Low-cost laptop program sees a key leadership defection (AP)

Whatever.  The point is NOBODY in OLPC seems to be in it for the kids.  Negroponte is in it
for self-aggrandisement.  Some others are in it to spread open-source evangelism.  Some others
are in it because it seems a cool hacking project.  The manufacturers are in it for the money.
And what part of OLPC, precisely, benefits the kids -- at any rate, benefits them more than
buying them $100 worth of textbooks, or even $10 worth?  I'm in India and $10 here will get
you two or three years worth of textbooks, which is more than the average life of a laptop --
particularly one as prone to abuse as the XO is likely to be.  I rarely applaud decisions the
Indian government makes, but the decision not to join what was, at best, a misguided egotrip
of Negroponte and, at worst, an active scam, was absolutely spot-on.

Unfortunately, in a hierarchical organization like OLPC, the direction
*is* set from above.  Salaried people on a team have their golden chains
and the price of the gold is to take direction, or leave.  We're seeing
some courageous people making that choice.

Of course, *volunteer* work is entirely another matter.  But there is
an enormous hurdle in trying to overcome an opposing direction set 
monolithically from above.  When leadership sells out to Microsoft it
shouldn't be any surprise when the people making the project wake up to
find the big fat attractive wooden horse their bosses have invited into
the castle overnight has more than a few unwelcome surprises waiting for them.  

Shame on Nicholas Negroponte.  Shame!  Shame!

Don Barry,
Cornell University