Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Mitch Bradley w...@laptop.org wrote: Okay, so those of you who are keen on there being a way for individuals to buy XOs at $2xx dollars should place a volume order, set up a web site, and start raking in the dough. Earth Treasury has wanted to do that for more than a year, although raking in the dough was not part of the vision. It would be hard work for a thin margin at the best. It has not been possible, for several reasons. o Initially, it was cash in advance with no delivery date. Sixty days later, we would get a date within the next year. So delivery within three months is a great improvement. o We never got the same terms twice when we asked. o We didn't have and couldn't get the financing. o GiveMany/Save the World for orders of 100 or 1,000 units was cancelled. I will now assume some fudge factors that can be replaced with real numbers with some research. So we can say that we can order 10,000 units @ $200 and change, or $2 million+. There is a volunteer support gang, which we assume we can work with. Amazon is willing to handle fulfillment, in principle, if OLPC asks nicely, but only if we can assure delivery of orders within a month. That means we have to place our order at least two months before we can start selling. I will also suppose that we can get firm terms so that we can present a real plan to any potential funding source. Then it turns out that we are able to begin the discussion with several possible sources, and we have in fact started a discussion, and will start others. This is not to say that we have a full business plan, and we certainly don't have funding lined up, but we are in the range where we can discuss the possibility. So if anybody wants to help write the details of a business plan and some funding applications (commercial or non-profit). The plan also has to include setting up paid support services for buyers to deal with necessary infrastructure, training, developing teaching materials, and the like. We have started the Digital Textbook project with various partners, and we have a good idea where we can get the other partners needed. Obviously you guys know something about making a few bucks per machine that has eluded the OLPC organization, so go for it. As the old canard says, put your money where you mouth is. I'll have to see if I can get someone who actually has money to do that. I'll let you know. -- Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name And Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination. http://earthtreasury.net/ (Ed Cherlin) ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
2009/2/18 Robert D. Fadel fa...@laptop.org: On Feb 18, 2009 at 10:24 PM, John Watlington wrote: I don't see how a non-profit can do this, as requires financing at risk, and staffing for uncertain demand. Let me know when you have the capital. Absolutely true and I'm not sure the capital would be enough. Its difficult to imagine OLPC entering a retail channel, directly or indirectly. We aren't talking about retail at this point. The idea is to support schools, museums, and the like to get 30 or more each. Eventually I would like to see GiveOneGetOne revived, but not with the abysmal marketing we saw last time. OLPC is one of the great brands, if managed appropriately. Perhaps I have misunderstood the intent but thats what it seems like when we talk about individuals buying small volumes, perhaps simply to tinker with a cool machine. I am working with The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose CA, which wants 50 for a lab exhibit where school classes could get a working demo and a peek at software in development. Other museums such as the Exploratorium and Zeum in San Francisco and the MIT Museum have expressed interest in creating a variety of exhibits. It's a cool machine, but they want to use it, not tinker with it. We also want to support home-schooling groups and other small trials. Another reason for this is to educate the public and to create the political will to get XOs into US schools, and to get the US to fund XOs in developing countries. In the immediate future I don't see overwhelming evidence that OLPC should devote resources to satisfy every volume demand in every channel. The outcry over discontinuing Change The World was far greater than the willingness of people to put up money. I will see what I can do. There is interest in funding a program such as I have outlined, which is quite different from OLPC's program. Very often those willing to pay were small-volume resellers. OLPC is better off focused on its engineering, advocacy and implementation efforts AND supporting accompanying networks of olpc-phile communities. Running an effective developer program is fundamental to all the above. So what is this nonsense about OLPCorps? r. -- Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name And Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination. http://earthtreasury.net/ (Ed Cherlin) ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
On Feb 18, 2009 at 10:24 PM, John Watlington wrote: I don't see how a non-profit can do this, as requires financing at risk, and staffing for uncertain demand.Let me know when you have the capital. Absolutely true and I'm not sure the capital would be enough. Its difficult to imagine OLPC entering a retail channel, directly or indirectly. Perhaps I have misunderstood the intent but thats what it seems like when we talk about individuals buying small volumes, perhaps simply to tinker with a cool machine. In the immediate future I don't see overwhelming evidence that OLPC should devote resources to satisfy every volume demand in every channel. The outcry over discontinuing Change The World was far greater than the willingness of people to put up money. Very often those willing to pay were small-volume resellers. OLPC is better off focused on its engineering, advocacy and implementation efforts AND supporting accompanying networks of olpc-phile communities. Running an effective developer program is fundamental to all the above. r.___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
