:Title: One Laptop Per Child - XO Computer
:Author: Josh Friedman
:Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:25:26 PDT
:URL: http://www.ned.com/group/community-general/news/64/
This is the first review I've seen/read about the XO laptop, from One Laptop Per Child in the `NY Times article by David Pogue`_. Be sure to watch the video. From a design perspective, it seems wonderful. Cost-wise, in the realm of making a huge difference. They have even designed in alternate/supplemental power: there is an optional yo-yo power cord (1 min of pulling is 10 min of time) and a $12 solar hookup that can power and/or recharge the unit. Sure, there are a lot of people bashing the thing. But who else has come even close to bringing something that has the potential to reach really, really poor places?
During two weeks in November, the purchase price is $400, and is `"Give 1, Get 1"`_ - you get one and one goes to charity. Pretty cool.
.. _`NY Times article by David Pogue`: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/circuits/04pogue.html?_r=2&8dpc&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
.. _`"Give 1, Get 1"`: http://xogiving.org
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**Comments**
:Author: Josh Friedman
:Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:36:54 PDT
...oops. Login required. If you don't want to login to the NY Times site, go `here`_ for a pdf of the article. Also, a link to the `video review`_. Sorry
.. _`here`: http://www.ned.com/group/community-general/file/6.62.11921346626/get/Laptop%20With%20a%20Mission%20Widens%20Its%20Audience%20-%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
.. _`video review`: http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=FRsupt220516
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:26:16 PDT
BTW 11/12 is when you can start buying the computers (again, only for 2 weeks).
I'm buying one.
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:Author: John Berger
:Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:45:34 PDT
I think the whole thing will go down in history as being one of the most stupid wastes of money ever. So many of the schools in their target countries have no power in the classrooms or the kids homes and the school kids struggle just to by the uniforms. Even if this is a mild success and not the waste I predict, there are so many better ways to make an impact on education with that money.
I dont even think there is reason to believe computers in US schools make much of a difference.
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:09:14 PDT
After just completing "The White Man's Burden" by William Easterly (and I would highly recommend it to anyone) I would think they will have to go a long way before it even approaches the most stupid waste of money.
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 05:56:41 PST
I ordered mine... fairly early on the 12th. I hope I'm in the first 20,000 who ordered, because that's how many they have in stock to ship within the month.
There's some very good information here:
http://www.olpcnews.com/
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:03:10 PST
Well I tested the concept with the OVC (Org for Orphans and Vulnberable Children NGOs) Kaduna back in March and every NGO there were extremely supportive of the idea of these. I do have some reservations with them, although they are perhaps not the ones that John mentioned above.
My impression is that the XO Laptop needs tailor-made software, so existing applications are not usable with the machine.
Security will be an issue here, where a $100 laptop is more than three months salary.
Also, when a family has ten children, will they get one each? This seems a bit wasteful (OLPC?). Most families share computers, from what I can gather.
Lastly, there is a lot of work going on with "acclimatising" PCs to be lower power and usable in the warm. such as at www.inveneo.org. There is also a UK laptop in development which does something similar, so I am told (no info yet, though). So my point is that an ordinary PC, with no need for proprietary software, has a lot of advantages. Current prices from Inveneo are affordable too (and not far off than the $400) so if people want to buy some PCs for our rural solar-powered cybercafe, feel free to do so!
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 09:12:45 PST
I ordered one early on the 13th....we'll see if they managed to sell more than 20,000 during the first 24 hours.
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:Author: Christina Jordan
:Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:58:44 PST
What is it imagined that children will actually do with these laptops? Are they able to connect to the internet?
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:32:50 PST
"The XO laptop’s wireless antennae “ears” are made of rugged, dual-molded nylon plastic. When rotated up, the XO’s antennae are vastly superior to most conventional laptops’ built-in antennae, and help connect children automatically to the mesh network. When down, they keep dirt out of the audio and USB connectors and act as a locking mechanism for the laptop."
from the link above.
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 20:56:12 PST
Christina, the laptops will connect either with the internet, or with each other... so children will be able to talk and play with others up to about 2km away, powered from solar, or a generator that looks like a yo-yo. If five laptops are all in a line 1km away from each other, the five will form a 'mesh' that lets all of them communicate over longer distances.
The laptops are geared toward learning too. The 'touchpad' at the bottom can be used with a stylus to write words across the entire width of the laptop. Writing can be reviewed by teachers even if paper is scarce.
The microphone in jack also doubles as a place where a child can plug in a temperature sensor (or any other low voltage source of information) and use it to measure values over time.
But most of all, I'm hoping that it helps to bridge the 'digital divide' that currently makes the rich richer, and keeps the ability to compete out of the reach of the poor.
We might even see some new people on Ned!
Most likely, it will become an object that's often stolen or destroyed out of greed or jealousy.
Either way, (no matter who's hands they end up in) it's going to have a catalyzing effect on smart young minds all over the world.
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:09:03 PST
I know that surfing the Web is really slow for you Christina, but I'll `link`_ to a piece written by Ethan Zuckerman "One Laptop Per Child: Just what sort of content do you load onto these puppies?" in January. It's a pretty long post so I won't try to summarize all of it.
Something that Zuckerman points out is there is an educational theory behind the concept called `Constructivism`_. The gist of the idea is education as a learner directed activity.
So the software running on the computer is called Sugar and the way the interface is constructed is to encourage learner directed learning. I'll snip a bit from an article about the software in `InfoWorld`_:
Starting from the home view where they can specify user preferences like color, a child can then move to the friends view to see which of their friends are on the network and what they're doing. They can also chat with them. The neighborhood view shows everyone connected to the mesh network and the activities they're engaged in. At any point, the child can also choose to join in with group activities.
Each laptop can act as a node in a mesh peer-to-peer ad hoc network, so that if one laptop is directly accessing the Internet, when other machines in the network power on, they can share that single online connection.
The activity view allows a child to focus on a specific activity using the laptop's full-screen mode. There's also a journal view that can be thought of as another activity, where a child can see what he or she has created on the desktop, save and add to that content, and share it with friends.
Around any of the views is a frame equivalent to the menu bar on more traditional computer user interfaces. The child can click on people, places and things around the right, left and top sides of the frame, while the bottom side is reserved for accessing activities. There's also a context-sensitive search bar on the top of the frame so that the child can easily locate things on the desktop.
One of the selling points is the ability to provide textbok materials in an electronic form instead of printed. Clearly this content will be created in the countries which will be using the machines. Essentially on laptop will act as a server for the content, then the whole class can access the material over the mesh network.
But the hope is that kids will be able to take them home, and therefore discover for themselves what to do with these puppies.
.. _`link`: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2007/01/22/one-laptop-per-child-just-what-sort-of-content-do-you-load-onto-these-puppies/
.. _`Constructivism`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_%28learning_theory%29
.. _`InfoWorld`: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/03/Hnsugarinterface_1.html
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 06:14:45 PST
I've ordered one. Sounds as if there's not that much risk of selling out as they have extended sale to year end.
whether it turns out carzy or good there are some features that interest me
the wiki of application users is one of the most extraordinary wiki communities I know of - course always interested in your nominations
the idea of what is shared by a whole region of peers is something that interests me a lot; there are quite a few missing curricula at every age group -if one doesnt play with this to see what's possible, will we ever get new learning curricula out there in time to be sustainable
then again I also publish micro guides http://www.valuetrue.com/home/gallery.cfm?startrow=3
on the edge of education entrepreneurship so I need to test the product
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:44:00 PST
"Now extended thru December 31st"
Hmmm, wish they'd included a reason for that. Boy, I really, really hope that they did not have a challenge selling just 20,000 over the first two weeks...given the big media push behind the whole thing.
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:Author: Evvy Bryning
:Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:53:56 PST
thought this might be of interest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7115348.stm
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:38:12 PST
Thanks Evvy! Great report.
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:Author: Evvy Bryning
:Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:34:33 PST
Yes, I thought it was very interesting. Especially the part about the internet not being available anymore once the initial funding ran out.
I am glad to hear that they are using the computers to enhance their everyday school experience like taking notes, and using the encyclopedia software. That can help but I am still not sure if the expense will really be worth it in the long run. What I fear is that in a year from now these computers will be gone, or broken or simply not used anymore because of lack of training. Its a great idea but I am just not sure it is practical for the rural areas of Africa. I will keep watching the program though and hope to see some great results.
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:41:17 PST
I see great potential with the OX computer. My reasons for optimism has to do with ideas about learning. But I've been around education long enough to have a bit of realism about the difficulties of getting from good ideas to good practices. There are so many good ideas in the OX computer that I feel cautiously optimistic that good educational practices will be derived from it. But predicting the course of things is always chancy.
Juliana at Afromusing has a very interesting post `I am in your OLPC, reverse engineering your Keyboardz`_ with some great links. It looks as though the OX crew may have violated patents in the keyboard design.
Afromusing mentions that the idea of cultural sensitivity in technology was first written about by Koranteng Ofusu-Amaah. She properly links to the book, "The Best Technology Writing 2006" at Amazon where the essay can be found. `Here's`_ the link to the post at Koranteng's Toli--it's not about one laptop per child. But I want to post the link because Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah is a brilliant writer. His occasional posts are very worthwhile looking for.
And I cannot recommend highly enough just reading some of his posts. On the right sidebar is a link to `The Things Fall Apart Series`_. Reading the whole series is an investment in time similar to a small book. But for those interested in finding some perspective about Africa, I can think of none better.
.. _`I am in your OLPC, reverse engineering your Keyboardz`: http://www.afromusing.com/blog/2007/11/30/i-am-in-your-olpc-reverse-engineering-your-keyboardz/
.. _`Here's`: http://koranteng.blogspot.com/2005/04/cultural-sensitivity-in-technology.html
.. _`The Things Fall Apart Series`: http://koranteng.blogspot.com/2006/03/things-fall-apart.html
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:Author: John Berger
:Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:21:26 PST
I stand by my view that it will be a complete bust and another example of westerners with little experience in the developing world thinking "I know just what they need".
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:14:19 PST
>>I stand by my view that it will be a complete bust and another example of westerners with little experience in the developing world thinking "I know just what they need".<<
**We'll see John...**
OLPC orders surge as Peru requests 260,000 XOs
Posted Dec 2nd 2007 7:50PM by Conrad Quilty-Harper
All steam ahead for the OLPC Foundation, which recently received an order from Peru for 260,000 of the little XO laptops. Also news is that Mexican billionaire and Negroponte's chum Carlos Slim has purchased 50,000 for his country. That's against a background of $2 million sales a day on the Give One, Get One program. Clearly, the OLPC Foundation is the most successful program out there for getting laptops into the hands of schoolchildren.
**2 million a day in sales...wow!**
**We'll see what good sales numbers mean with regards to meaningful results over time.**
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:21:19 PST
>>Earlier this year, some of the pupils were found to be accessing pornography through the laptops.<<
One of the quotes from the article that says to me, kids are doing what kids do when having access to open technology and information.
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:30:28 PST
I've got their development environment running on my machine, and it's really big and ambitious. The device will get more and more useful over the years as the power of the included components is realized, and the whole package streamlined. (Yes, now it's big and bloated and slow even on my 2.6GHz Duo system)
But it's also powerful, there's unlimited fun-potential for many future hackers who learn to get to its innards.
