olpc-update, update.1, and activities

[John Gilmore]

The removal of activities seems to be happening under the assumption
that people will use a USB memory stick to upgrade their laptops.  Was
it only a few months ago that I was told, "Skip the USB install notes,
all the updating is going to happen via olpc-update from now on"?  Now
the story is "Countries can install unsupported activities on each
machine using a USB key: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Customization_key".
(which unhelpfully wipes out the entire machine, including their
entire home directory, all saved work, their Journal, their activation
lease and their developer key if any).

Am I confused?

What's the plan for a way for existing laptop owners (both deployed
kids, and G1G1) to upgrade over the net, e.g. from ship.1 or ship.2 to
an update.1-like release that includes activities?  Do we have the
concept of a "Customization stream", i.e. a way to add activity and
library bundles to an existing release in an olpc-update "stream" to
make a new stream?

As an example, if OLPC staff are too busy to do it, could an ambitious
volunteer set up a "g1g1" stream that includes the update.1 base
release, plus a suitable set of activities?  What kind of access and
knowledge would that volunteer have to have?

	John