Thanks for answering the roll call. And now, a question.

[Tom Hoffman]

On 4/16/07, Greg Dekoenigsberg <gdk at redhat.com> wrote:

> The question, for those who want to skip to the end:
>
> What should Red Hat be doing in the education space?

> But OLPC isn't enough.  For one thing, it's designed to solve problems
> that kids in the developed world don't have, and thus may be regarded by
> many in the developed world as an expensive toy -- especially when a
> desktop system can be had for $300 or less.  (This is true even in some of
> OLPC's target markets; you wouldn't believe the resentment I heard from
> some Brazilians at being considered "too poor for real computers".)  For
> another, it may not work in the classroom nearly as well as we think; if
> even one or two kids leave their laptops at home, suddenly you don't have
> a one-to-one classroom anymore.  Most of all, though, it's just unwise to
> put all of your eggs in one basket -- and that is precisely what Red Hat
> has been doing in the worldwide K12 space with OLPC.

I think Red Hat should put all its eggs in the OLPC basket.

I don't see anything about the XO and Sugar that wouldn't solve
problems right here in the south side of Providence, RI.  That is,
unless OLPC Just Doesn't Work, in which case it will be of no use to
anyone, here or abroad.

In particular, Sugar is probably the only chance we get for a decade
or more to craft a desktop environment and suite of applications
specifically for learning and collaboration.  Even if schools don't
start using the XO hardware, I'd like to see Red Hat making it easy to
use Sugar in schools, on thin clients, etc.

We need to do what we can to make OLPC a success and as a community
ride on its coattails into US schools.

--Tom