My biggest disappointment is the cost of the satellite internet connections. The problem comes back to infrastructure, and the laptops might be the motivation for that infrastructure to be built. It might even be an essential tool for those who someday build the infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the laptops might be as much of a distraction as a tool in a disconnected classroom.
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:Author: John Berger
:Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:01:51 PST
Jim - if we put them in US schools, with internet access, and more resources in general - do you think it would improve on existing teaching? Im not sure - my kids go to a good charter school and their computer integration is good, but the quality of what they are learning when they are using the computer is far inferior to what they learn the old fashion way.
Does the developing world really need to spend all that money on tools that are not that high return for us when they don't even have the basics?
I have no doubts they will be able to sell machines, but what if they had taken the billions invested and provided books and better training for teacher - which would be more ROI+?
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:32:49 PST
>>and provided books and better training for teacher - which would be more ROI+?<<
An excellent question.
How would people go about comparing the results over a similar period of time of OLPC and Room to Read? Setting aside the fact Room to Read has been building libraries, schools, and providing scholarships for girls since 2001 and OLPC is really in a startup mode, how can the results of each be measured?
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:00:59 PST
This is a personal note, but I think it demonstrates the doors it opens.
I am in a country where most all of the libraries contain only books in Thai (and that is not to say there are plenteous libraries...I have only seen two libraries that are not University or international school libraries and both of them were membership things.
However, the internet opens vast resources for me. Books, news, international culture, communications... I just got a couple of links from John Powers on phenomenal links to FREE international data sources for research and another link to university course work with texts, problem sets, answers and lecture notes. The other day I found a source of printable text books (either no copyright or CC). Text books are outrageously expensive in developing countries but printing is not nearly so. And on these XO computers, you don't even need to print them.
It is hard to keep kids away from games and there are plenty of games that are available that provide the repetition required to learn in much more interesting ways than doing 100 math problems a night. Learning packaged as games works for children of all ages.
Even if internet access is limited, the teacher can somehow get access to the information, burn it to CD and then upload it to the children's machines.
There are certainly problems (and remember that problems are often culturally relative) to be overcome in giving these children these kinds of tools but there are (and always have been) also problems with teaching children to read. (Witness my reading D.H Lawrence much to the chagrin of my father!)
Familiarity with and knowledge of computers can open new sources of income generation to these children that their parents never dreamed of and that won't necessarily draw them to urban centers and away from their families and cultures.
We need everyone to open their imaginations here.
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:10:04 PST
The issue of the cost of textbooks is an important one. Also as one of the goals of the OX is to increase the number of school-age children attending schools--only about 50% in many developing countries go to school--the problem of costs is compounded. Kenya recently introduced free elementary education. The result has been to really stress the system, for example elementary school teachers with classes of 100 or more children with infrastructure--desks, tools, textbooks-still scale to 30+ classroom size. XO is proposing a life cycle of about five years for the laptops and offering considerable savings over traditional educational materials.
The XO is different from other low cost rivals in construction and software. The issue of stealing is something that was considered in the first place. Partly that's why the color. But also the structure of the software is such that it's not really useful for running traditional applications. I've read somewhere about additional security against theft measures, but not finding them now. But one of the selling points is these XO computers are not as marketable as other low cost offerings are by virtue of their software. They aren't an ordinary laptop.
The XO is designed for elementary school children. One of the main considerations is that they be safe, even when taken apart. Another is that they be durable in hot and dusty environments. There is a hard "desk" part near the keyboard to give children a place to write. One of the advantages of being able to take them home is the computer provides a light source for children to work after sunset.
All of the XO computers are WiFi enabled. Schools will have additional infrastructure to as Linda suggests enable teachers to provide content. The curriculum is purposefully left to the adopting countries. The school servers will also aid in the storage of content. Some schools will have access to the Internet via their server, others will not. But the system is designed so that all of the computers will work as networked devices. So even without the Internet the XO computers will allow, indeed encourage, children to collaborate and communicate with each other.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:50:40 PST
John, here's a link to the online notebook entry `First OLPC deployment: now it’s real.`_ (Dec. 1, 2007) by Ivan Krstić. He's security architect for the XO project, and was present at the first non-pilot roll-out of XO's, in Uruguay a few days ago.
He describes some of the project's anti-theft theft approaches, e.g. "one key protection feature deters XO theft in the delivery chain by deactivating the laptops when they leave the factory. Until they’re activated at the target school with keys that are delivered out of band, the laptops are non-functional bricks."
The piece also contains links to more well-written (and readable by a novice like me) info about Bitfrost, the XO security platform. I recommend a read, if you have the time.
.. _`First OLPC deployment: now it’s real.`: http://radian.org/notebook/first-deployment
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:34:42 PST
Thanks Jon for the link. Also for those who might be interested the `OPLC Wiki`_ is a good place to see various options about this security issue among other things.
Something that I hope is the people who are buying one and giving one will put the ones they buy to creative uses. It seems important that a bunch of people employ their creativity to finding ways to make the XO computer a powerful learning tool.
As far as it goes for using computers in education here in the USA one window into the world is Vicki Davis `Cool Cat Teacher Blog`_. There are many other educational blogs, but Davis really seems to get at that mixture of good right thinking, church going, main street and mainstream, meets the wired world. She negotiates the terrain and it's easy to see her students really benefit.
.. _`OPLC Wiki`: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home
.. _`Cool Cat Teacher Blog`: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:27:19 PST
Children in Abuja have the best education that Nigeria has to offer and should make a successful pilot for OLPC.
What I am more interested in is what impact these XO laptops have on the lives of remote village children, not those that are exposed to technology every day of their lives (even if they are not allowed to touch it).
I have seen the transformation a few hours of PC time has to these neglected children and I very much hope that OLPC starts to focus on these, where the impact will be greatest.
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:40:52 PST
anyone know how long it takes for the computer to be delivered in usa? have been waiting nearly 2 weeks
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:00:22 PST
I saw a delivery schedule where people who ordered on the first day should receive theirs by Dec 15th.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:33:18 PST
We eagerly await the reviews from people who have bought XO's - well done! My budget prevents me at this time, although I follow the progress of the OLPC project with great interest.
Ben, your comment about the transformative impact of computer time on children in remote areas, spurs my memory of your long-ago request, which I am probably now feeling confident enough to fulfill - that I launch a **discussion group** around the issues of telecentres and IT for development.
I believe I have sufficient feedback points in my bank, but I think I will also need **ned.com members to sponsor it** as well. Do you or anyone know, off he top of your head(s), how many I need (I couldn't find relevant info in the Help section)?
Would you be willing to sponsor me, Ben and other participants in this thread, if I kick it off?
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 20:04:16 PST
You need 5 sponsors....I will be more than willing to be one of those.
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:Author: Gayle Rogers
:Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:34:43 PST
Me too :)
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:Author: Jean Russell
:Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:21:45 PST
I bought one too. Great reading this thread. I saw one at Barcamp Portland earlier this year, and I was lured in. I don't know if it will flop or be productive, but I commend the creators for their effort and big vision.
I am personally very excited to see Linux as the platform--so glad to get away from proprietary software...and, I can picture vast mesh networks making pipes and telcos less able to control and manipulate the internet. Long may internet freedom reign!
Many of you ordered before I did...can you let us know when yours arrives?
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:56:22 PST
Thanks Gayle and Linda! So, with Ben, I guess I need 2 (or do I count as 1?) more.
I'll go see if I can recruit elsewhere on ned.com - meantime, any suggestions for sponsors (or ideas for the thread) are most welcome!
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:Author: Christina Jordan
:Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:09:10 PST
just start the group and link to it for us here, Jon - we'll get you started!
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:24:32 PST
:Modified: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:48:38 PST
Thanks Christine - it's done. All interested folks - I've created a new group to house discussion about **telecentres**, **ICT**, and their role in **development**.
I invite you to visit the group `here`_, and **please consider sponsoring it**, to make it fully operational.
.. _`here`: /group/telecentre
[Edited by Jon A - simpler link to group]
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:Author: Gayle Rogers
:Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:20:59 PST
Jon - you just need one more now. Cheers, G.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:31:14 PST
Thanks Gayle - and John and Linda, and everyone who encouraged me!
As you rightly point out, I just need *one more generous person** - anyone?!?
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:03:05 PST
That may have been a record time in setting up a new group!
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:05:30 PST
Eric Hersman has a post reacting to John C. Dvorak's scathing criticism of OX computer in PC Magazine. (John, I'm sure you'll agree with Dvorak in tone and substance.) Hersman's post is `Will No One Speak for Africa`_.
I'm a big fan of Hersman's White African blog. Part of that is being a fan of the African blogsphere. I love how much link love and sharing there is among so many of the African bloggers. Hersman makes the good point, a point he makes in many other contexts, that American media should provide voice to African speakers. So he suggests, let us hear two Africans discussing the merits of One Laptop Per Child. Since Hersman is engaged in conversation in the African blogosphere, he's well aware there's plenty of opinion about it among Africans.
I got a bit of pleasure in seeing in the comments in his threads people gripping about Dvorak who've in the past made points not so far from the ones he made in his article. But here's the thing, XO has been a topic of discussion in African blogs for well over a year. The discussion hasn't reenforced and hardened people's opinions, rather the discussion has made people more nuanced in their judgments.
Eric links to Dvorak's piece and also `Bill Thompson's response`_ to it at the BBC. I link to Thompson's piece so you'll all know where my sentiments are ;-)
.. _`Will No One Speak for Africa`: http://whiteafrican.com/?p=822
.. _`Bill Thompson's response`: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7138061.stm
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:31:55 PST
There's a review by 9 year old Rufus here:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7140443.stm
Spoiler: He says, "It's Great!"
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:33:37 PST
Nice response by Bill Thompson, I like the quote:
Perhaps Dvorak's just afraid that a Nigerian schoolchild, empowered by the technology entrusted to them, will take him to task for his patronising attitude, or perhaps even turn out to be a better journalist.
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:37:44 PST
Jim Carroll said:
There's a review by 9 year old Rufus here:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7140443.stm
Spoiler: He says, "It's Great!"
This is a lovely review by Rufus, but I would like to draw the conversation back to the fact that he already knows/has experience about computers.
The most negative comment I heard about these laptops from the Nigerians I talked to was "I bet only the city kids get them; it's the rural children that are really desperate for them."
Of course, there's no internet in the rural areas, but all the other functionality they would love too and in my strong view, they would value these machines far more than Rufus, who has already been playing his consoles and now has a choice.
I put a new photo up on the Butterfly Project, which shows some children who had previously never seen a computer and how they "grappled" with the mouse for the first time.
http://www.nfiafrica.org/id1.html
The difference in living standards between the city and rural areas is so vast that at the very least an even-handed approach should be taken, when distributing these wonders. I did offer a rural project in Nigeria, but my emails to OLPC went entirely unheeded - at least so far:)
This "top down" approach is often taken, which simply causes the most disadvantaged to get.......well, more disadvantaged, impacting negatively on crime and most of the core civilisation indicators.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 07:16:48 PST
Ben, those are great pictures, and thanks for leading me (once again, I believe I visited previously from onet) to the Nehemiah Foundation site. You are doing some fantastic work!
