaration, in front of the ITU tomorrow. Our task was to elect a male and female representative for this task. I personally did not plan on running. But as I entered the room I started to see that there is a large group that wants me to participate. According to the election laws one can nominate anyone including him or herself. So a few minutes later I found myself in a row with the rest of the opponents explaining why I could contribute and represent the forum. However at the end I was not elected. Actually I think it was a good thing, I had so many other things to do that I can't find time to sleep anyway. In a way I maybe should have not run at and support the ones who were elected (they were the ones I voted for). Sill I was told by the voters I came second.

We went shopping

After the elections we were taken to a big mall. I bought a few electronic things and was actually given a gift from one of the chaperones, Jazz music by the kind of Thailand, with notes! We ate and went back to the hotel.

Pictures of the day

Here are two pictures for today:

Princess Siam and I

At the morning we woke up even earlier than the day before, at 05:30, because the staff did not want us to e late to the opening ceremony that was staring the princess of Thailand. I don't have much to tell apart from the fact that is was pretty cool to be in such a royal event. However we got kinda stuck at the youth forum lounge because the princess decided to stay for lunch at the pavilion.

A sort talk with the Palestinian representatives

As we were stuck at the lounge I noticed the group form Palestine. I did not get the chance to exchange any words with them so I did. I would like to stress out that there is no hostility between any of us. On the contrary, we all want to make new friends. I talked to Muhammad who is from Ramallah, and we put up the idea of helping connectivity in Ramallah in combine with joint classrooms between Israel and Palestine. We said this should continue after the conference. I want to stress this - I truly believe that this is the way to end our ongoing conflict would be to talk and form human connections. It might sound like a cliche, but I do think we need to solve this from bottom to top as well as from top to bottom.

The campaign against censorship

Once of the problems I wanted to bring up during my visit was the censorship law that is in stages to be passed in the Israeli government that will, in effect, give the ministry of communication the way to block sites from the public. At the coffee break I talked with Howard Williams who was apart of the policy and regulation forum. Howard called a group with the heads of the youth forum (I am not sure who was who exactly, apart from Walda). The problem is that the ITU can't tell the governments what to do, and it tries to avoid the censorship problems because countries like China, Iran and others are part of it. So what I said is that we could try and tackle the problem where it lies. The law that is being passed in Israel, is cleverly disguised as a law to stop paedophiles and porn sites (what politician would vote against such a law?). The politicians have no idea what they are approving! In the news site I am part of, we tried to contact the members of parliament that voted for the law, but only got refuses to comment (this includes the political party that proposed the law!).

This has leaded us to the following idea: What we should do is write to a news paper aboard, that would be read by the members of parliament (something on the scale of "The Economist"), the article would show the absurd steps taken by the Israeli government (this law is non-democratic, this is no secret), and hope this kind of criticism will reach the minds of the voters. I also find it as my duty to bring this subject to the youth forum table, as reluctant as lot of people are to talk about it.

A big party

After the forum we were taken to a opening ceremony that was pretty impressive, we were asked to come there with our formal attire (aka the traditional clothing of our country). Unfortunately there is no formal attire in Israel, so I had had just nice clothes. There seemed to be a lot of VIP everywhere. Then suddenly all the friends of the youth forum started dancing on the stage, which was pretty exiting (you need to picture about 100 people from 50 countries dancing together in their traditional clothing).

Going out with the director of OLPC in Europe, Middle-East and Africa to a pub

After the party, I started talking to Matt Keller, he seemed to be the main presenter for OLPC in the conference. He invited Rotem, Davor (the representative of Australia) and myself to a pub! We spoke on the way about practically everything, from the fact the UN is not bold enough on things, to politics in Israel, he even said he is arriving to our area in September (to Lebanon). There is a sentence he said that I would like to quote here: "The UN withholds saying that a laptop per child in country X is going to contribute the country. Since it might damage the traditional way of life. If the question was - do you think your county would benefit from electricity, what would you think the answer would be?!". I think this give the basic insight of OLPC, that people tend to miss. ICT should be just like the public health service, electricity and anything that is provided to citizens.

