Specialization is for Insects, Seth says

I finally found an email I’ve been searching for.  This email marks my first interaction with OLPC and my first attempt to get involved with OLPC Content.

Hello,
I work with the <snip>; a non-profit organization that
does history presentations on the middle ages for schools, libraries
and museums in the Pacific Northwest.  We do demonstrations and
lectures on historical arms, armor and combat of the middle ages and
renaissance (Western Martial Arts).

I have been hearing about the concept of a sub $200 laptop for
education for quite a while (Ballmer among others) and I find if a
fascinating concept.  So first of all kudos to your group at MIT.

I was wondering if you were planning on having any sort of educational
materials already loaded on the laptops.  Our organization has in the
past been asked to be part of educational materials, and we are
working towards publishing classroom materials of our own in the next
two years.

If your group were interested in a few sample history lessons as
demonstrations of what your laptop could do; perhaps we could supply
you with something both historical and visually interesting.

If you have some interest I can be contacted at <snip>

According to the OLPC Timeline, this email dates to before the XO was announced with Nicholas Negreponte and Kofi Annan Unfortunately, OLPC didn’t have Sj yet, so their response was less than thrilling.

Red Hat is our partner and is working on software. The participating
countries will also provide their own software.

Best wishes,

<snip (name removed)>

I could understand brushing me off at such an early phase in OLPC’s development.  But the reply was a bit silly all the same. :)