The One Laptop Per Child Project
wants to be as efficient as a commercial organization, and to that end is searching
for a new CEO and reorganizing departments, the nonprofit organization's chairman
said on Wednesday.
The need for a CEO and improved efficiency stem from OLPC operating "almost
like a terrorist group, doing almost impossible things," and the need to
be managed "more like Microsoft," Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said
in
an interview with BusinessWeek.
OLPC has reorganized into four operating units -- technology, deployment, market
development, and fundraising and administration -- over the past month, Negroponte
told BusinessWeek. He will continue as chairman.
As part of the reorganization, the nonprofit also plans to unload more Linux
OS development to Red Hat and Windows OS development to Microsoft, Negroponte
said. Negroponte told the IDG News Service in January that OLPC was working
with Microsoft to develop a dual-boot system to put both Linux and Windows on
the nonprofit's XO laptops.
That will help OLPC focus more on "developing prototypes and other new
concepts" related to learning, Negroponte told BusinessWeek.
OLPC has been plagued with problems since it launched the effort to develop
a US$100 XO laptop for children in developing countries three years ago. OLPC
has struggled to realize the ambitious vision of developing the laptop, facing
delays, rising costs and reduced orders. Critics charge that OLPC's broken distribution
and support models led to reduced orders from governments, its target customers.
In January, OLPC lost Chief Technology Officer Mary Lou Jepsen, who started
an organization to commercialize OLPC's technology, including the screen and
battery. A few days later, Intel said it was quitting OLPC after the nonprofit
insisted that Intel abandon its effort to develop and distribute Classmate PC,
a rival low-cost laptop. OLPC later said that it would welcome Intel back to
the effort.
OLPC officials were not available for comment about the search for a CEO.