Pictures of the day

Its more or less 04:26 now, so I must go to sleep now. Here are the chosen pictures of the day.

Yesterday at night my room-mate arrived. He is from a country called Kiribati. Its a small county in the Pacific, I am still finding it hard to pronounce his name. I hope to post when I get it :-) .

Today was pretty exhausting. We woke up at 06:00 and now the time is 00:09.

After breakfast we went to the Impact Hall, which is the central place for the conference that would start tomorrow. At the place there was an opening forum followed by a panel on technology and innovation.

During the day we all got an OLPC that was donated by the OLPC foundation! (yes, one laptop per youth fellow!). It seems that the foundation is merging in to the ITU, and OLPC donated 100 laptops to us.

Sadly we have connection problems in the area (HTTP authentication in the ITU seems like an oxymoron). However I hope this is the first step for me in entering the project - I can now develop of it!

Back to the daily routine - it seems all along the day the ITU was trying to push young people to be a part of it. Remember this organisation is really old, its prior to the UN and came up when the telegraph did. Now they need young new people to carry it on (after all this is good for everyone). There was a lot of emphasis on the fact that we have the power to change the lives of many and we are now a part of a network of people that can help us make this happen. This means that I can now channel requests to our county directly to the ITU people (good again because our country seems to have pretty weak connections to this wonderful union). They say we are now called Alumni (BTW it seems a single one is an alumnus), and that there are thousands that went thought this program, all and all it was pretty exiting.

At lunch I talk to Raza Jafari, the chairman of the board of directors of the ITU. We sat and talked about many things, I enjoyed the casual atmosphere. I asked him about the censorship law that is trying to be passed in Israel and if there is anything the ITU can do. He confirmed my thought that the ITU can't do anything since its a decision made by the government, however he did seem happy to see that some people in the county understand the hazard that will be caused by such a law and know it should be stoped. After that I asked him about the problem we face in Israel regarding the non-standard webpages in important places like the government and banks, this is a W3C related problem, still, I wondered if there is any help the ITU can give. He did agree its a worldwide problem, but he seemed to be optimistic that slowly the big organisations will understand the benefit and standardize themselves. Finally I asked him about some idea I heard once in a lecture on TED, about connecting network repeaters to cars to form a huge mesh network, turning any highway to a huge internet pipeline. To my surprise he said there is some project in process, and told me to remember this again in the year 2012 (so write that one down).

Following this there was a technology and innovation (that word IBM has a patent on), there was a hot debate about countries like Indonesia and Australia. Where the service providers don't have any interest to connect remote places, but are all focusing on the cities only. The outcome is monopolies of providers in remote areas, or worse - disconnectivity. It seems like the general solution was "use the right technology for the problem" (like WIFI meshes or satellite in those areas).

After the forum, I spoke to one of its participants Araon Chippendale from Australia, he is a radio astronomer in the microwave spectrum, his superior is the one who invented the wifi chip and sold it to Cisco. We went on to talk about astronomy and he briefly mentioned that his thesis is about galaxy formation (that stuff interests me).

After this I talked to  Dan Duzion from the Philippines, he is working on a project to recycle and set up old computers for schools with new Linux-based software. I am happy to catch someone like that here because I want to connect him to an Israeli team that is doing just that. Everyone can benefit from everyone else's experience.

At the end of the day we went to a show for tourists with semi-traditional dancing. It was specular visually, but not much connected to the ancient tradition. None the less it was fun.

Here are pictures of the day:

The best place to start is the Sugar on Ubuntu page on the Sugar Labs wiki.

Intrepid

The Ubuntu Sugar Team, which I (cheer)lead, has finally synced Sugar 0.82 from Debian into Intrepid. There are probably a whole bunch of bugs to be discovered in the packaging and setup, so if you're interested in Sugar, and running Intrepid, please install, test, file bugs, and we'll get them sorted out ASAP before Intrepid releases. The Sugar Team's TODO list is on our Packages page. If you want to get involved, contact me or show up in #ubuntu-sugarteam on freenode.

