[Olpc-open] Re: [OLPC Security] Application bundles and delegation

[xuan wu]

Although the discussion is orginally in the security list, I set the reply
here because I find it a rather open topic.

I assume that the OLPC take the stratedgy to negotiate with the governments
first and ask them to give out the laptops because OLPC think the
governments' support can be seemed as assurance to the right ways of usage
and management just as OLPC proposed, such as a activation server which
confidentially keeps all the identities of the users(which'll be costly
too), and a responsible person who keep the USB drive to activate the system
periodically.

It seems to me a little too ideal, and I guess the governments which reject
OLPC program also have the same feeling. We are afraid that some people down
there won't be so noble as we wish, and the security mechanism just seems
not so fit.

Another example, In many parts of many countries, there's still no phone in
most families. If the laptops can form a p2p network, which means it act as
free cell phone in this network, will the parents or friends of the parents
of the children "borrow" them from time to time to save some phone payment,
only if there exists phone service in the area?

There're just too many ways to let the adults take advantage of the kids and
the mechanism seems not to protect the children's benefits enough.

2007/2/11, David Hopwood <david.nospam.hopwood at blueyonder.co.uk>:
>
> xuan wu wrote:
> >Ivan Krstić wrote:
> >> xuan wu wrote:
> >> > Actually I didn't find how to disfunction the laptop after it's lost
> >> > from the spec
> >>
> >> Section 8.19.
> >
> > Simply to shutdown the laptops after the expiration date seems to me a
> rude
> > and reckless idea. This gives an excuse to those who don't want the
> pupils
> > to waste time on the laptops.
>
> Perhaps more worryingly, there have been several historical instances of
> governments that have come to hold anti-technology,
> anti-universal-education,
> and/or radically isolationist ideologies, to the extreme detriment of
> their citizens: the Taleban in Afghanistan, the Khmer-Rouge in Cambodia,
> or the Burmese government, for example. Such a goverment could easily view
> the existence of the laptops in their country as a threat. I don't think
> that this possibility can be dismissed as unrealistic, given the number
> of countries involved and the probable lifespan of the laptop design.
>
> It would be unfortunate if a feature that was intended as an anti-theft
> measure could instead aid a government in imposing some oppressive regime.
>
> --
> David Hopwood <david.nospam.hopwood at blueyonder.co.uk>
>
>
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>
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