From the MIT Media Laboratory:
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, has named Khaled Hassounah as their new Director for the Middle East and Africa.
While the price for the device is catchy, i'm more interested in what is going on the behind the scenes to get this product in the schools. This is the key as the laptop embodies coordination among Universities like MIT, governments, and schools. Links like these are what it will take to to help equalize the uneven distribution of ICT on the planet.
A quote from the news release regarding Hassounah:
He will also engage with the open source community and content providers, focusing on the benefit of maximizing their contribution to the project and its success.
Since the OS for these devices is Linux-based, I'm interested to see how the relationship between the open source community and the OLPC organization take shape. This is a great opportunity for both groups to channel peer production into the places that need it the most.
