Wanted: OLPC CTO for Nepal
It’s not all gloom and doom in this global recession. I have got a
hot, hot job opportunity for the right uber-geek. If you’ve got the
skills we have got the bills (or at least some
bills). http://www.olenepal.org, the Nepali-led NGO implementing Nepal’s
OLPC
deployments in partnership with Nepal’s Department of Education, seeks
a new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to start in spring/summer
2009. Take note that this position is with OLE Nepal and not the One
Laptop Per Child organization in Cambridge, MA.
The CTO oversees all technical aspects of the OLPC deployments in
Nepal. This includes the development of interactive learning
activities, an E-Library, a 4-person team of network
engineers/sysadmins, and 11 wacky full-time volunteers. We don’t want
your charity. We will provide you with a salary that can support you
and your family comfortably in Nepal. We strongly prefer Nepali
candidates but will consider talented applicants of any nationality.
What happened to the old CTO? I am firing him/me! I have immensely
enjoyed my 2.5 years working in Nepal on this project and it is really
gaining momentum here. Last year, we started the project with 200
laptops at two government schools. This year we will deploy several
thousand laptops to schools across Nepal. We have a truly talented
and passionate team here. I am leaving Nepal for personal reasons
unrelated to this project.
Soft Skills:
o You really, really care about education, particularly at the
early levels.
o You fail early and often. Over time, you fail
better.
o You find localization problems for linux and various types
of digital content fascinate you. You dream in Unicode.
o You not only believe in the http://agilemanifesto.org/, you live it.
o You love the Mythical Man Month
so much that you have a picture of Fred
Brooks on your wall.
o Bloated engineering frameworks like J2EE and
SOAP make you nauseous. PHP and Perl make you feel good and kind of
dirty at the same time.
o You have significant experience working
with open-source communities. Your open-source colleagues describe you
as “diplomatic” and “practical.” They do not describe you as
”vitriolic” or “religious.”
Technical Skills
o You have a broad knowledge of web development
o You are an avid
linux enthusiast. You have successfully compiled your own kernel or
at least tried and failed several times.
o You have several years
experience managing software projects. You are familiar with revision
control systems, unit testing, refactoring, etc.
We want someone with a tremendous passion
for technology and education. You don’t have to be an expert in any
particular area but you have a proven ability to teach yourself new
technologies.
If you’re interested send your resume to jobs _at_ olenepal DoT org
together with the following special assignments. I will not consider
applications that do not complete these assignments.
1: Tell me all the ways I am screwing up as CTO and what I should do
instead. don’t hold back now. I am serious.
2: Tell me about one project that you completely screwed up and what
you could have done differently. Tell me in gory detail what you did
wrong. If you have never completely screwed up a project then you have
never taken a risk. Save me the trouble and keep looking for a big
corporate job.
Last but not least, working on OLPC
isn’t a job, it’s a personal mission. If you’re looking for a
stepping stone to something else or a safe place to ride out the
global recession, look elsewhere.
To learn more about OLE Nepal, check
out our http://www.olenepal.org,
http://blog.olenepal.org,
and the http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLE_
Bryan Berry is the co-founder and
current CTO of OLE Nepal.
–
Bryan W. Berry
Technology Director
OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org
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