JonCamfieldBlog: OLPC Give One Get One: A Learning Experience?

Over at OLPCNews, Wayan's written a wrap-up of the Give one, Get one (G1G1) program by the OLPC Foundation to date, and its successes and shortcomings. Here's my two cents (actually now 5 cents due to changes in the post, system upgrades, and increases in the raw cost of nickel):

In a way, the logistical and support problems of G1G1 will (hopefully?) be a long-term benefit to the project. Having the fact that the laptop does not automagically inspire creative self-learning in 100% of the cases, and that there are some confusing bugs that require Deep Linux Magic, and that physical distribution is a Hard Problem all sound familiar. They're are all issues that OLPCNews has pointed out as severely lacking in OLPC's nebulous implementation plan. I hope that the OLPC Foundation will learn from their mistakes (not that they have before), as they move from G1G1 geek early adopters, just about the friendliest, most forgiving, and technically competent crowd around; to government buyers who expect the hype to be real and expect things that they've paid big bucks for to show up on time (or at least on a schedule) with support materials and staff.