Just Getting Warmed Up!
April, 2007
By Dan Shine, 50x15 Program Director

This newsletter is all about what we've been up to this quarter, and it all boils down to acronyms and events. WEF, TED, SXSW oh my! Indulge me...

WEF (World Economic Forum)

50x15 was first announced in 2004 in Davos at the World Economic Forum, and we've been increasingly involved with WEF ever since. For 2007, we had an amazing experience, bringing together our industry partners with key government leaders in a number of dynamic settings. The validations of our methodology and technology portfolio continue to grow in all of these communities, and we're just getting warmed up!

WEF this year also marked the most significant demonstration to date of the OLPC XO. Hundreds of WEF attendees were able to take these incredible green laptops for a spin, either solo or with the help of children from a local school. The excitement in the room was palpable, as the idea that had become a design now was an innovative, working prototype. This year will be an exciting one for OLPC, and we can't wait to listen, learn, and leverage from these historic deployments.

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)

Cameron Sinclair's mother often told him "There is nothing worse then being all mouth and no trousers." Apparently, Cameron took this sage advice to heart, and his work creating the Open Architecture Network (OAN) is proof that he and his partner Kate Stohr are the best kind of doers. I met Cameron last year at the TED Conference in Monterey, and I couldn't be more excited about how AMD and 50x15 have engaged with OAN. As you know, we've deployed ICT solutions all around the world, but with few exceptions, we've always had to retrofit technology into "less than ideal" physical environments. As you'll read in the article below, the OAN prize we announced at TED changes all of that. For the first time, significant numbers of architects and designers will be competing to develop environments where ICT can flourish, enabling education, health care, and a number of additional life-changing services. More importantly, all that work will be published and available on the OAN website, benefiting the world. How cool is that?

SXSW (South by Southwest Festival)

When it comes to delivering ICT solutions to new markets, two things are certain. Number one is that there is always someone new with a great idea, which energizes the rest of us, and number two, "the rest of us" is actually a surprisingly small herd of goats. That's why I enjoyed the SXSW Festival held in Austin, Texas a few weeks ago. There are lots of hip things to see and do, celebrity sightings, etc, but yet the panel I was on during the last day of the event still drew a crowd, and a crowd with lots of good questions. We spoke about reaching the next billion users, and I'm proud to say that 50x15 got nice play from other panelists for our approach, actions, and the transparency of our activities.

Can't wait for next quarter! We've even more amazing Labs launching this spring, with more partners and more innovative solutions as well. Stay tuned!

Dan Shine
50x15 Program Director