I certainly agree with your point that rural areas should be a priority.
I've been perusing `Little Engines that Could`_, a report that surveys several inyternational ICT projects, issued jointly by a Canadian government development agency, the `IRDC`_.
I think you will find the conclusions (sec. 7) support your assertion that ICT projects can have a huge positive effect on rural development:
"The fact of the matter is that the communities in which most of our telecentres arose would have been ignored by both public and private policy and practice in terms of access to the tools of the Information Society. The new capacity which telecentres bring to people in their communities would not have otherwise occurred precisely because these geographically and socially remote communities have been ignored for a very long time. They are accustomed to adopting end of product-life-cycle technologies, products and services which never give them an advantage. They are almost always in a "catch-up" position."
.. _`IRDC`: http://www.idrc.ca
.. _`Little Engines that Could`: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-10630-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:22:50 PST
Jon Alexander said:
I think you will find the conclusions (sec. 7) support your assertion that ICT projects can have a huge positive effect on rural development:
"The fact of the matter is that the communities in which most of our telecentres arose would have been ignored by both public and private policy and practice in terms of access to the tools of the Information Society. The new capacity which telecentres bring to people in their communities would not have otherwise occurred precisely because these geographically and socially remote communities have been ignored for a very long time. They are accustomed to adopting end of product-life-cycle technologies, products and services which never give them an advantage. They are almost always in a "catch-up" position."
.. _`IRDC`: http://www.idrc.ca
.. _`Little Engines that Could`: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-10630-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
Thanks, Jon. It is great to find kindred spirits and definitive research too. Nehemiah Foundation works primarily in these rural areas and frankly are one of very few indigenous NGOs of any consequence I know of in Nigeria doing this type of work. Most of the significant NGOs are holing up in the cities in relative comfort.
One other thing which is relevant to the rural areas is that few have ever had any money to be corrupt with, so this really is not an issue. The rural NGOs are not good at managing money, but this is not the same as the blatant swingeing corruption seen in the cities, which is stopping the investment.
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:51:51 PST
I dont think we should blame every challenge on the laptop.
Specifically on nigeria rural issue, I know a missionary in london who makes fieldtrips into rural nigeria schools to debate what it is possible to do with computers once you first see them. To help children storytell what may be science fiction in rural but is alread science fact in city. It seems to me that this sort of curriculum needs to be evolved as much as other basic curricula. Whether or not she'd find it useful to take the laptop with her, I may well ask next time I see her!
Generally I think when you look at the varied digital divide programs coming out of west coast hi-tech companies (those with all yhe knowhow and much of the new economy wealth), they are rather half-hearted and in some cases glorified PR. At least negroponte has tried relentlessly to do something which starts a real journey, and with I assume much less resources than many of these west coasters.
Equally I am aware that finding the good stuff amongst the noise is hard to do. It would be great to hear if there's a digital divide program that inspires you particularly if you have no work relationship with it.
I expect things to change out of recognition within 5 years. Cos the dynamic of free universities, yunus and branson both getting into free universities will sort out the corporate PR merchants from those who truly want to see grassroots projects developed to narrow divides. The beauty of free university programs is they are heavily peer to peer and open sourcing. If one can find something that works in that domain it can spread even faster than spreadsheets. Which would be a huge liberation for youth.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:24:20 PST
>>Equally I am aware that finding the good stuff amongst the noise is hard to do. It would be great to hear if there's a digital divide program that inspires you particularly if you have no work relationship with it.<<
Some good points Chris. The one above and others as well.
Seems to me there is no **one** answer, and there never will be...to any of the challenges we all work towards. Integrated/meshed/various solutions seem to be what is needed...there is no one size fits all answer.
For education I do like the idea that buying a $400 box provides at least one child in a developing country access to a computer. Now if I had $12,000 I could build an entire library with *Room to Read,* an awesome organization building thousands of libraries and schools in small rural areas in developing countries. Of course with a few million I could go the Branson route ;-) Or if I have no money at all I can *localize* a solution and volunteer a couple hours a week and teach someone in Portland how to read. All these things (and more) under the label "Education/Literacy Toolkit".
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:33:38 PST
Hear Hear Mark! One of the great things about your Education/Literacy toolkit is that it suggests we are all life-long learners, that education is a collaborative and social activity with no limits to our imaginations of what to create.
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:Author: Christina Jordan
:Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:41:45 PST
There is no one answer, but what seems incredibly important to me is that we start monitoring the impact of these kinds of initiatives over time. What are we hoping to see happen as a result of these computers? Higher literacy rates? Higher school enrollment? Higher incomes earned? Better health and sanitation?
All things considered, this particular laptop is a great first effort, but it's got some challenges that remain to be overcome in future efforts, and there *will be* more efforts going on long into the future to connect Africa and improve access to technology. This project is not working in a vacuum. Critical analysis of these challenges in the press is an extremely important step, in helping the world who has an interest in connecting with Africa better understand the challenges that are still there. We mustn't see this particular product's deficiencies in a defeatist way.
A few years back, Life in Africa became one of the first Inveneo customers when they started selling their solar powered computers. We were guinea pigs, of sorts, with some of the first machines off of the assembly line after a 2 year pilot project with a single machine. Lots of bugs and things that don't work so well on our early machines have now been improved, and inveneo is selling hundreds of them across Uganda.
What I'm trying to point out is that technology product development is never a static process - there is no end point. So while this particular product may not be the one that solves Africa's connectivity challenges, I do salute it as a landmark effort that's brought the local connectivity context into clearer view for many people.
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:28:19 PST
You're observations are very astute Christina. Typically in my short-attention span sort of way, I've located a link to post to this thread and reading a half a dozen or twelve articles while I get around to posting it.
I'm reading through one of those online discussions that takes off when a blogger says something that touches a nerve. This week `Robert Scobel`_ asked:
Any of you have any ideas on how to make business software sexy?
I'm am so out of it when it comes to technology. It's not only a matter of temperament, but also a matter of my age. Nevertheless, it's so interesting lending an ear to the discussions, because technology is changing so many thing, and changing the way we think.
On it's face Scoble's question seems rather unlike to result in a firestorm of comments. But that it did, and all the places that the `conversation`_ (James Grovener's pieces is fun and full of links) took is a glimpse into the many ways technology is changing us.
I really agree with Christina that XO is happening in a vacuum. But the project has tackled many issues that aren't so obvious on the surface about networked communications technology. The solutions that they've come up with so far are quite clever it seems to me.
Here's the `piece`_ at The Next Hurrah I wanted to link to because it's a good discussion of the mesh networks technology.
Part of what I love about the approach to the XO is that all along it's been intended for elementary school children. And, yes, one of the important results XO intends is to increase school enrollment and participation. But the machine is designed for children. So they've tried to make it safe and non-toxic. But most especially they've designed it to be hackable. This is brilliant. Who's going to predict the use children and others will design as hacks. As emptypockets post at The Next Hurrah suggests, the mesh network has implication for communications in the developing world far beyond the XO computer.
.. _`Robert Scobel`: http://scobleizer.com/2007/12/09/why-enterprise-software-isnt-sexy/
.. _`conversation`: http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/12/11/open-social-only-people-putting-the-ad-hoc-into-erp-on-sap-breakthrough-productivity-and-bring-sexy-back/
.. _`piece`: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/12/imagine-theres.html#more
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:06:41 PST
:Modified: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:44:40 PST
this goes a bit in parallel but is about impacts; as a micropublisher of collaboration wishes made by the world's deepest education and colaboration entrepreneurs http://www.valuetrue.com/home/gallery.cfm?startrow=2
I am now quite closely networked with the Gandhi family responsible over the last 50 years for 250,000 children's education at http://cmseducation.org - one of their 2 daughters is now a professor at the london university institute of education- she studies impacts- so for example last time I attended a session there was a lady from india that has started a public monitor of how education varies all over india - in her words we thought getting every child a school was our goal until we found that with this survey some 5th graders still are not literate- the trick of this survey is its the absolute minimum to report back local variations; its done by citizens not government; its results are reported in ways so that the public gets involved in improving schools that are not up to scratch
another extraordinary finding from this family's devotion to montessori and gandhian type education is that what school experiences a child has up to 11 coolr the erst of her or his life in terms of loving or fearing all cultures; there is an open source program that any rich nation can now link into if they want cross-cultural harmony to be included with te other 4Rs
the new book by dr yunus is fascinating because it extends the phrase everyone's a changemaker to everyone changes capitalism- now we may be moving out of laptop's prime target since the everyones a capatilism changemaker is directed to , for and by all youth entrepreneurs; yunus has developed an entry game any 3 youth can play;
Social Action http://grameen.tv/_wsn/page2.html
commit together to one social goal for a year long periond and join in making a diary of your ups and downs at a worldwide web soon to be launched by yunus- perhaps its a pity that this social action game isnt also pre-programmed onto the laptop - does anyine know what bis pre-programmed or how one suggests getting new stuff onto as many laps as poss?
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:Author: Jean Russell
:Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:44:46 PST
has anyone received their laptop yet?
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:37:18 PST
nope. Waiting patiently....
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:05:48 PST
I have been reading White Man's Burden (since it arrived last week) and I would like to simply draw a parallel between the Planners and Searchers topic.
Consider how much overseas aid money goes into "planning", whether it be support for universities in training people how to do international development, the salaries for UK or US-based charity professionals and money for "World summits", with their accordant security. Since I have been signed up on the EU and DFID site, I have received free of charge around 20-25 large documents of 100+ pages, one or two of which bore reading.
To be honest, I think the whole thing is totally ridiculous, when hundreds of NGOs are on the breadline, with zero training, zero access to knowledge and only their own humane will to drive them forward in their objectives and, certainly in Nigeria, no overseas aid for NGO enablement, since it apparently "does not create enough of an impact".
OLPC is a project is clearly a searcher project. It actually does something for people. It creates that bridge of enablement, initially for children, but, I hope, something for adults in the near future too.
We need more professionals "on the ground" in support roles and not just those supporting government officials either. We need more internet access in rural areas and we need to establish bases of enabled intelligent people in the most impoverished places, urban or rural. Will the XO laptop be the thin edge of a beneficial wedge?
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:29:13 PST
Still waitin' too.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:26:40 PST
Right on Ben - great point you make.
In my view, one of the key things here is that opportunities for education are important, and more aid resources should go directly to communities, who can probably decide best how to utilise them.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:29:47 PST
>>There is no one answer, but what seems incredibly important to me is that we start monitoring the impact of these kinds of initiatives over time. What are we hoping to see happen as a result of these computers? Higher literacy rates? Higher school enrollment? Higher incomes earned? Better health and sanitation?<<
Agreed.
What are the expectations? What are the metrics? How are they measured? Who measures them? When, where, and how often are they reported?
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:50:13 PST
Jean Russell said:
has anyone received their laptop yet?
Got it. Have not opened it yet :-)
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:Author: Gayle Rogers
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:56:15 PST
Jon Alexander said:
Thanks Christine - it's done. All interested folks - I've created a new group to house discussion about **telecentres**, **ICT**, and their role in **development**.
I invite you to visit the group `here`_, and **please consider sponsoring it**, to make it fully operational.
