A Year in Summary (2014)

The year 2014 is coming to an end. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.  I had a chance to re-watched the videos of basecamp2013 as I try to think about "What's Next" and reflect on what have been achieved a year after basecamp2013.

From a larger picture, it is indeed sad that many key people at the OLPC headquarter in Miami have moved on to new jobs. The office has  relocated elsewhere (where ?) .  OLPC website at http://www.laptop.org is not very update. Very little news are coming out from HQ. Expect the XO-4 laptop to be the last iteration of XO being developed. Have not heard also on the OLPC tablet.

In the true spirit of olpc 2.0,  volunteers have started new projects. Today it is about  trying to work with whatever resources or network left over and building new partnerships. New and cheaper devices (here, here and here ) are coming out  into the market. Unfortunately none has achieved the full functionality afforded by the older and current XO laptop.Thus  I remain a XO die-hard evangelist but pragmatic since OLPC sponsorships are  slow  to come by.  Need to seek new ways and directions to support what we do in 2015 and beyond.

This year basecamp2014Trek was a success. The journey took us from Penang, Ipoh, Tras, KL to Malacca. I met up with new people who support the work n Malaysia. Videos recording of the trip can be found here. Memorable digital pictures offer glimpse of what the "treking". Highlights include bringing four Orang Asli children to the Penang International Science Fair (Nov 15-16). That was the bootstart basecamp2014Trek event.  These lucky 4 four kids had a chance to meet the Chief Minister of Penang when he visited our workshop area.

After Penang it was Ipoh and Tras. We celebrated Universal Children Day at the SEMOA farm in Tras with a village like feast. SEMOA farm is where 40 XO laptops are donated for  the digital Learning & Education Asli Project (dLEAP) inititive. The kids had a fun  time using the XO prior to the night feast. Managed to take photos of the children using their XOs in open spaces even at night. 

I used a camera shot as background for this year e-greeting card remix.

So what will 2015 be like? 

For  2015 there is a need to initiate more followups and activities to keep the olpc 2.0 momentum/spirit burning in Malaysia. Hope we can invite people/volunteers in deployments like Haiti,  Nepal to Cambodia and OLPC supporters to come to Malaysia again. 

It is significant that 2015 will be 10 years since the OLPC XO laptop was announced to the world in 2005.  Let's celebrate 10 years anniversary and XO Day with a final bang!

I have a dream for basecamp2015Peak in Nov 2015. Doable if people continue their personal olpc 2.0 journey. 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.