Students advance One Laptop Per Child program, inspire $500,000 gift
Children worldwide soon will be using laptop computers bearing the virtual fingerprints of OSU student programmers. The students’ work got the attention of RealNetworks, Inc., and this spring the creators of the RealPlayer audio/visual program gave $500,000 to OSU’s Open Source Lab.
Last fall, sophomores Michael Burns and Justin Gallardo volunteered to help with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC): an international venture striving to create a $100 laptop, cheap enough that governments in the developing world can purchase one for every child.
As Burns explains, these educational tools “will allow kids to pursue their interests, even if their family or community doesn’t have a lot of resources. Through the laptops, every kid in the world can have access to the Library of Alexandria. For kids who are hungry for information, this is a great way to feed them.”
Every software application that runs on the laptops must be custom adapted. Burns and Gallardo received permission to work on the word processor but with only one weekend to get the job done. Stoked on caffeine, Gallardo coded for 36 hours straight – and met the deadline.
In the meanwhile, conversations had been taking place between OLPC and RealNetworks, which wanted to see its open source Helix multimedia player modified for use in the children’s laptop. Impressed by the speed and quality of Gallardo’s programming, OLPC project managers recommended that RealNetworks contact the two OSU computer science majors. A series of phone calls led to a campus visit and the $500,000 gift.
Gallardo and Burns have gained invaluable experience plus the satisfaction of knowing their efforts will help others. “Anywhere else,” Burns says, “I’d write a program that implements some theory in a textbook, I’d get a grade, and then I’d delete it.”
The real world application of learning is one of the best things about working at the Open Source Lab, Gallardo agrees. “It puts everyone here one step ahead.”
The lab aims to be 100 percent funded by private gifts and contract work on select projects, says Jonathan Dolan, associate director for Network Services. “Major donors such as Google, RealNetworks, and Mozilla understand that the hosting, development, and distribution we do is a critical component of the open source ecosystem. They have stepped forward to help ensure that we can support the communities that are driving the open source movement globally.”
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