.. _`here`: /group/telecentre
[Edited by Jon A - simpler link to group]
Jon ... I thought we got the 5 sponsors that you needed to make the group fully operational? It looks like we did. ("Active" status)
Have I missed something and/or do you need something else?
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:10:56 PST
No - you're absolutely right, Gayle - the group **is up** and running fine.
Sorry, I edited an old posting. My bad move - I probably should have just left it alone. My apologies for the confusion.
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:Author: Gayle Rogers
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:20:31 PST
Babe ... **NO APOLOGY** needed here!!!!
Just checking that you didn't need something that had been missed.
Cheers, G **:)**
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:29:03 PST
Thanks Gayle ! Y'know, I am growing to love this **ned.com** place - people are so helpful and kind. And forgiving of little mis-steps.
I have learned so much here - and, if only I could get more of this kind of discourse in my life, who knows the heights that could be reached?
Wonderful to work with you - indeed, with everyone on this forum!
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:31:51 PST
Ben's great post really got me to thinking, of course I don't think straight. His observation is really important:
We need more internet access in rural areas and we need to establish bases of enabled intelligent people in the most impoverished places, urban or rural.
Recently John Udell wrote a piece `Technical mastery requires social innovation`_. There's lots of perspectives it seems about every aspect of OX and the buy one give one program is no exception. What Udell is saying about software is that it isn't good enough to be simple, what's needed in addition is knowledge sharing about what we can do. So I hope that people in the West getting these machines with play hard with them and then be free with sharing what they learn about what people can do with them. It's the social innovation that really excites me.
There's a very basic computer called `Alpha Smart Neo`_. It's so primitive and is used widely in education, I figured they'd be available cheap on eBay. To my surprise they are not, seems like there's a following for the machines. One of the reasons I find the machine so interesting is that it has an amazing battery life (300-700 hours)with three regular AA batteries. So it's a perfect tool for moving digital text between a school without electricity and a wired telecentre.
Somewhere along the line the company got sold. The old company had an active forum which was closed. But the forum moved to `Flickr`_ I love the group, it's such a motley crew.
The point about AlphaSmart, especially the Neo is it's primitive, and still there's so much knowledge sharing going on. This is an essential part if OX is to be truly successful.
.. _`Technical mastery requires social innovation`: http://jonudell.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/technical-mastery-requires-social-innovation/
.. _`Alpha Smart Neo`: http://www.alphasmart.com/products/neo_In.html
.. _`Flickr`: http://www.flickr.com/groups/alphasmart/
----
:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:14:25 PST
:Modified: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:53:26 PST
For over a year now my hobby has been to search for education as the missing link. http://www.valuetrue.com/home/gallery.cfm?startrow=2 -reprinting bursaries available if you want to copy our open source articles but add in community-up projects (need metric on how you will distribute to a club of several hundred community-up readers)
You certainly see : traditional white man's burden is in every aid thar comes as a boxed in goal - deliver this
never empower the locals to learn how to do and learn how to connect across boxes; never any of the soft infrastructure which 'development' of community capabilities involves
we invite you out of london to end whote man's burden by taking up yunus' collaboration call - he doesnt mince words; there is no more sitting on the fence about the accidental ruination that global down aid causes
Poverty exists because we have built our philosophical framework on assumptions that underestimate human capacities. We have designed concepts that are too narrow:
1 credit-worthiness which automatically eliminated the poor
2 entrepreneurship which ignores the creativity of the majority of people
3 employment which relegates humans to passive receptacles rather than active creators
4 development of institutions that are half-complete at best – eg banking and economic systems which ignore half the world
...
Poverty exists because of these intellectual failures rather than because of any lack of capacity on the part of the people.
Our collaboration cafe events have tried in previous seasons to invite author of white man's burden to participate. This time we will sharpen the invitation. We'll hold a cafe on the white man's burden then go and have a debrief with Dr Y -since I hear today that a visit by london Y-forum hosts to Dhaka has been turned into a trip to new york
// threads
transatlantic collaboration cafe http://www.ned.com/group/networkweavers/news/6/
008 world entrepreneur summits invites you to weave // events through year http://www.ned.com/group/community-general/news/98/
london's attempt to pilot a benchmark for Yunus Forums which other cities readership groups can rapidly adopt and improve out of all recognition -coming soon
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:13:32 PST
I'm posting from the XO!
It's not easy to type on,,but my son Aidan loves it.
He's already played some music, done some drawing, and recorded his own voice (with mom's help)
Ned looks great on it.
It's fantastic!
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:23:24 PST
Holy cow. All three boys (9 to 14) went nuts over this box. They've been messing around with it all night, and now I just got it online. This is amazing. They ALL want this...the youngest wants an answer by tomorrow. I did not expect anything close to this. This is off the charts...unreal.
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:15:14 PST
Mark Grimes said:
Holy cow. All three boys (9 to 14) went nuts over this box. They've been messing around with it all night, and now I just got it online. This is amazing. They ALL want this...the youngest wants an answer by tomorrow. I did not expect anything close to this. This is off the charts...unreal.
The mean bit of me says that wouldn't it be good learning for them to give away their new toy to a child in Africa before they've played with it, not after they are bored with it:)
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:02:33 PST
Ben Parkinson said:
The mean bit of me says that wouldn't it be good learning for them to give away their new toy to a child in Africa before they've played with it, not after they are bored with it:)
I thought they already did give one to a child in Africa - wasn't it "give one - get one"? Share and share alike is pretty good giving. If each of us gave 50% most all of the mess would be gone.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:27:17 PST
What's cool about this to me is that it will not just be "a poor person's computer". Any kid and many adults will love this thing.
Yes, $400 for a $200 computer, and one is they are being shipped to various developing countries. Now... **how** these are introduced into local environments in developing areas will be crucial I suspect. If in a small rural village only 1 in 50 children get them, that could pose problems. I'm sure there will both good and bad stories when the computers are introduced into their developing world destinations. Let's hope...you know, more good...less bad.
BTW, when I looked at "the network" last night I saw many of my neighbors wifi signals (all locked)....but saw something else strange. I can't say for certain, but they said Mesh 6, and Mesh 14...I think, I'm pretty sure...they were other neighbors who also had a XO Computer and were showing up in the Mesh network. Wow.
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:10:16 PST
I just installed a `PDF reader`_ and downloaded some Charles dickens ghost stories, and it works great as a reader. I can swing the screen into tablet mode, turn off the back-light, and read away...
It's a little heavier than a paper book, but I could imagine doing some lengthly reading this way.
.. _`PDF reader`: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Read
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:30:27 PST
That's so *very* cool.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:42:04 PST
Hey folks - it's great to hear your reports about the XO! Keep it coming!
Mark, wouldn't that be neat if some of your neighbours also bought a "Give One - Get One" XO.
Something tells me that was a very smart PR move on the part of the OLPC project folks.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:46:51 PST
The difference in market placement from "a poor person's cheap computer" to an "ultra hip and cool computer" is huge.
I suspect I'll be ordering one more prior to 12/31 this year (then they are off the consumer market TFN).
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:Author: Gayle Rogers
:Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:26:49 PST
This has sort of morphed into the "Daddy's of the Year" thread .. and it's lovely!!
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:10:37 PST
Is there any hint of when these might be available for $100, as originally suggested, as long as they are given to children in Africa, or is this too far down the strategic pile, as yet?
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:12:40 PST
Gayle Rogers said:
This has sort of morphed into the "Daddy's of the Year" thread .. and it's lovely!!
It is. It would be nice to give points to interesting threads like this (which we can do), but it seems a little "pointless" when those points simply fade away in a couple of weeks.
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:Author: Gayle Rogers
:Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:20:05 PST
Ben, what do you mean? (or more accurately, what have I missed?)
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:08:39 PST
Gayle Rogers said:
Ben, what do you mean? (or more accurately, what have I missed?)
I'm just commenting that points we allocate to threads fade away in time. I'm sure there is a good reason, but it does mean that the thread rating is a measure of recency more than quality.
Since points fade away on threads, it is also a little discouraging to allocate them.
Anyway, don't let me sidetrack things:)
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:03:35 PST
Ok, so a few days have passed. Are they still burning the midnight oil with the laptops or are they back to re-runs of ET, the laptops gathering their first layer of dust?
Or somewhere in between?
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:12:40 PST
Day after Christmas and still in heavy use. Was taken by our middle son on Christmas Eve to our relatives as the cool thing to be shared with the family (could not get online there though, which was a drag).
My hunch tells me it would get even cooler when two (or more) people are together in a Mesh Network. Kinda like all the users having little IM boxes.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:32:30 PST
With apologies to all those deserving...
On the first day of GOGO a true geek gave to me --
A hunnerd-buck L - A - P - T - O - P!
(everybody, now...)
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:37:58 PST
stop the presses - they were recently `giving one away`_ on facebook - at least, up here in soviet canuck-istan (with apologies to rush limbaugh - aw, f'geddit!)
.. _`giving one away`: http://www.socialsignal.com/blog/rob-cottingham/green-gifts-meet-the-xo-laptop
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:Author: Gayle Rogers
:Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:31:32 PST
Jon - exactly how many egg nogs or single malts did you have before you logged into Ned tonight, sweetie? **:D**
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:33:38 PST
(slurringly) i know, i know - sorry! time to go rest...
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 07:25:33 PST
a friend of mine stopped by with his xo, and we tried the neighborhood and group features.
It took a while to get things working, but eventually, we could do a chat and share a browser session. In the shared browser session, we could see each other's bookmarks show up at the bottom.
It didn't work smoothly, but it did evenutally work. it's not always clear what it's doing or why it's not working but it's fun when it does.
Mark: try simply clicking on the icon for the wireless access in the neighborhood view. That's all I have to do to connect to the net.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:23:33 PST
>>Mark: try simply clicking on the icon for the wireless access in the neighborhood view. That's all I have to do to connect to the net.<<
I'll try that today in a different location, thnx. The two signals I saw on 12/24 both had privacy locks.
Sorry to hear the neighborhood/group features were a little bumpy.
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:Author: John Berger
:Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:27:16 PST
I finally have the time to expand a bit more on why I think OLPC will be a major waste of money and resources. My views come from putting together some of my own teaching experience, seeing the kinds of tools that work well for my kids now, and my experiences I have had at TEN where I have seen schools in many parts of the developing world.
Back in th 1980's, for six years I taught computer science and math at a private summer school. At the time it was very rare for schools to have any computers but we had several classrooms full of them as it was a pretty wealthy school. Because of this we somehow got involved in a long term study to test if computer training would result in improved education. This was more though than just access to a computer – specifically we were testing a computer programing language called LOGO with the hope of finding that teaching it to kids would help them be better at math and problem solving later.