Launchpad now has a Sucrose project, representing the Sugar components as well as some of the packaged activities, which gives a nice overview of what makes up Sugar.

Thanks to Luke Faraone (FFM) and James Westby for the help!

Hardy

I've updated Sugar and some of the packaged activities to the latest stable 0.82.x releases in the Sugar Team PPA. If you're running Hardy this is the repository to use for the freshest Sugar experience this side of building from source!

I should have the rest of the activities updated in the next few days.

So, here I visit the OLPC team and get the skinny from the CEO and then talked with the engineer who built its innovative wireless features (hint: dude is smart and the wireless features on the OLPC are truly innovative). Learned a lot and learned about the deal with Microsoft too.

Oh, and next month they are bringing back the popular "Give one, get one" deal where you can buy an OLPC for $400 for yourself and that'll get one donated to a kid on your behalf.

From a design standpoint, one detail I find interesting in this interview is when Kane explains that because many of these OLPC computers are often used by children in very rural areas, they need to minimize exposure to dust and moisture. So to do this, they have built in latches so that when the student closes up the computer to head home, these latches cover any open ports. Kind of interested to know if this design insight came from doing a little ethnography, or if it was was easily anticipated in the lab.

On other hand, what I would have liked to hear Kane talk more about is how they handle internet connectivity. How do they establish internet connections for the children in such rural areas? Through a satellite? Or perhaps, OLPC is not pursuing that at the moment, since the primary tool for internet access in developing countries is the cell phone.

]]> http://cultureconundrum.wordpress.com/?p=209 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:14:40 +0000 Johny Ho http://cultureconundrum.de.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/bbcs-digital-planet/ A couple weeks ago BBC's Gareth Mitchell and Michelle Martin were in Brazil where they produced content for their Radio programme "Digital Planet", the first show of the series was already on the air / on the web, when they were still here.

You can check out this week's show, which it's the second part of the Brazil Coverage in the link below, in which I make a special appearance, sounding as weird as possible (please remind me to breathe before speaking - now I'm worried if our Tales from the Verse story readers understand the Translation Tips I sent in to help them).

Digital Planet in Brazil Part 2

Here's a backstage video.

This fall PS005 and Teaching Matters are piloting a new vision for school in the digital age; one where all members of the community can connect to learn at any time. PS 5 was selected as a pilot school for low cost computers (every child will receive an xo laptop). To ensure that ALL students can benefit from a computer that goes from school to home, Teaching Matters will work with the local community to pilot low-cost wireless internet access available to ALL students at home.

Our hope is to marry low cost laptops to low cost community wireless access- making a new vision of school possible for all students.

Low Cost Wireless Access -- How?

We found out that almost all students lived within a four block radius of the school. Our plan is to experiment with ten to fifteen apartments (to start!) and create something called a mesh network. This technology extends the reach of existing internet access. In a city where many students lack access to the Internet at home, it is critical that communities start getting creative.

We are seeking private donors to expand this project. Contact us at lguastaferro@teachingmatters.org or call 212 870-3505.

The laptops are for the very poor villages in Peru.  According to Oscar Becerra, the general director for educational technologies, the capital, Lima, is “not-poor-enough”, to receive any laptops.  In Lima, they have the luxury of electricity and internet cafes.  OLPC’s green laptops will be distributed in the Amazon and other remote regions in Peru.  These laptops will be used by first through sixth graders.  Getting the laptops to the remote areas is not a difficult task but preventing them from being stolen is a major concern.  A plan was devised to ensure the laptops will get to the kids safely.  The laptops will be digitally locked at production.  When the laptops arrive at their destination the teachers will be given a USB drive with a code to unlock them.  Another problem is that most teachers in Peru are not tech savvy.  OLPC will train the teachers how to operate and maintain the laptops.  They will also learn how to effectively use the installed softwares in their school's curriculum.

