Security chief quits OLPC amid restructuring

by Agam Shah

March 21, 2008 —

A drastic internal restructuring underway at the One
Laptop Per Child Project has caused a director of security to resign from
the nonprofit effort.

Citing differences with OLPC's aims and shift of focus, Director of Security
Architecture Ivan Krstic resigned from his post three weeks ago, Krstic revealed
in a blog
entry this week.

"I cannot subscribe to the organization's new aims or structure in good
faith, nor can I reconcile them with my personal ethic. Having exhausted other
options, three weeks ago I resigned my post at OLPC," Krstic said.

The MIT Technology
Review named Krstic one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35
for his work on the OLPC security platform, Bitfrost.

In an interview
with BusinessWeek in early March, OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said
OLPC was operating "almost like a terrorist group, doing almost impossible
things," and that the organization needed to be managed "more like
Microsoft."

Negroponte said OLPC was searching for a new CEO and reorganizing departments
into four operating units -- technology, deployment, market development, and
fundraising and administration.

Calling OLPC "more a second home than a workplace," Krstic said he
had been asked to stop working with OLPC President of Software and Content Walter
Bender, whom he highly respected. "I was to report instead to a manager
with no technical or engineering background who was put in charge of all OLPC
technology," Krstic said.

OLPC did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. The group has been
dogged by problems since it launched the effort to develop a US$100 XO laptop
for children in developing countries three years ago. It has struggled to realize
the ambitious vision, facing delays, rising costs and reduced orders.

In January, OLPC lost
Chief Technology Officer Mary Lou Jepsen, who started an organization to
commercialize parts of the 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.

IDG News Service