To put this in context, back then you could not do anything with computers unless you knew how to program them as they did not even come with a word processor. Your cell phone probably has 100X more processing power than the computers we were using. This was also a time when education was making some really big philosophical shifts away from the “old” methods. Whole Reading was replacing traditional reading instruction. Process Math, now often called New Math, was just being developed – but these shifts were just starting. (Im not sure they were good changes and most of the developing world does sticks to the “old” methods)
So – my job was to teach pre-K and kindergarten kids that did not know how to read but knew letters how to program a computer. LOGO was a great language for this as it was really easy to learn and teach. For example F1 R1 RP 360 – would draw a circle. Kids would start copying those kinds of basic drawing task – circles, squares, spirals, etc. Then we would add in subroutines and conditionals, along with trig functions, and next thing you know they were programing the computer to draw complicated flowers. Remember – these kids did not know how to read- they were copying the programs I wrote on the board then experimenting with them. The idea was that by doing this – when they got to geometry class and were told there were 360 degrees in a circle, that it would be something they inherently understood. This should have, they hoped, given advantages to this group in math all the way up to calculus as the ability to understand things like derivatives depends a lot on good math visualization skills, which LOGO was all about. It was also hoped it would help with other logic and problem solving skills.
I don't think the long term study was every completed as computers soon started to come with programs. At the time though, I thought this was revolutionary and that the by the time I had kids computers would for sure be revolutionizing and improving education. It did not turn out that way.
As you may know there is a huge business in selling textbooks and worksheets to schools and those companies saw computers as another thing they could sell for. Teaching stuff like LOGO or computer programing was hard, especially in an era when most teachers had no idea how to use a computer. But as computers improved in power it became possible to dumb them down, to make them essentially glorified workbooks.
So – jumping forward to today. My kids go to a well funded charter school with computers in every classroom and lots of computer time with their own version of OLPC – a mobile laptop lab they take to every class. I don't think for a minute that this is in any way improving their education, in fact, I would rather they take the computers out of the class. Instead of using the computers like we were with LOGO – to teach skills in new ways, the computers today are just used to repeat the exact same material they are doing in their paper workbooks. They are being used as a “fun”way to get the dumber kids in the class up to speed and as such are a waste of time for the rest of the class. To be fair, sometime they use them like you would an encyclopedia on a research project, but that is the exception.
Then I think about all the schools I have visited around the world, most just chalk and slate tablet setups with no power in the classrooms. The truth is that the kids in these low budget classrooms are often getting a much better basic education then my kids are in their fancy US schools. 80% of teaching is not revolutionary – is math drills, reading, spelling, problem solving etc., and these schools with their limited resources often do much better then we do with all our fancy education theories and computers.
The problem in these schools I visit is usually not the schools. Its things like, the school is free but families can't afford the uniforms; social stigma keeps some groups out (a big problem with the groups I work with); or, the economic need of the families to have their kids working keeps the kids out of school or caps the age they can go to, etc.. Visiting these schools I have never once thought “what they need is computers!”
The last part of my argument gets to efficient use of resources. For example, TEN Charities runs a school sponsorship program in Calcutta that buses kids out of the red light district into a very nice private school across town, and provide uniforms, books and added tutoring. This is a major city so costs are higher than most places we work, but the cost per kid for a year for all that is not much more than the cost of one OLPC computer. What percentage of schools in the developing world spend more than $200 per year per student? Not many. I would guess that very few have those kinds of funds.
Worldwide, what if you asked the teachers and the community – would you rather have $10,000 to spend on your schools or 50 computers – oh and by the way to use the computers your teachers will have to go though a lot of training and you will have to get internet and power in every classroom. I would be shocked if many schools and communities would take the computers. We are talking about billions of dollars here that could be better used if we let the communities allocate the funds.
That what it gets down to for me. Computers are nice, but even in US classrooms they are not revolutionary and can in fact be a distraction. And instead of asking people what they can best use, once again we are forcing our idea of the right solution and in the process probably wasting billions on cool toys and jobs for non profit types and engineers.
----
:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:33:58 PST
Interesting, John. You seem to indicate that your LOGO experiment was actually something of a success for its time, though.
The laptop is in Africa so much more than just a computer - it is in place of books and in many cases a replacement teacher, where teachers are not up to scratch. So for $100 each, they are quite cost effective. That's not to say there might not be better ways to spend the money, but $100 for many years schooling life for teacher, books and fun, as well as narrowing the education gap with what is standard education anywhere else. I cannot believe that a child who has been to school for five years in an African rural school and failed to learn to write due to poor teaching would be unable to type having owned an XO laptop for five years.
This ignores too the impact of conversing through chat or email across the country, which is much harder to measure and simply taken for granted in our usual society.
Are you also saying that computers at home are a waste of time? Should we not be having this on-line conversation right now?
I share your concern over whether the product is suitable (or optimum) for the needs, but at this pilot stage we cannot be too critical and I won't be the one to say that "it will never work".
----
:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:42:15 PST
I would really, REALLY like to continue John's discussion but I suspect that this is not the place. I have been teaching for almost 40 years now. I have taught everything from pre-kindergarten to graduate classes and I have taught for almost 10 years of that time in a developing country at all of the above levels. I think I have some insights into what is and (mainly) is not working, but I haven't a clue as to how they get solved. I suspect that there are ways that computers can be used AS TOOLS to help but the basic problem is one of learning how to ask questions and solve problems. I fear that as long as there are 50 students or more in a class room, that will be very difficult with or without computers. ...unless there is a way to utilize those computers to link the students to a real person and have the effect of reducing the class size and getting the personal interaction going that is required to learn how to ask questions and solve problems. Should we move it to another thread?
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:Author: John Berger
:Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:10:11 PST
Linda - I would be very interested in such a thread.
Ben - we don't know each other so I should explain that I am really a Wall St person that has shifted into social enterprise, so trying to make early, and hopefully smart, judgments about new trends is part of my normal way of thinking. Im often happy to be wrong though, and I certainly will be happy if I am wrong in this case.
Your - "if its great for us why wont it be great for them" argument is one I hear often for these kids of ideas. I don't think it has any value as an argument though as even taking to logical but less sexy extremes shows.
For example, we all know that washing machines and home appliances have cut by 90% the time to do household chores in the west and thus has had a huge impact in the ability of women to enter the workplace and correspondingly increased the overal productivity of western society. But I think it is obvious that a "one washing machine per woman" program would be ridiculous. Ahh - what about pluming and electricity and repairs (same problems OLPC has!) Yet that same kind of argument is used all the time for OLPC.
Back to that $10,000 for 50 computers - which is only enough for a very small community and given the other costs is way understated. Would not most communities do better using that for water treatment, or better teachers, or any number of basic needs?
The reason a lot of social enterprises that do things like selling water pumps into the community are so impressive is that they show that people are willing to spend their own money and thus prove the value of program. I am 99% confident that if they just invented the OLPC and then tried to sell it to the communities that it would be a complete failure. Instead they are selling it to governments and large foundations, and we all know that this path comes with waste and corruption that will then make this even less likely to work.
Did they even bother to test the idea in the market? See if giving laptops to poor communities worked for 5 years or so to prove the concept before spending hundreds of millions on salaries to well educated westerners? Nope - its the typical "can we sell this to foundations? well then lets do it!" model of development which as a businessperson always raises a warning flag for me.
----
:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:22:22 PST
John Berger said:
I finally have the time to expand a bit more on why I think OLPC will be a major waste of money and resources.
The world is what you make it. Seriously.
If you convince enough people that it's a waste of money, then it will die, and it will be a waste of money. If you blend with the technology and understand it, then you can help others use it where it is beneficial, even if that's not in the classroom.
I believe that (with future versions of the software) children will see the world differently after having used one, even for a day. They'll be more in tune with the possibility that you can do anything given access to the knowledge that you can share electronically, and the contacts you can make with the technology.
(The current rev of software is frustrating to use, and spotty in places. Simple things like chat seemed to take me a half hour to get working, and sharing a draw activity doesn't seem to mean that two people can draw on the same canvas... but you're led to believe that that's what will happen. I think it needs another two years of polishing to get the software where they need it, and a big part of that is streamlining and simplification.)
-Jim
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 07:47:09 PST
John Berger said:
Ben - we don't know each other so I should explain that I am really a Wall St person that has shifted into social enterprise, so trying to make early, and hopefully smart, judgments about new trends is part of my normal way of thinking. Im often happy to be wrong though, and I certainly will be happy if I am wrong in this case.
===Well your judgement about moving into social enterprise is certainly a smart one:)
Your - "if its great for us why wont it be great for them" argument is one I hear often for these kids of ideas. I don't think it has any value as an argument though as even taking to logical but less sexy extremes shows.
===I'm not sure I actually said this. I do feel we need to take a long-term (5-10 years)view about the project, appreciating that it will take time to get it right. I also felt that you perhaps deliberately limited the use of the XO to education, when clearly it has an importance in child cognitive development too.
The last rural school I visited would not have been a suitable place for 400 XO laptops (the number of children), as they didn't have chairs or desks or even proper blackboards.
One shouldn't imply that the machines are to be given in isolation. Nor should we imply that OLPC actually means one laptop per child next week, although I guess that is what OLPC are implying. What's wrong perhaps with a few laptops per school to start with?
Looking more laterally, what if the "cost of internet" problem that we currently have turned into a "we have to make internet cheaper" strategy, which surely is a good thing?===
Back to that $10,000 for 50 computers - which is only enough for a very small community and given the other costs is way understated. Would not most communities do better using that for water treatment, or better teachers, or any number of basic needs?
===Well developing programmes is often like riding a wave. There is no presumption that giving someone a laptop has any connection to the cleanliness of their water. If there is a wave of enthusiasm for something in Africa, why not ride it, if there is no wave for what you feel is the priority? At the same time use this wave to highlight publicly the needs for potable water, malaria treatments etc. for laptop owners. Face the facts, if a child has one of these, they can email their government or the UN head telling them that they have no clean water, which they couldn't do before.===
The reason a lot of social enterprises that do things like selling water pumps into the community are so impressive is that they show that people are willing to spend their own money and thus prove the value of program. I am 99% confident that if they just invented the OLPC and then tried to sell it to the communities that it would be a complete failure. Instead they are selling it to governments and large foundations, and we all know that this path comes with waste and corruption that will then make this even less likely to work.
==Although a supporter of water pumps, the communities already have a few of these products and so it is easier for them to assess the value. I think the idea of piloting XO is to try to demonstrate the value in the communities, so that longer term they can contribute to the costs of them themselves. Also I think the strategy to government is more about selling big numbers and having some quick wins on the back of the UN publicity. I'm certain that they could, if they had wanted sell these to NGOs. Many small local NGOs would be prepared to pay £50 each for these laptops - problem is they aren't selling them to the grassroots, at least not yet. ComputerAid is already selling decent PCs for £50 to NGOs.===
----
:Author: John Powers
:Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:48:09 PST
I wrote that I would very much like a thread on education, but apparently didn't click save.
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:54:13 PST
`Developing Learning`_
.. _`Developing Learning` : http://www.ned.com/group/community-general/news/105/
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:05:37 PST
Thanks for setting up that new thread, Linda.
At the same time, I'm enjoying (observing, so far) the discussion as it relates specifically to the XO and computers - I hope that will continue here or elsewhere.
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:33:54 PST
Can I ask users how compatible the XOs are with PC files? Also what storage options are there? Is it all hard disk or can you use flash drives and USB, as yet, for data portability?
I was thinking about the compatibility with the EGranary project, where potentially teaching resources could be flashed up on screens, with appropriate portability http://www.widernet.org/digitallibrary/
I also feel that we need to be considering a cheaper internetless XO, so as not to delay their implementation where they will make the most difference. Internet could be added as a module later, perhaps.
