By Ryan Paul | Published: May 15, 2008 - 09:21AM CT

Former One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) security director Ivan Krsti? is
mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. He opened up a
massive can of damning allegations about OLPC earlier this week in a
lengthy tirade on his personal blog. The blog post includes a deeply
pessimistic appraisal of constructionist learning theories and some
harsh words for OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte, but it also offers
some valid and insightful observations about the project's failings
and what can be done to remedy them.
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Krsti?'s blog post is like an angry rant from one who has escaped from
a sinking ship and is now shouting from the shoreline in a futile
effort to get the ship's crew to patch holes in the hull and change
course. Despite the extremely caustic tone and occasionally
contradictory arguments in the blog post, those of us who have been
following OLPC from the start and have seen the litany of problems and
failures from a safe distance can sympathize with his frustration.

The OLPC project aimed to produce low-cost, education-focused laptops
to sell in large quantities to governments in developing countries.
The OLPC XO laptop includes some unique and innovative hardware
components and a Linux-based, open source software platform that was
designed to promote a constructionist approach to education. OLPC has
faced a steady stream of serious problems that have left the project
on life support.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080515-former-security-director-blasts-olpc-suggests-new-strategy.html

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