Posted: November 6

One Laptop Per Child Comes to Rome

(Rome) Now I feel content. Yesterday I received an email from a Jesuit friend who is studying theology and is also a software programmer working on an open source program called Moodle that supports teaching classes online. Anthony Barrow is passionate about the open source movement and wanted me to know about a conference that took place in Rome last week. He sent a very laudatory article from the Catholic News Service about Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization that the conference introduced to religious orders and Church leaders.

I’m happy because I organized the conference, and it is amazing to see news about it bounce back so quickly. For the past year I have been involved in three different initiatives to use modern communications technology to bring together educational resources and people in remote or developing areas. One of the initiatives focuses on South Sudan, and Sr. Cathy Arata met Matt Keller, the OLPC representative who lives in Rome and is responsible for Africa, Europe and the Near East. She introduced Matt and I, and things moved very quickly; he asked me to help him host a small conference to introduce the OLPC chief educational officer to the heads of religious orders. Then Negroponte decided to come to Italy and said he would make himself available. In the world of technology, Negroponte has a very big name, so his presence upped the ante considerably. We considered inviting the mayor of Rome and the prime minister of Italy to speak at the conference—both were possibilities—but in the end decided to keep the focus on Church people. My job was inviting Cardinal Paul Poupard to speak and getting the two organizations representing all the heads of religious orders to co-sponsor the conference with my office.

When I worked at Loyola University in New Orleans in the mid-80s, I was part of a group that hosted many events, so I knew what to do. But I had forgotten how much work even a two-hour conference takes. Now I remember. Crafting the words of the announcement, picking the right image, getting together lists of special invitees: too many details to worry about. For three weeks that is about all that I did. That and pray to St. Francis Borgia, the Jesuit saint who is the patron of our offices here in Rome and who brought his own considerable management experience from the Spanish court to his work as superior general of the Jesuits. I figured that he had the right background to understand my needs, and not too many people pray to him so he probably had the time to help.

Everything came together on the day of the event. We had a good audience, lots of people showed up to help with practical details, and Negroponte was in fine form and very convincing. You can listen to his address on the podcast on the Jescom home page, one click away.) I also posted some photographs and a page of my own reflections on the Jescom home page. I continue to hope that this is another important step in what will prove to be a major development for Jesuits and our apostolic work in the future.