Sridhar Dhanapalan: Australia's Toughest Linux Deployment - OSDC 2011

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• published: 23 Nov 2011
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A 300,000 seat Linux deployment is nothing to sneeze at. What if those seats were actually children's laps? By providing a flexible learning platform, OLPC Australia aims to create a sustainable and comprehensive programme to enhance opportunities for every child in remote Australia. What's more, we plan to achieve this by 2014. In focusing on the most remote areas of the continent, the mission is by no means easy. These areas are typically not economically viable for a business to service, hence the need for a not-for-profit in the space. Expertise for hardware and software is virtually non-existent. Settlements are small and spread very far apart. Environmental conditions, cultures and lifestyles vary wildly. They are very different worlds from the coastal cities where the bureaucracies are based. Even within communities, differences abound. Schools often stand in stark contrast to their surrounds. Government and business interests have also made their marks. This talk will outline how OLPC Australia has developed a solution to suit Australian scenarios. Comparisons and contrasts will be made with other "computers in schools" programmes, OLPC deployments around the world and corporate IT projects. For example, standard sysadmin practice typically mandates tight, centralised control over all systems and infrastructure. The OLPC Australia approach is the exact opposite. By promoting flexibility and ease of use, the programme can achieve sustainability by enabling management at the grass-roots level. The XO laptops themselves are built especially for education. They are extraordinarily rugged as well as being inexpensive. They are also totally repairable in the field, with minimal skill required. Training is conducted online, and an online community allows participants nationwide to share resources. Key to the ongoing success of the programme is active engagement with all stakeholders, and a recognition of the total cost of ownership over a five-year life cycle. Sridhar Dhanapalan is the Engineering Manager (CTO) at One Laptop per Child Australia. His primary duty is to ensure a reliable technology platform to facilitate learning and knowledge sharing in remote communities. Amongst a variety of FLOSS contributions, Sridhar has previously been a board member of Linux Australia and President of the Sydney Linux Users Group (SLUG). He is currently very active in the One Laptop per Child community. Sridhar has given presentations at various events including linux.conf.au, SLUG, Software Freedom Day and Document Freedom Day. Sridhar also has professional experience in running training workshops for groups of up to 50 people. Sridhar maintains a blog, which is widely syndicated across FLOSS community blog aggregators. Check out http://2011.OSDC.com.au/AUST for more information.