They don't cite it, but their experiment was clearly inspired by the successes of the Hole in the Wall project in India which has been successful for many years.
Although OLPC initiated and has been managing this experiment, we haven't done it alone. Right from the beginning the project team has included Prof. Sugata Mitra of Newcastle University (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/staff/profile/sugata.mitra) and Prof. Maryanne Wolf, director of the Tufts University Center for Reading and Language Research (http://ase.tufts.edu/crlr/team/wolf.htm).
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_t...
http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/Beginnings.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_educa...
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/self-organized-learning-sugata-...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimally_invasive_education