Also, could the XOs be Skype-enabled, so that teaching could be done at a distance? Is the speaker on the XOs loud enough or could it be connected into a PA system, which some schools seem to have, albeit powered by a noisy generator? I would also very much like pupils to be able to talk to each other on an evening through Skype (or the wireless radio) in the same way that teens talk to each other using their mobiles.
Might there be the possibility of "boosting" the signal on the radio signal, so that neighbouring villages also with the laptops could joint participate in activities?
Also, what is the strategy for children who are not at school? It's a little unfair and discriminatory to link ownership to going to school, when perhaps that school is a waste of their time, or their parents (or widowed mother) need them to farm or to sell produce at the side of the road to make ends meet.
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:Author: Jim Carroll
:Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:04:46 PST
Hi Ben,
It can read images, pdfs, text, html, etc... It's not going to read word documents or do any real word processing.
It has a slot for an SD card under the right corner of the screen, and it can also use USB flash drives.
The mesh network was boosted for long range communications already.
eGranary looks like it's just a local web server (with millions of books and multimedia) for a school that's not connected to the internet. The XO has a full internet browser, so it should work just fine.
----
:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:55:22 PST
:Modified: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:56:52 PST
Too bad... `Intel Turns Its Back on OLPC Project`_
Funny. We had a friend who works an Intel drop his two boys off last night for a sleepover with the boys, and he spent a bit of time noodling with the XO and was more and more and more impressed with it. To the point I think he's going to order two...if he still can.
*edit: fixed link*
.. _`Intel Turns Its Back on OLPC Project` : http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080104/tc_nf/57541
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:16:28 PST
Thanks for this, Mark. In case people don't spot the follow-up...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080104/ap_on_hi_te/hundred_dollar_laptop;_ylt=A0WTcUbrrH9HGJMAQBeKfD8C
What insight do we gain from this?
The arrogance of big business?
The insidiousness of the free market economy?
How money corrupts and creates untrustworthiness?
Even how commentators discredit Negroponte for being "clueless" because he expected a partner to stick to their agreement.
My strong feeling is that no one is telling business that aggressive selfish behaviour is not what the world needs - in fact such greed is encouraged in many quarters. Anyone that complains is taunted for being "naive".
Now, what about a policy that rewarded Intel financially for teaming up with AMD, whilst at the same time, keeping prices down? Is this naive or what enterprise is to become?
Ok, this is very one-sided and from an extremely biased perspective, with minimal information, but perhaps there's a grain or more of truth in there.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 09:06:57 PST
Seems like once Intel got the whiff of the real BOP (base of pyramid) market of 3-4 billion people, they took whole new look at the market.
Now the new XO is just a great box, and first pass on this Intel news it seems not great. But, if Intel (or anyone else) can deliver a cheaper/better hardware and software solution to the developing world...I guess that's a good thing, right?
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:Author: Cynthia Gentry
:Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 10:20:29 PST
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but Lesley Stahl did a good `report on Sixty Minutes`_ on the XO. When they reran the story about a month ago, they talked of the new, if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em partnership between Intel and Negraponte.
.. _`report on Sixty Minutes`: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2823501n?source=search_video
----
:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:25:50 PST
Mark Grimes said:
Seems like once Intel got the whiff of the real BOP (base of pyramid) market of 3-4 billion people, they took whole new look at the market.
Now the new XO is just a great box, and first pass on this Intel news it seems not great. But, if Intel (or anyone else) can deliver a cheaper/better hardware and software solution to the developing world...I guess that's a good thing, right?
Well that's a big "if" and what is their motivation? To bring a wonderful low price alternative to the XO or to bring a carbon-copy equivalently-priced to maximise profit product, stealing PR and market research, which will add to the XO's costs due to competition and customer confusion?
If the former, then good luck to them, but the bad blood between the two doesn't seem to indicate this. I would almost go as far as to suggest that Intel may have deliberately led them down the garden path to steal secrets and strategy, because that's how business works. Clearly there is room in the market for a plethora of competitive products (although they seem to have dragged their feet to suddenly realise that there is genuinely a market here), but again I raise the issue of where are these PCs going to go? Are OLPC going to distribute them expensively to the rural populations that need them most while Intel sell their model to the easy access urban market, because it is more profitable? Is it market interference to support an organisation that provides products expensively to "hard to reach" customers?
This is exactly why social enterprise is so critical, because it's not profit that drives a business, but results and "market" impact.
And social enterprises need financial support.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 12:45:30 PST
Here's the `NY Times story`_ on the Intel pull-out - tangentially, it reports Negroponte as saying that the Give 1 Get 1 program garnered significant results.
.. _`NY Times story`: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/technology/05laptop.html
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:53:51 PST
Jon Alexander said:
Here's the `NY Times story`_ on the Intel pull-out - tangentially, it reports Negroponte as saying that the Give 1 Get 1 program garnered significant results.
.. _`NY Times story`: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/technology/05laptop.html
Thanks, Jon - and a fabulous picture of them in action - it looks pretty chilly there. If anyone spots any information on where these 167,000 "get one" XO laptops are heading, I would be very interested.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:41:37 PST
Ben, there may be someting here: http://www.olpcnews.com/
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:30:53 PST
:Modified: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:39:19 PST
I'm quite surprised that intel remained a "partner" for so long; negroponte has expressed how cheated he has felt by intel moving into this sector for 6 months now if my memory is correct ... I feel morally he may be correct; equally it is interesting to know that back in april 2007 yunus hired a former alumni of CK Prahalad (the origin of Base of Pyramid reserach) and fall 07 this duo were presenting to internet companies how they had totally failed to develop anything for 20 years for the base of the pyramid; intel became one of the early partners of yunus
I am not claiming all of this is directly connected; but having heard 90 minutes directly from the CEO of Grameen Solutions yesterday, all bets are off in terms of how the world's biggest internet companies review digital divide markets;it will be sad if negroponte becomes an accidental casualty of this but we're at sustainability's tipping poing cos of the pathetic way digital divide has been treated by internet companies to date, -
(just as much of prahalad's research shows that 10 times better value could have been served to BoP markets if comanies had recognised their vital needs; this surely applies to the whole internet sector; it often feels as if almost every internet dvelpoment has been made for west coast usa for 20 years now; and if you are lucky enough to have enough infrastucture/bandwidth/technology back-up to keep up with this privileged part of the world, the internet's innovation potenatial is for you to produce with; otherwise its worldwide leaves you many years behind being on a level playing field)
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:Author: Jean Russell
:Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:55:13 PST
Thanks for all the comments and discussion. Looks like I received ours the same day--Dec 21. Though the email said it wasn't coming till later. The kids have really enjoyed it...but they also would rather play on mine laptop with the big screen. I am still learning my way around. Thanks for sharing Mark and Jim...what you are learning with yours.
1. It is my understanding that they are not giving just one child in a community a laptop--they are trying to cover a whole community which reduces thievery.
2. Mesh networks are other computers...not necessarily XOs. I thought they were when I first saw it...and was shocked by how many in my area...then I figured it out--Mesh Network 6 is my laptop. :-)
3. I installed sim city. :-) I remember getting lost for a dozen hours at a time in that game. Great tool.
4. I can't make any estimates, like you all can, on how impactful this effort will be. But I am willing to take the risk. And I am pleased that I can use it to teach my own children and family something important about giving.
Long live the internet. May freedom abound.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:15:13 PST
This has nothing to do with the XO, but some computer humor at its best by way of Bill Gates.
CES 2008: Bill Gates' last day at Microsoft (keynote speech)
.. raw :: html
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:19:28 PST
That's really funny!
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:13:16 PST
**Pixel Qi: Towards A $75 Laptop?** Amid all the rancor between One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and Intel, which joined the not-for-profit project and then left it last Friday, a new for-profit startup has been spun off from OLPC to commercialize the technology inside the little green laptop designed for children in poor nations. Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technology officer of OLPC (and a former Intel manager), has left to start Pixel Qi. The idea is to license some of the core technologies inside the OLPC—sunlight-readable screens, a low-power OS, and other sub-systems—to other manufacturers of laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras. That way, these components can reach the manufacturing scale necessary to bring their price down. At the same time, Pixel Qi will make its components available to OLPC “at cost.” `More`_
Competition...and collaboration.
.. _`More` : http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/10/pixel-qi-towards-a-75-laptop/
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:45:00 PST
Mark Grimes said:
**Pixel Qi: Towards A $75 Laptop?** Amid all the rancor between One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and Intel, which joined the not-for-profit project and then left it last Friday, a new for-profit startup has been spun off from OLPC to commercialize the technology inside the little green laptop designed for children in poor nations. Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technology officer of OLPC (and a former Intel manager), has left to start Pixel Qi. The idea is to license some of the core technologies inside the OLPC—sunlight-readable screens, a low-power OS, and other sub-systems—to other manufacturers of laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras. That way, these components can reach the manufacturing scale necessary to bring their price down. At the same time, Pixel Qi will make its components available to OLPC “at cost.” `More`_
Competition...and collaboration.
.. _`More` : http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/10/pixel-qi-towards-a-75-laptop/
I sincerely hope this is a good thing. I would love to trust the private sector with the technology, but is it just a con to reduce the cost of an already cheap product to make megabucks from California? If there was a licence set up, where whatever was developed with the technology paid back a royalty to OLPC, then the poor (through additional XOs) can at least benefit from future commercial success, redistributing money from rich to poor? If this doesn't happen it still smacks of exploitation of the poor to develop products for the rich. Linking it simply to cheaper components relies on OLPC's ability to sell many products, due to the cheaper price, which could be chickenfeed in comparison to a royalty on commercially-focused new products, which would directly pay for complete new XOs, probably by the thousand and actually exploit the rich to pay for the poor.
The idea that an ex-OLPC employee is doing this does add a little credence that it has altruistic motivations, but the devil is in the detail.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:03:48 PST
When showing the $3.50 Lifestraw to a group of local women in Gulu it was clear to me at that point in my trip even that was way too much money for them to think about paying for a product they don't see themselves as needing.
If this creates more opportunity, more collaboration, more distribution, more training, more software...sure seems like it can't hurt.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:14:42 PST
During a meeting yesterday, the XO Computer came into the converation and the person pointed me to:
`GLORY laptop/river road/USA for Africa/textese/forgotten vegetables/NGOs`_ By `Binyavanga Wainaina`_
Not a real fan of the XO, and lays out some decent reasons...many of which that have been talked about here.
Couple quotes from the article...