On Thu, 19 Feb 2009, Robert D. Fadel wrote: On Feb 18, 2009 at 10:24 PM, John Watlington wrote: I don't see how a non-profit can do this, as requires financing at risk, and staffing for uncertain demand.Let me know when you have the capital. Absolutely true and I'm not sure the capital would be enough. Its difficult to imagine OLPC entering a retail channel, directly or indirectly. Perhaps I have misunderstood the intent but thats what it seems like when we talk about individuals buying small volumes, perhaps simply to tinker with a cool machine. In the immediate future I don't see overwhelming evidence that OLPC should devote resources to satisfy every volume demand in every channel. The outcry over discontinuing Change The World was far greater than the willingness of people to put up money. Very often those willing to pay were small-volume resellers. so you say that people need to pony up capital for this, but then dismiss those who were doing so. please pick one argument and stick with it. OLPC is better off focused on its engineering, advocacy and implementation efforts AND supporting accompanying networks of olpc-phile communities. Running an effective developer program is fundamental to all the above. if the systems aren't available, the advocacy will drop off. there would be no implementation effort. the engineering work has been completed, so no more effort is needed there. the only cost left is support. a good chunk of that can be absorbed by those 'small volume resellers' you are talking about, a good chunk is dealt with on the mailing lists (in large part by volunteers), but there is some that will end up on the OLPC plate. however, eliminating entire markets (with the advocates it would generate, the lessons that would be learned, and the wider experimentation that would happen) is a very high cost. as someone who has paied for 6 of these machines (plus the 6 'give 1' machines), I am _very_ dissapointed to see this cut off. what's worse is the unofficial we'll end this any second without any formal announcement (even a week or so later). David Lang___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
Okay, so those of you who are keen on there being a way for individuals to buy XOs at $2xx dollars should place a volume order, set up a web site, and start raking in the dough. Obviously you guys know something about making a few bucks per machine that has eluded the OLPC organization, so go for it. As the old canard says, put your money where you mouth is. ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 04:37:34PM -1000, Mitch Bradley wrote: Okay, so those of you who are keen on there being a way for individuals to buy XOs at $2xx dollars should place a volume order, set up a web site, and start raking in the dough. +1 (I'm not volunteering to do that, but the point is well made, speaking about something and not doing it is wasteful.) -- James Cameronmailto:qu...@us.netrek.org http://quozl.netrek.org/ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
On Feb 18, 2009, at 9:37 PM, Mitch Bradley wrote: Okay, so those of you who are keen on there being a way for individuals to buy XOs at $2xx dollars should place a volume order, set up a web site, and start raking in the dough. +1 I don't see how a non-profit can do this, as requires financing at risk, and staffing for uncertain demand.Let me know when you have the capital. The factory requires cash or irrevocable letter of credit for the full amount three to four months before delivery. ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
Okay, so those of you who are keen on there being a way for individuals to buy XOs at $2xx dollars should place a volume order, set up a web site, and start raking in the dough. Obviously you guys know something about making a few bucks per machine that has eluded the OLPC organization, so go for it. As the old canard says, put your money where you mouth is. PM me. -- carlos nazareno http://twitter.com/object404 http://www.object404.com -- user group manager phlashers: philippine flash actionscripters adobe flash/flex/air community http://www.phlashers.com -- interactive media specialist zen graffiti studios http://www.zengraffiti.com -- if you don't like the way the world is running, then change it instead of just complaining. ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 4:24 PM, John Watlington w...@laptop.org wrote: +1 I don't see how a non-profit can do this, as requires financing at risk, and staffing for uncertain demand.Let me know when you have the capital. The factory requires cash or irrevocable letter of credit for the full amount three to four months before delivery. Now, whoever takes on doing this, if they manage to strike the dastardly tricky balance between closedness that you need when you have lots of capital on the line, with the openness needed to work in the open community... ... well there's a community very keen to help you, and with a have a ton of expertise. (now, that balance... damn hard!) cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Price point plus sales to individuals
Okay, so those of you who are keen on there being a way for individuals to buy XOs at $2xx dollars should place a volume order, set up a web site, and start raking in the dough. Obviously you guys know something about making a few bucks per machine that has eluded the OLPC organization, so go for it. As the old canard says, put your money where you mouth is. seriously, it would be fantastic if whoever we have to/can talk to, please pm. * see: Asia-Pacific logistical location of the Philippines * everyone here pretty much speaks English * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subic_Bay_Freeport_Zone all the best, -n -- carlos nazareno http://twitter.com/object404 http://www.object404.com -- user group manager phlashers: philippine flash actionscripters adobe flash/flex/air community http://www.phlashers.com -- interactive media specialist zen graffiti studios http://www.zengraffiti.com -- if you don't like the way the world is running, then change it instead of just complaining. ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
