The OLPC (One Laptop per Child) project seems to encounter another major setback, as its CTO Mary Lou Jepsen is stepping down to pursue a commercial project based on OLPC technologies. Since the day one this project has proved difficult to get off the ground.

Now sudden departure of CTO, might be the end of the Give One Get One scheme which sold the laptop commercially to users in the US. According to OLPC they were very successful in “Give One Get One scheme”, though no independent data available to support this claim.

Though now many children have access to the OLPC XO laptops but the success has been modest when compared to the original vision. Since Nov, 2007 OLPC goes on Mass Production of XO laptop, you may consider Lou Jepsen contribution come to an end, but many observer thinks it does raise question marks about the long-term design evolution of the laptop.

There may not be such a good future for OLPC in Brazil as in the Brazil “auction”, factors like local production and import taxes are more significant than the educational questions. Things are not being compared on a like-for-like or lifetime usage basis. Many consider OLPC G1G1 would have had a bigger impact if worldwide delivery had have been available. Overall Mary Lou’s departure might just added frustration that has been burning all around OLPC project.

My personal thought: The existence or lack of one member of a development team is merely going to damage the future of what is already a viable product. But I also have to add the next quarter will be crucial for the long-term success of the project. Nicholas Negroponte (Chairman OLPC Project) needs to turn interest in the scheme into hard sales, if his grand vision is to be realised.