I like how the author focuses on the little girl and describe everything around her, this paints a vivid picture of Lima, Peru.  The little girl helps reinforce the name of the article, “Una Laptop por Niño”, even though she will not be eligible for the free laptop.  It was an excellent introduction for the article.  In the third paragraph there are some statistics about Peru’s education and school quality levels.  I am curious if a list of the 31 countries that were surveyed would have make the article stronger.  Under the heading, A Goat Called Paloma, in the first sentence of the second paragraph, I wonder if “earlier” was used instead of “later" would it make the sentence clearer.  Overall, I think “Una Laptop por Niño” was an informative article.  

Site oficial do Magalhães

Softwares da Microsoft para Magalhães

W Niue, państwie o powierzchni 260 kilometrów kwadratowych, mieszka nieco ponad dwa tysiące ludzi, głównie Polinezyjczyków. Na co dzień mieszkańcy używają dwóch języków: angielskiego i niue.

Dzięki inicjatywie OLPC na wyspę trafiło pięćset komputerów przenośnych. Koszt każdego z nich to około dwieście dolarów.

Niue jest też pierwszym państwem na świecie oferującym mieszkańcom i odwiedzającym je darmowy bezprzewodowy dostęp do Internetu na całym swoim terytorium.

Źródło: Niue ma po laptopie dla każdego ucznia, 4Press.pl, 22 sierpnia 2008, za: Fareastgizmos.

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/low-price-laptops-tested-at-city-schools/86861/

El presidente de Venezuela Hugo Chávez, ordenó la compra de un millón de ordenadores portátiles basados en los Netbooks de Intel diseñados para escolares de países en desarrollo. Sólo este pedido, es un 50% superior a los equipos gestionados por el OLPC de Negroponte, el gran precursor de este tipo de equipos con su campaña “un portátil por niño”.

El contrato se firmó el sábado en Portugal en el marco de un proyecto más amplio en tecnología, energía, vivienda e infraestructura. No se conocen los términos económicos del acuerdo pero se habla que los ordenadores llegarían a cambio de petróleo.

Los portátiles se fabricarán en Portugal con licencia de Intel y sobre la base del Classmate, un netbook diseñado principalmente para sistemas educativos de países en vía de desarrollo y que en su última revisión cuenta con pantalla de 9 pulgadas, disco duro de 30 GB (complementando a unidades de estado sólido de 2 o 4 Gbytes), 512 Mbytes de memoria RAM, baterías de 6 celdas para 5 horas de uso y procesadores Atom más chipsets de Intel.

Los equipos para Venezuela llevarán pre-instalado una de las versiones Linux certificadas por Intel para estos modelos: Mandriva Linux Discovery o Tuquito Classmate.

Fuente

Visto en | isoslinux

Правительство Уго Чавеса (Hugo Chavez) заключило контракт с португальским OEM-производителем на поставку 1 млн. ноутбуков Intel Classmate PC для школ и университетов. Поставка будет осуществляться в два этапа: первая часть отправится в конце 2008 г., а наибольшая – в I половине будущего года. Договор заключен в рамках $3-миллиардного торгового соглашения между двумя странами, сообщает eWeek.

Компьютеры будут изготавливаться в Португалии и поставляться в Венесуэлу под брендом Magellan PC, сообщают в корпорации Intel. При этом не исключено, что некоторые детали ноутбуков будут изготавливаться и в самой Венесуэле.

Текущий контракт самый масштабный за всю историю Classmate – еще ни в одну страну не поставлялось такое количество ноутбуков, какое планируется поставить Венесуэлу. Ранее, в июле 2008 г., власти Португалии договорились с Intel на производство и поставку школам и университетам Португалии 500 тыс. компьютеров.

Ноутбуки, изготавливаемые для Португалии и Венесуэлы, предлагаются с разными операционными системами. В первом случае это модификация Microsoft Windows, во втором – система семейства Linux, разработанная в Венесуэле. Технические характеристики лэптопов не сообщаются за исключением того, что в них будет стоять процессор Intel Atom.

Активное распространение Classmate PC корпорация Intel начала ранее в 2008 г. после того, как объявила о своем выходе из конкурирующего проекта OLPC. Судя по всему, данный шаг пошел Intel только на пользу. Суммарный объем поставок Classmate PC только лишь в Португалию и Венесуэлу составляет 1,5 млн. ноутбуков, в то время как OLPC реализовала всего лишь 700 тыс. компьютеров.

