Interview: Caryl Bigenho

According to her SCALE bio, Caryl Bigenho was born 30 years too soon. She has made a smooth transition from a life with crystal sets and slide rules to living with computers. In 2007, Caryl was a "First Day Donor" in OLPC's "Give One Get One" program, and one of the first people to sign up to be a support volunteer. Caryl's SCALE 11X presentation, "OLPC at 6," will be given at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23, in room Los Angeles A.
 
Q: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?

A: I'm a retired STEM teacher from Los Angeles. In 2007 I participated in the G1G1 program that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) offered, and got my first XO computer. I have been volunteering with OLPC and Sugar Labs ever since.

Q: Without tipping your hand on the actual talk you're giving (unless you want to), can you give us an idea of what we might expect?

A: Lots of exciting things are going on with both OLPC and Sugar Labs (the software spin-off). Some of the things folks coming to the "OLPC at 6" session will hear about are exciting new hardware and software, research projects, and deployments. They will also learn which things they have seen in blogs and heard on the news are real and which ones are not.

Q: Is this your first visit to SCALE? If so, what are your expectations? If not, can you give us your impressions of the event?
 
A: I have been coming to SCaLE for about 5 years. 

 
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
 
A: If folks have time they should stop by our OLPC/Sugar Labs booth in the expo hall. They will have a chance to meet some of our other volunteers who have traveled to help deployments in other countries and to see and try some of our latest hardware and software.
 
[SCALE Team interview by Scott Ruecker]