Folks - Well, now that we've met I suppose I should introduce myself <g>.
I started at OLPC as VP of Software Development last week, so I am still catching up on everything that's happening. I have taken over all software development responsibilities from Kim Quirk, who's now free to focus more on deployments and support, and I'm also taking the School Server work under my wing. All Gen-2 efforts are still being handled by Wad and Jim Gettys, and Kim's still taking primary responsibility for the 8.2 release so I don't get in the way and slow it down. I've been in the software development and graphics hardware business my entire career. I've been involved in development teams building spreadsheets, document imaging and workflow software, educational games for children, and high-end graphics display adapters. Most recently (in 1999) I started TopoZone, the first online mapping service to offer topographic maps and high-resolution aerial photos, later adding street maps and other vector data. I became a very active member of the open source MapServer community as I transitioned my home-grown technology to that platform. My implementation was one of the earlier large-scale MapServer sites, with over 50 TB of data across 18 servers running Fedora and Windows serving over 500,000 map images daily. As a result I became one of the performance and scalability advisors to the group, as well as helping with map projection issues for those put off by ellipsoidal trigonometry and geodesy. I was also able to see the evolution of that effort into the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (www.osgeo.org) and watch the MapServer Users' Group meeting become the polysyllablic Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial Conference. I've also been very active on the boards of several environmental and conservation groups here in Massachusetts, where I live, and I'm one of the founders of the Polistes Foundation. Our Discover Life site (www.discoverlife.org) provides species identification tools, photography, maps (of course), and other information to encourage biodiversity education in elementary and secondary schools worldwide, as well as providing reference material accessible to anyone. I'm very happy to be able to participate in the OLPC effort, and I'm looking forward to getting to know many of you better. I apologize for not having spent more time trying to get in touch with people individually; please be patient as you far outnumber me! My main goals at OLPC concern the creation of a stable and productive software development effort, both internally and with the larger community. I will try to help however I can and you can expect to hear from me regularly on this list. You've all done some pretty amazing things already and I hope I can make it easier for you all to continue to do so in the future. Thanks. - Ed Ed McNierney Vice President of Software Development One Laptop Per Child [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel