On August 4th, 2006 I bought the domain name OLPCNews.com with three pretty simple but ambitious goals:
Wayan in the early days
- Participate in the discussion around OLPC: I'd seen how any mention of the project online created an uproar, and as an up-and-coming blogger, I wanted to be part of the conversation
- Change the way OLPC was implemented: I've always thought that OLPC was a great idea, with clock-stopping hot technology (for the time), and yet absolutely no clue how to implement. I hoped OLPC News could help educate and improve OLPC's deployment practices.
- Establish myself in ICT4D: Back in 2006, I was just 2 years into this industry and wanted to make a name for myself around what I knew best - rural ICT deployments
When I first started, I felt I was screaming into the wind. There was so much pro-OLPC hype and I was but just some random blogger, I never thought anyone was listening to OLPC News, and that I'd never reach my goals. But then I started to get traction in the media, with other bloggers and ICT thought leaders, and then one day I got a visit from Robert Duval. No, not the actor, but a consigliere sent by OLPC to warn me that yes, in deed, OLPC News was having impact.
OLPC News Impact
After five years of writing 9,000 posts and reading over 8,000 comments, I am convinced that OLPC News has achieved all three of these goals. OLPC News has not only participated in the discussion around OLPC, it is central to it and shaped and expanded the conversation like no other online platform.
OLPC News has made a difference in the way OLPC was implemented - directly through posts that effected change - and by creating offline discussions and actions by countless OLPC community members from grassroots educators to leading technologists. OLPC News has been good for my career too. I am now well known and well respected for my candor and expertise in rural ICT deployments.
So its with great pride and much happiness that I step back from OLPC News. After five years of near daily obsession with everything One Laptop Per Child, it is time for others to take over. And in fact they already have.
OLPC News today
Where once I wrote many of the articles on OLPC News and it was a lone voice on critical issues, now we have many, many observers, critics, and supporters looking at OLPC, backed up by actual academics, researchers, and institutions with much more resources and brain power than this humble blog.
The conversation is also increasingly in Spanish, as Peru and Uruguay lead OLPC deployments worldwide, with other South American countries doing their own olpc-type deployments. Hence our call for Sapnish language OLPC News writers and the split at OLPC itself.
From here, expect the esteemed Christoph Derndorfer to be leading OLPC News. He has the South American contacts, has deeper connections into the OLPC community, and has even developed a deployment framework for any type of ICT deployment.
I will certainly still be a part of OLPC News, but its time for me to transition too.
Recent Comments
Thanks, Wayan, for your great work on this over these past 5 years!
Good riddance. Do you promis not to return?
You're not that lucky
Congratulations Wayan on your work and efforts to help educators. I recently heard a great expression that best sums up your efforts and other leaders.
"Pioneers get slaughtered, settlers thrive and prosper." To the OLPC folks and others who have been working to the successful introduction, keep moving forward.
Best of luck.
"Convincing" engineers, bureaucrats and politicians (all at the same time!!!) you'll need lots of it :-)
Thank you.
Congrats for 5 years of this great workspace!
Five years already? What a difference half a decade make :-)
Wayan, thanks for all the efforts and success with your new efforts. And I extend this to all those who helped you.
Hi Wayan,
I would like to join everybody above in thanking your for your great work and wishing you the best in your new undertakings.
I have been rather off the radar lately as I have had a rather complicated time healthwise. However, have received all your updates. And although you know that as a Uruguayan I have my serious qualms about the way OLPC is being implemented here, it has been very useful to get your regular updates. Promise to contribute as a Latin American voice soon.
Welcome Christoph, promise I´ll contribute soon.
Hi Wayan,
I would like to join everybody above in thanking your for your great work and wishing you the best in your new undertakings.
I have been rather off the radar lately as I have had a rather complicated time healthwise. However, have received all your updates. And although you know that as a Uruguayan I have my serious qualms about the way OLPC is being implemented here, it has been very useful to get your regular updates. Promise to contribute as a Latin American voice soon.
Welcome Christoph, promise I´ll contribute soon.
Wayan, With all blogs I think there comes a time when one wants to step back -- or leave the medium altogether! By making this space much more than a simple blog of one, but a community of many, you're leaving it in a place where it can continue. Your work in this field is an inspiration.
best,
Clevergirl.