*But Baylis's Freeplay Radios still exist. You will find them among new age fisherfolk in Oregon; neoblue collar sculptors working out of lofts in postindustrial cities; backtoearthers in Alberta; Social Forum activists and neoGrizzly Adams types everywhere. Angstridden victims, all. But the enthusiasts of the windup radio suffer not from poverty or lack of information but from wealth, vague guilt, and too much information. They are the only people who can find nobility in a product that communicates to its intended owner: you are fucked.*
and
*When free American maize turned up in Kenyan schools in 1984, thanks to Bob Geldof and USA for Africa, it arrived in gunny bags and presented itself at school dining tables: steaming yellow, not white like the maizeflour we knew as a staple. We had heard that this food was coming. We had heard that people were starving to deathonly a few miles away from us, in fact, over the border. But even that was "out there." We were all hearing on the radio this song by big celebrities about the starving people in Africa. We were singing these songs, as wellthrilled that we, too, could feel mushy about people in Africa. We saw the sacks unloaded. But they were silent. So we started to speculate. I must confess that I hated school food, anyway, and that yellow maize porridge tasted not that much worse than everything else we were forced to eat. But our speculation was powerful. It is American animal feed. And it started tasting a bit too earthy. It has been treated with contraceptive chemicals. And it started to taste metallic. It was sent to us because it has gone bad already. And it started to smell funny.*
.. _`Binyavanga Wainaina` : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binyavanga_Wainaina
.. _`GLORY laptop/river road/USA for Africa/textese/forgotten vegetables/NGOs` : http://www.bidoun.com/issues/issue_10/04_all.html#article
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:31:08 PST
A good handfull of links and articles from `the BBC on the XO Laptop`_
.. _`the BBC on the XO Laptop` : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6679431.stm
----
:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:50:33 PST
I received a letter from OLPC today, which others may be interested in:
Dear Interested Party,
We thank you for your interest in receiving XO laptops. One Laptop per Child is a non-profit organization which manufactures the XO laptop and then sells them to governments in mass quantities or to agencies willing to buy 100 or more and then donate them to a worthy cause. Our policy is not to give the laptops away; we could not afford to do that, we are making no profit, even selling them.
That being said, because of the Give One Get One campaign that ran through the end of 2007, we did indeed, through the generous donations of participants, gather funds to manufacture a number of laptops to give away. We regret to say there is no application process to receive these laptops. They are simply being donated, in proportions later to be determined by our Board of Directors, to the governments of a few of the poorest countries on earth: Haiti, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Mongolia. If you were interested in the XO's going to a school in one of these countries, it would be best for you to lobby the government of that country to that effect. How exactly they are to be distributed is still being determined. We regret we cannot assist you with this lobbying.
Perhaps in the future there may be some sort of application process to receive an XO laptop without buying it. We are sorry that for now, there is not.
If you, or an organization you know, are interested in purchasing 100+ laptops, please see the “Give Many” campaign. The website and contact information for “Give Many” is at:
http://www.laptopfoundation.org/en/participate/givemany.shtml
or
http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/group-giving.php
Also, simple monetary contributions in which you do *not* receive any laptops may be made online at:
http://laptopfoundation.org/en/participate/
The answer to many other questions you might have can be found on our FAQ here:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Official_OLPC_FAQ
Best Regards,
OLPC Administration Staff
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:00:00 PST
Mark Grimes said:
During a meeting yesterday, the XO Computer came into the converation and the person pointed me to:
`GLORY laptop/river road/USA for Africa/textese/forgotten vegetables/NGOs`_ By `Binyavanga Wainaina`_
Not a real fan of the XO, and lays out some decent reasons...many of which that have been talked about here.
Couple quotes from the article...
*But Baylis's Freeplay Radios still exist. You will find them among new age fisherfolk in Oregon; neoblue collar sculptors working out of lofts in postindustrial cities; backtoearthers in Alberta; Social Forum activists and neoGrizzly Adams types everywhere. Angstridden victims, all. But the enthusiasts of the windup radio suffer not from poverty or lack of information but from wealth, vague guilt, and too much information. They are the only people who can find nobility in a product that communicates to its intended owner: you are fucked.*
Aside from the language, I find these articles negative and distasteful. The radios are a superb idea - the problem is their availability and suitable radio programmes to listen to. It's a symptom of the market-driven society that where there is no profit in it, you can only scratch the surface of the demand, which sometimes as a result is disappointed, when their hopes are not met.
When providing products to Africa you seemed damned if you do and damned if you don't. You provide old serviceable stuff and you are criticised for not providing sparkling new. You provide high-tech and you are told that the Africans want bread, not cake.
I also think that the article misses the point about children. I recently visited a slum in Kaduna, to try to learn what life was like in the disadvantaged urban areas. I took a couple of photos and within minutes we were surrounded by excited children, anxious to look at the camera. Working in the rural areas, we handed out biros to the children and you could see their enthusiasm build when receiving such a simple token object.
My point is that we become cynical and negative as we see bad things and we poke fun at and ignore stuff which doesn't suit our current state of mind.
Most children haven't developed that negativity - yet. They are ready to try anything presented to them and what we as adults must do is present them with things which are lasting and educative. Computers are not just "part of society". They are fun and I (and most other people) have had one now for over 20 years, so they have proved their longevity.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:28:58 PST
Well, I for one am far from writing off the XO Computer, or anything like it. That being said, I think exploring all sides and POV's is healthy too.
I think keeping in mind the lessons of books such as *Despite Good Intentions* and *The Lords of Poverty* when exploring what might work, what works where and why, and what didn't work...is very a very good idea.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:55:50 PST
Ben, thanks for posting the letter from OLPC - interesting.
I agree with you as well about Binyavanga Wainaina's article, although I was glad to have seen it - much appreciated, Mark. It has led me to an `fascinating publication`_ on ME culture, which puts at least some of its content online.
I rarely spend time on ned.com without making serendipitous discoveries.
.. _`fascinating publication`: http://www.bidoun.com
----
:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:33:50 PST
An interesting development that's recently emerged from the XO project (reported in their "Community News" email circular):
Our Stories: Google, UNICEF, and OLPC issued a joint press release regarding a global storytelling project being orchestrated by Google's Stephen Cho. The goal of the initiative is to preserve and share stories, histories, and identities of cultures around the world by making personal stories available online in many languages. Using XO laptops, mobile phones, and other recording devices, children will record, in their native languages, the stories of elders, family members and friends. These stories will be shared globally through the Our Stories website (See `http://www.ourstories.org/`_), where they can be found on a Google Map.
I've had some trouble getting video clips on the various sites to play with sound (under both Windows and Linux), but I intend to keep trying, as they promise to be fascinating.
.. _`http://www.ourstories.org/`: http://www.ourstories.org/
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:12:09 PST
Another cool initiative (from the `same issue of "Community News", Dec. 8`_, under item 16):
...
Wolfgang Rohrmoser and Kurt Gramlich are proud to announce the initial version of their OLPC XO-LiveCD. This new project targets these goals:
- give children, students, teachers and parents the opportunity to participate and use the Sugar educational software on a common PC;
- support demonstration of OLPC software to non-developers;
- provide an easy maintainable Live-System for developers to test activities on the sugar desktop, this could be regarded as an alternative to existing OLPC virtualbox and qemu images.
...
(more at the link above)
So now anyone can try out the software environment of the XO on their own computer, without having to install anything - a Live CD will boot temporarily from the CD drive. (You will need to make sure your CD drive is bootable and ahead of the operating system resident drive in the list of boot devices. This is normally done in the BIOS settings, typically accessed by holding down the Delete key or another key as your PC boots. I suggest you consult your PC's documentation).
.. _`same issue of "Community News", Dec. 8`: http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/community-news/2007-December/000088.html
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:33:32 PST
Jon, I'm really s-l-o-w when it comes to computer stuff. But I really would like to try out the software environment of the XO. I downloaded the image and burned it onto a CD. As it happens I have no documentation for my XP running computer--it's a cast off. I tried just putting the CD in and restarting my computer. When I did there was a brief moment of black screen with a DOS like prompt. Is that when I should try holding down the delete key to see if it will boot from the CD? More to the point is it safe to try that?
LOL--I know giving computer advice to the ignorant is fraught with danger. But any more instructions about making sure my CD drive is bootable would be appreciated.
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:Author: John Berger
:Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:19:50 PST
I would be shocked if this worked as they would have to create drivers for hundreds of different kinds of components. In fact I hope they dont even try to make that work as it seems like a waste of time to do all that work instead of focusing on the core product.
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:51:00 PST
Hi John P - you normally need to hold the delete key down as you power up or re-boot the machine - the BIOS settings should appear instead of a prompt. You then usually need to navigate several sections or menus to find the "Boot Devices" or a similarly-labeled menu. You then need to save the BIOS settings, and the machine will usually continue booting.
It's possible that your CD drive may not be bootable, although if you're running XP, I would think its probably a fairly recent model of PC, and my experience tells me it should be likely.
John B - its true that some hardware may not work, but if you primarily need just video, along with your mouse and keyboard, to try it out, I would think that will probably work.
I disagree (mildly) that it's a waste of time - it allows more people to try out the XO (at least, the software environment), one way to get more people interested in the project.
Having said that, I haven't actually tried it myself yet, so I invite you all to keep a side dish of salt handy as you read this post.
----
:Author: John Powers
:Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:58:42 PST
Thanks for the tips Jon!
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:48:41 PST
I'm glad to help - let us know if it worked!
----
:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:40:33 PST
:Modified: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:41:02 PST
To follow up further on John B's point - it does now appear that the XO project has had to devote more resources than originally planned, to deliver the XO laptops purchased during the "G1G1" program.
Perhaps *that* qualifies as wasted time - comments, anyone?
[Edited by Jon A - typo]
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:25:02 PST
My recollection was that they sold a bundle (4x) more than they were planning to, so it stands to reason it cost more to despatch them?
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:59:49 PST
What's the record wait? I thing I applied at launch time - mid novemeber? - not seen one yet ...
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:01:39 PST
Chris, did you apply, or order one and pay for it?
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:Author: Jon Alexander
:Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:39:37 PST
:Modified: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:11:02 PST
In case anyone is interested, I've acquired an `ASUS eeePC`_, an ultralight notebook PC which has been touted in some quarters as having been inspired by (and maybe even meant to compete with) the XO.
It's an interesting little unit, and one which I hope to make use of for its portability. The model I have is the 4G unit, with integrated video camera, microphone, and speakers.
It originally came with its own linux-based OS - I now have ubuntu gutsy running on it.
.. _`ASUS eeePC`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eee_pc
[Edited by Jon A. - added link + corrected small error]
----
:Author: John Powers
:Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:42:24 PST
Sort of along the lines of Jon's eeePC, but much much simpler is the `AlphaSmart Neo`_. It's a portable word processor, and is discouragingly expensive, nevertheless I feel has real potential for learners in remote areas. One of the cool things is battery life--700 hours on 3 AAA cells.
This device has great potential for interface with Internet-connected computers. Many schools have no electricity and few, if anyone who knows how to use computers. But the reach of the Internet is expanding and this simple computer is a practical interface in some situations. It's easy to imagine how schools could encourage teachers and students to correspond via the Internet. It might be as simple as a teacher traveling once a week or so to the Internet connection to post content created that week, and collect content left at the school's Web site.
At about $250 the unit seems too expensive, still the darn thing has a `cult following`_ among writers. The point is that very simple platforms can be quite powerful.
.. _`AlphaSmart Neo`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart
.. _`cult following`: http://www.flickr.com/groups/alphasmart/
----
:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:54:03 PST
I guess, John that the AlphaSmart is expensive because they don't sell vast numbers and perhaps they don't have a plant which could expand to any great extent. Do you have any ideas?
You're certainly right that sold with a solar battery recharger for say £15 (which could be shared between machines), they would do well, if they could sell for about £40-£50.