CNews.ru

Attorno al 15 ottobre dovrebbero essere consegnati, con tanto di cerimonia ufficiale. In vallecamonica dovrebbero venir consegnati 50 esemplari.

L'OLPC è stato il primo esperimento di netbook, ora incarnato negli eeepc e cloni che hanno invaso i supermercati. La progressiva sostituzione dei supporti cartacei con quelli informatici è un indubbio vantaggio e la scelta di puntare su un prodotto del 'OLPC mi sembra  buona.

To register go to: http://www.bu.edu/forse

Click on the ForSE 2008 link.

Opening Plenary Panel 9.00 to 10.45 am

• Nishith Acharya, Executive Director, Deshpande Foundation.
• Naveen Jha, Director of Programs, Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship
• Meenakshi Verma Agrawal, Program Officer, Global Exchange Programs, Deshpande Foundation

Closing Keynote 4.00 to 4.30 pm

• Keynote Speaker Gerald Chertavian, CEO and Founder, Year Up. Recipient of the 2003 Social Entrepreneurship Award by the Manhattan Institute.

Track Themed Panels from 11.15 to 12.15

Adapting to Climate Change

• Lynne Carter, Director, Adaptation Network
• Paul H. Kirshen, Research Professor, Director, Water, Systems, Science and Society, Tufts University
• Missy Stults, Sr. Program Officer, Northeast, ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)

Mobile Solutions for the Masses

• Jhonatan Rotberg, Founder, Director, Next Billion Network
• Amir Alexander Hasson, CEO, United Villages
• Barry Vercoe, Professor, MIT & Advisor OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)

Beyond Microfinance: Opportunities for change

• Chandni Ohri, Regional Director, South Asia, Grameen Foundation
• Sarita Gupta, Vice President, Women's World Banking
• Tanya Palit, Project Manager, Grameen America
• Dr. Jeffrey Blander, Executive Director, Bienmoyo Foundation, Course Director, Harvard Health Science & Technology Division

Building a Sustainable Food Supply

• Kristen McCormack, Faculty Director, Public and Nonprofit Management Program, Boston University School of Management
• Florence Reed, Founder, Sustainable Harvest International
• Margaret Williams, Executive Director, The Food project

Cultivating a Generation - Engaging Young Entrepreneurs

• Xing Hu, Youth Venture, Ashoka.org
• Alvona Cunningham, Education Manager, JA Academy and Scholars Program
• Clare McCully, Executive Director, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship

Case Studies 1.00 to 2.30 pm

Environment

• Case Presenter: Mishi Jaggi and Bob Beauchamp, Nano Decopier, JMD Manufacturing
• Case discussion moderated by: Peter Russo, Executive-In-Residence/Senior Lecturer, Strategy and Policy Department, Director, Entrepreneurship Programs - ITEC, Boston University School of Management

Mobile Solutions for the Masses

• Case Presenter: Click Diagnostic
• Case discussion moderated by: Tilak Subrahmanian

Beyond Microfinance: Opportunities for change

• Case Presenter: Eric Melin, Founder, Philanthropist.org
• Case discussion moderated by: Ramesh Advani, Vice President of Finance, India Operations, Fidelity Investments

Building a Sustainable Food Supply

• Case Presenter: Lydia K. Bergen, Associate Director, Strategy and Outreach, Sustainable Fisheries Initiative, New England Aquarium
• Case discussion moderated by: Barry Horwitz, Horwitz & Company LLC

Cultivating a Generation - Engaging Young Entrepreneurs

• Case Presenter: Julie Nessen, Co-founder & Executive Director, Young Entrepreneurs Alliance
• Case discussion moderated by: Paul McManus, Director International Programs, ITEC, Boston University

Sustainable Ventures for non-profits

• Case Presenter: Roger Wellington, Director, Abundant Table Enterprises & Susan Miskell, Business Operations Manager, Abundant Table Enterprises
• Case Discussion moderator to be finalized

