OLPC reshuffles, gets new president and COO

There's been a rash of defections at OLPC lately, with NickNeg himself looking to leave soon, so it's nice to hear that the charitable endeavor is filling in the vacancies. Only it's not, really. Although Negroponte has said that's he looking for someone "similar to Kofi Annan" to lead the project, it looks like he's just shuffling people around, instead promoting part-time CFO Charles Kane to President and COO. Negroponte is going to focus on fund-raising and promotion, while Kane will handle the day-to-day matters of actually manufacturing and distributing the laptops. That's certainly a good first step -- and perhaps Charles Kane is really Kofi Annan's long-lost twin -- but with developers suddenly miffed over Negroponte's overtures to Microsoft and talent leaving from the top, it seems like OLPC would do well to bring in some fresh vision and leadership, no?

[brandon_r87 @ May 3rd 2008 8:36PM]

Rosebud...

[mrpoo @ May 3rd 2008 9:50PM]

Ha! Beat me to it. Finally a first post that is worthy of such lofty placement.

I would like to see Mr. Kane's house... if he ever finishes it. Who remembers the long-forgotten One Newspaper Per Child concept?

[lobo @ May 3rd 2008 9:44PM]

Let the OLPC be without microsoft


Mister Negroponte, do everyone a favor and stop working for OLPC

[ethana2 @ May 3rd 2008 10:44PM]

I have to say I agree.

[awong @ May 3rd 2008 9:45PM]

What does a CFO know about technology? Zilch! Squeezing every penny to build crappy products!

[tekdroid @ May 4th 2008 1:21AM]

the dark spot and halo on the screens of the laptops in the pic is...?

What I want to know is whether they replaced/ fixed/ redesigned the keyboards that were having issues staying in one piece.

I haven't tried Sugar, and maybe it really wasn't moving in the direction they hoped fast enough, hence their current focus on XP. But the cool definitely stops as soon as Windows is mentioned. Microsoft would likely be doing them no favours pricing XP for them, too. Making it hard to compete with other companies doing the same (including Microsoft).

What I know is I want the awesome battery life, solar (and crank) charging and low-maintenance goodness in a device like this ... and I want to be able to buy it locally. If it drifts down to the masses, I consider that a great thing overall.

2.5 hour laptops with no real charging options but the AC mains have got to go. It's beyond a joke, yet they still flood the market. At best they are AC-bound creatures with occasional frolics outdoors. This is an outdoors creature with awesome battery life and real options when charging outdoors (both solar and manual).

[Rocketboy @ May 4th 2008 2:18PM]

"Although Negroponte has said that's he looking for someone "similar to Kofi Annan" to lead the project"

As in willing to overlook corruption, geneocide, and unable to enforce his orginization's own resolutions?

[Cedric @ May 4th 2008 2:51PM]

Yes, the laptops are technologically sweet, but OPLC has just been one big white elephant -- with developing countries expected to pay part of the cost of the laptops. Given the these countries don't even have pencils or pit toilets for schools, I think OLPC is a classic case of good intentions in the wrong direction.

[Peter @ May 4th 2008 10:18PM]

Having ggot one in the G1G1 program I can only say how sad I am that a great concept got totally f**ked up. For which I blame Negroponte and the idiot "professional educators" !!

Having seen Asus Eee I realise just how bad the XO laptop is. Time to exit Negroponte.

[tekdroid @ May 5th 2008 5:04AM]

what did you like in the eee PC that you didn't like in theirs?

[ThePete @ May 5th 2008 10:17PM]

Tekdroid, the black smudge and the halo? That's the desktop. Sugar is a little different from a windows-based (lower case "w") computer. As a G1G1 donor I know without having ever seen an eeepc in person that Sugar is not a good thing. It may function, but it's hobbled--in my opinion, it doesn't take full advantage of the hardware. I have a Win98 laptop from 1998 with crappier specs that I can do more with.

But Tekdroid, come on--the cool stops once Micro$oft is mentioned? It doesn't matter what you put on the XO--the XO is cool. It was designed to cost $200 to make and that's how much it costs to buy if you're a 3rd world country or NGO or whatever. And they were available to the masses last year (though be glad you didn't get one due to Sugar not being ready for primetime). Other things that are cool about the XO: dual-mode display--I think "real" laptop designers should be ashamed for not doing something similar on all laptops. Seriously.

Battery life is good--I can get 3.5 hours, longer with the with the display in B&W mode (though you'd expect more based on the reputation of the XO). The tablet mode is great--there aren't many other lappies the size of the XO that have a tablet mode (though a touch screen would be BRILLIANT).

Regarding the keyboard, I don't know why everyone expects these things to be indestructible, but mine has yet to fall apart. I do have an issue where the control key sticks, but it unsticks, too.

As for solar/hand charging? I'm with you, but so far no one has come up with a practical alternative for the old wall-sockets. The XO takes *just* too much power to utilize one of those Solios and even if it could take power from one, it'd take all damn day to charge.

I just wish people could give OLPC the credit they deserve for, first, designing a cool little laptop like the XO and, second, doing a great job of drawing attention to their cause. Inexpensive laptops for poor folks. Personally, I believe that countries that can't afford to pay for paper and pencils, *should* buy XOs so that all they need to worry about is providing energy--which a lot of 3rd world areas manage to get for their TVs.

Is OLPC or the XO perfect? Nope. But show me one company that has had as positive an effect on the world.