Track Themed Panels from 2.45 to 3.45 pm

Mobile Solutions for the Masses

• David Reich, Founder & CEO, Assured Labor
• Vishwanath Anantraman, Co-Founder, Dimagi

Cultivating a Generation - Engaging Young Entrepreneurs

• Barton Kunstler, Author, The Hothouse Effect
• Preeta Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Strategy, International Business School, Brandeis University
• Joshua Schuler, Executive Director, Lemelson-MIT Program, MIT

Sustainable Ventures for non-profits

• Tim Prestero, Founder and CEO, Design Than Matters
• Alex Chisholm, Executive Director and Founder, Learning Games Network
• Therese Ellis, CEO, Common Impact
• Andrew Motta, Operations Director, Artists For Humanity

Workshops - from 2.45 to 3.45 pm

Careers in Social Entrepreneurship

• Presented by Marty Rod, Director of Entrepreneur Outreach, Ashoka

Marketing for Social Entrepreneurs

• Presented by Beverly Schwartz, Vice President and Director of Global Marketing, Ashoka

Strategic Philanthropy: Implications of Recent Trends

• Presented by Anne Radday, Philanthropy Researcher, Social Innovation Forum

Post desenvolvido no Atlântico, onde passarei também a escrever...

Today I want to talk about Choices. Choices which are good, which make us feel good, which we feel good about what others have taken as well as choices which make us feel cheap or feel cheated or just plain annoyed.

I am going to talk about few interesting clean way of doing things and couple of things which could have been done in a better way.

The first bit of interesting understanding and news which I came to know about is Packt . Packt is an online publishing company which has taken the onus of publishing books and documentation on some of the lesser known Free and Open Source Projects. While till here they are similar to others what Packt has done is taken one step more, they have organized competitions and give prizes to FOSS projects which are chosen by the community. This is a good way to grow their own business as well as have a thriving  ecosystem around the same. They seem to be on a similar path as Tim O' Reilly is but a slightly different approach.

The other good piece of news comes from a person called Anoop john. He is taking part as well as organizing in something called freedom walk . The walk is very much on the lines of the famous Dandi march as was taken by the Great Mahatma Gandhiji, the postle of non-violence. I like the idea and do hope many people take part in the same. The idea is the same, as Shri Gandhiji took the walk to free from the salt produced just by East India Company, similarly he wants to spread awareness that there is more than a majority view in computer software industry. I would encourage everybody if they can spare few minutes or couple or hours to make it meaningful for themselves as well as anoop john himself.

Another interesting one is a site www.blog.co.in . Its an indian site which gives access to blogging. What is interesting is that they have used wordpress to run it.

I had an interesting experience about it which I would like to share with you all. When I first encountered blog.co.in I felt it was just another blogging space. I saw the homepage and it did not have the footer which it says now (Run by Wordpress Engine) , while I was seeing it, on another tab I was managing my wordpress blog or showing it to a friend. She has a blog on blog.co.in . She remarked and I quote  "The UI of both the sites seem so similar" . This was enough to perk up my interest and out I went on the site to find more. I found the information in the About page which said it used wordpress. I immediately wrote the contact form (they could have had a contact us e-mail id, even if its blackhole)

The answer I got was more like who are you or something to that effect.

The net-net of the back & forth ensued that they put up wordpress at the footer. I would have certainly not pursued them if it was not a community sorta site or they are looking to make that.

The only sorta negative or depressing news seems to be coming in the OLPC front. I had blogged about my smallish experience with OLPC couple of months ago. It was a nice experience and the OLPC is pretty much an interesting machine. Reliance has been handling the whole thing from the beginning using another name Digital Bridge Foundation and nobody knows whether the project is heading, least of all the community. Atleast nothing seems to be clear in the India mailing list. There is just a big long reactionary phase/thread going right now in the mailing list.

While it would be premature to say anything more about the fate of the Digital Briege Foundation, it would be better if Reliance or the Digital Bridge Foundation be more participative, be more open about their activities. Even if you look at the site its been couple of months and its still under construction. I do hope there is a silver lining at the end of the road.

Peace out :)

Hace unas semanas me dirigía a una fiesta que organizaba el lugar donde vivo, en un conocido bar de Wellington, cuando al salir, me encuentro con un grupo de personas, con las computadoras del Plan Ceibal sobre la mesa.  Pensé que había tomado mucha cerveza, pero reconocí a un argentino, en el medio de todos ellos. Martín, los estaba organizando.

Lo que ví fue un grupo de jóvenes no mayores de 35 años,  diseñando software para la computadora, en un bar de Wellington, en sus horas libres. Martín me explicaba que lo hacían por su compromiso con el proyecto, y que estos jóvenes, eran de todo el mundo.  En este caso, había irlandeses, ingleses y Martín. Y ahí entendí, porque esto es aún más importante.

Porque en un mundo donde parece que lo único que existe es la iniciativa individual en beneficio propio (no hay nada de malo con eso, el problema viene con la exageración), y cualquier rastro de altruismo es visto como sospechoso, estos jóvenes estaban ahí y desde su mesa, eran personal calificado (y del caro), trabajando en el otro extremo del mundo, para el Plan Ceibal de Uruguay, y seguramente para todos los demás . Esto es, lo que nadie podrá parar de la globalización, ya no solo de los mercados, sino de la solidaridad. Mientras en las sociedades más opulentas, la búsqueda por el sentido de la vida se hace más obvio (es evidente, por más dinero que se tenga, el agujero existencial no se puede tapar), algunos jóvenes deciden dedicar horas extras, a cambiar el mundo. Si el Plan Ceibal sale bien, es el equivalente a una nueva alfabetización digital. Es poner en manos de todos una herramienta que podrá servir, indudablemente para agregar valor a la economía, pero mucho más importante,  será una herramienta que potenciará el conocer el mundo, y tratar de aprovechar las oportunidades que brinda.  Y si lo que ví en esta pequeña isla del Pacífico, se repite alrededor del mundo,  el cielo es el límite.

Quien dijo, que todo está perdido...

Quien dijo que todo está perdido...

El hecho de que la opción misma exista es controversial, pero escapa un poco a nuestro ámbito. El asunto más local es que esta adquisición refleja la completa falta de comprensión del proyecto, o al menos de su intención original, por parte de las autoridades encargadas en el Ministerio de Educación. Básicamente esto se convirtió en la compra de 100 mil juguetitos verde fosforescente, totalmente desprovistos del potencial intrínsecamente revolucionario que tenía el concepto original.

Me pongo así un poco radical porque todo el chongo de la XO-1 era, precisamente, el que era maleable: el usuario, el niño que jugara con ella, tenía en sus manos acceso a todo el sistema, a desarmarlo, entenderlo, rearmarlo, destruirlo si quería. Era software libre, que le permitía un acceso que no sólo incrementaba su conocimiento sobre el aparato, sino que modificaba su actitud hacia la tecnología. Difundía a gran escala la idea de que la información estaba allí para jugar con ella, para hacerla más interesante. Ahora, sólo difunde los horribles botones Fisher Price de Windows XP y un sistema operativo que decide las cosas por ti, y encima, las decide mal.

Ahora, acá me vuelvo un poco loco: con esta decisión, el gobierno no estaría sino cimentando a largo plazo aquello que ya es moneda corriente hoy. La información no es pública, el ciudadano no tiene derecho a inmiscuirse en las misteriosas maquinaciones de un sistema que le debe ser ajeno en todo sentido. La decisión de inutilizar el sentido profundo de la XO-1 es la manifestación tecnológico-educativa de la reacción a la formidable campaña Adopta un Congresista (a la cual si no me he sumado aún es porque no consigo tiempo para buscar un fax). En la misma medida, el Congreso cierra filas para preservar la oscuridad, de la misma manera que el Windows XP cierra los puertos para que los niños no puedan saber, nunca, qué es lo que está pasando detrás del velo de la ignorancia.

Todo es consistente.

La información quiere ser libre.