Do you think XO laptop has stolen the thunder for a project to bring the Neo or eeePC in any great numbers into a poverty alleviation or rural education project?
----
:Author: John Powers
:Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:58:51 PST
Oh no I don't think that the XO has stolen the thunder from other projects. One thing about the XO versus the eeePC is the XO is designed to take rugged handling which the eeePC certainly is not, so I don't think the eeePC really competes in the educational arena. My sense is that Mary Lu Jepsen with the drive to monetize the innovations of OX in the `Pixel Qi`_ will not find the educational market particularly important to the company's business plan.
There's an element of the education business that makes it a kind of racket driving prices of educational materials up rather than down. For example in the USA the McGraw family, a big publishing firm is in the education business. That family's ties with the Bush family go way back. So when George Bush became governor of Texas and Texas having an statewide textbook system, McGraw was able to use the personal ties to the governor to drive up sales of their products. The company was then, when George Bush became president, able to interject itself into the lawmaking. They nationalized the cozy arrangement with Bush to mandate their extraordinarily expensive and very profitable tests countrywide.
Nicholas Negroponte is I believe very idealistic, but also is close enough to government--his brother has long served in the State Department--to understand the corrupt system of procurement. Everyone thinks he's on a fool's errand by trying to sell the XO to governments. He may well be. The point is when it comes to education it's not a low-price point that makes things happen. Rather it's that in government politicians pay no attention to the **not** in president Kennedy's famous line: "Ask not what government can do for you." And where XO can get the clout to participate int eh corrupt procurement practices of educational products seems nowhere in sight.
So educators are left to do the best they can with what they can get their hands on. I think that the AlphaSmart Neo is pretty cool because it's so simple, and even with something simple educators can do a lot.
.. _`Pixel Qi`: http://www.pixelqi.com/
----
:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:46:29 PST
:Modified: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:53:44 PST
well the baby has arrived; is there somewhere at ned where proud parents register their existence so we know who's in the family so to speak?
I have started a listing - community of Laptop owners here:
http://www.ned.com/group/community-general/ws/People/
----
:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:02:54 PST
incidentally ted is replaying a 1984 negropronte here - fun if you have time http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/230
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:19:20 PST
Which of these features do you find using a lot?
.. raw:: html
----
:Author: Dan Perez
:Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:20:47 PST
Well, since this thread got me to join ned.com seems like I should at least post something :-)
Here's a great blog post by Ivan Krstic.
http://radian.org/notebook/astounded-in-arahuay
I love the post because... well... I think that people can debate all of the pros/cons about OLPC, the mission, the strategy, etc... but no one really knows exactly what's going to happen once these kids get the laptops. We just might be surpised by the kids - it won't be the first time.
-- Dan
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:Author: John Powers
:Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:25:19 PST
Oh Dan that is a great blog post. I am so impressed with the teachers. The whole bit about the XO's leading students to need to share is really great. I got teary-eyed when I read:
One student, whose name I’ll withhold, commonly gets in fights with others, didn’t speak to or play with his classmates, and would normally sit in a corner of the classroom by himself. The principals anticipated the XO would make him even more territorial and isolated, but they were taken by complete surprise when he became the first kid to figure out the laptop, and then started teaching the others who curiously flocked around him.
Students like that are probably familiar to teachers everywhere, and the child who keeps them up at night. The big payoff for teachers everywhere are those "Aha!" moments when a pupil knows; learning that can never be taken away or disputed. For very isolated children sometimes a whole year will pass and a teacher is never quite sure about that child. The whole post is wonderful.
----
:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:31:01 PST
Thanks for the link to the blog.
Reading where our vision is becoming reality helps refill the tank, when all one seems to do day by day is push rocks up and ever-steeper hill.
These comments made by rural dwellers are so obvious, but seem rarely to be given any credence by the rather staid international development organisations that seem to think that only governance matters...
Does anyone have any further information on the Nigerian or other African pilots?
----
:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:44:27 PST
'One Laptop Per Child' Plan Faces Challenges in U.S.
`Listen Now [4 min 32 sec]`_
Morning Edition, March 31, 2008 • The group behind the One Laptop Per Child initiative just delivered more of its super-cheap laptops to South Africa, but how will this new technology fare with schoolchildren in the United States? Now the group has a deal to provide computers to kids in Birmingham, Ala.
Steve Inskeep talks to Morning Edition tech expert Mario Armstrong about the challenges facing the project, including slow speed and wireless availability.
.. _`Listen Now [4 min 32 sec]` : http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89231795&ft=1&f=3
----
:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:10:47 PDT
This seems to be a change to their policy:
http://laptopfoundation.org/participate/givemany.shtml
If you can afford 100 laptops at $299, you can direct them to a location of your choice.
100 is still a lot and too many for those wanting to test impact in a pilot format.
----
:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:40:05 PDT
I dont know who is doing their pricing but unless I misread it, its quite insulting
it implies that to choose where your laptops are sent you need to buy 10000 (ie nearly 2 million dollars worth) before you can buy a laptop at the price they offer if they choose where its sent!
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:00:01 PDT
olpc SAYS:
To give 100 or more laptops **and direct them to a location you designate**, send email to givemany at laptop.org
givemany@laptop.org
Give 100+
$299 per laptop
Give 1000+
$249 per laptop
Give 10,000+
$199 per laptop
**In each case, the donor designates where the laptops are sent**.
(My emphasis)
Unless I am reading it wrong, it is pretty clear that in each of these cases the donor designates where the computers go.
----
:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:12:27 PDT
I am wondering whether it might be possible to install Skype onto the XO laptops, or some other communication voice package, perhaps open source from OLPC. Has this been tackled yet?
Does anyone have any more blog links like that one from Dan Perez at the end of March? This type of early anecdotal evidence is so useful when shaping programmes with the XOs or other similar products.
----
:Author: John Powers
:Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:48:11 PDT
Ben here's a `link`_ to the OLPC Forum abut using Skype. Shorter version: It works just fine.
And via Ethan Zuckerman here's a link to a good review of the XO project in Peru in `Technology Review`_. It's not exactly the sort of link you're after, but it's quite a good article nonetheless.
.. _`link`: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=471.msg6122;topicseen
.. _`Technology Review`: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20572/page1/
----
:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:58:07 PDT
Great stuff, John. You know why I want the Skype:)
I love the point he makes about "some children are not poor enough" and "despite the difficulties with internet in the rural areas, the most needy children are targeted first."
This is the "social impact before profit" angle, which is so important when tackling social issues.
Well done, Peru, for having the vision for these products.
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:Author: Gayle Rogers
:Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:24:17 PDT
Given the ongoing interest in XO on Ned, great question Ben.
(What did we do before Skype??? Oh yeah, cringe when we saw the phone bill - or just not talk at all.... I remeber!)
And John - I know I've written it before (and no doubt will again) but THANK YOU for that link. It was a goodie. (as they almost always are!)
Hope you are both well. G. **:)**
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 01:33:34 PDT
Has anyone found a map of which countries like Peru have major laptop experiments going? I ask cos nearly every week I am networking with smeone concerned about what educational dynamics are most interesting in their country and the patop map would be most useful. Equally if there are other educational movements that can be mapped for their worldwde networking flows, I would love to hear your recommendations
----
:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 12:30:32 PDT
I bumped into a fellow xo laptop owner today- rumor is the community is in shock since there has been a suggestion of moving over to a windows system, which would seem to work against the interests of those who had developed most of the stuff to date-- anyone else heard about this?
I think it would be a great pity if the XO laptop loses its momentum but I dont really understand what us ordinary people (by which I mean those without large purchasing budgets) can do to help
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 02:21:22 PDT
This is the most worrying thing I have heard for a while. Perhaps a relaxation of the minimum purchase numbers to one class size (?) might help facilitate wider distribution.
I can't help but wonder whether the eyes of the world are on Peru, though, who have taken the "leap of faith" required for the product. It seems to be crazy to make operating system changes whilst we are still learning the magnificent impact these machines are seeming to have, from reports so far?
Having said that, a development of Windows compatibility might have a positive impact on the versatility of the machines, but my worry is that the minute Windows is mentioned, the number of organisations developing software for it may start to fall off (if they haven't already)
Is this simply another "it's making money", but if we fundamentally corrupt our vision "we can make even more!" - a philosophy which seems so pre-eminent right now - mobile phone service providers being a prime example.
Should we let the market dictate?
----
:Author: John Powers
:Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 21:02:57 PDT
Eric Hersman's blog is White African and the tagline is *Where Africa and technology collide*. I'm always interested in what Erica has to say and his `recent post`_ he link s to a very good article about the subject by Reuven Lerner at `Ostastic`_. The article goes into the ideas of educator and technologist Seymour Papert. Hersman quotes the article with a snippet saying it rather sums up his support for the project:
It should be noted that the point of the laptop project was not to give children access to the Internet, or to word processors, or even so that they could learn to touch-type. The idea was to provide children with an open-ended system with which they could tinker and explore — and through that exploration, learn. Papert long referred to computers as “the children’s machine,” because it offers children the chance to learn by creating and sharing, two key elements of Papert’s educational theory known as “constructionism.”
My bias is pretty much in this direction too, but Windows is what people have come to expect.
.. _`recent post`: http://whiteafrican.com/?p=1000
.. _`Ostastic`: http://ostatic.com/160839-blog/olpcs-open-source-rift-deepens
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Wed, 07 May 2008 06:17:16 PDT
I think the stated idea is great. But in it is the seeds of XO's marketing crisis. It was expecting governments to buy in to such an experiment?!
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Wed, 07 May 2008 07:20:29 PDT
As I understand, the original thought from XO was that govs would agree ahead to buy them in 1,000,000 unit lots (at $100 USD each.)
Lo and behold when it came crunch time, none of the countries would/could pony of the billion dollars per lot.
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Wed, 07 May 2008 07:56:14 PDT
Whilst this was an error of judgement, the BOGOF pre-Christmas effort was a smash hit, so surely that should tell them that a smaller "project-based" approach will get them there in the long run. Being precious about the very cheap £50 price point shouldn't stop them from offering the product in smaller "lots".
The machines are worth £150 at least, considering what they do, so why not relaunch them at $300 apiece. Doing BOGOF is for me a bit patronising, as my XOs will be going to rural African children, so why should I have to buy one for rural Mongolian children at the same time, so I can only buy half as many? Still, if BOGOF allows them to do some substantial pilots that convince governments to invest, then why not?
Also, maybe the USA might want to invest some of the $60Bn they claim to be spending in Africa on these or is this money just to tell African governments how to run their own countries?
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Wed, 07 May 2008 09:39:24 PDT
:Modified: Wed, 07 May 2008 09:40:07 PDT
It seems to be one of those areas that they needed to think through the market scenarios such as
governments dont like disruptive educational offers
assuming tv was going to give this almost no voice however interesting it could have been , this product needed both citizen and netizen championing - its bizarre cos this product is one of the great conversation openers wherever I have taken it so it could easily have become a fashion whose supporters then gave it a base for citizens and netizens to ask why not let kids explore with this
----
:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Wed, 07 May 2008 16:20:57 PDT
:Modified: Wed, 07 May 2008 16:21:41 PDT
I have been thinking that one of the ideas that comes from this thread is that we as parents or humans see possiblities to explore whole new worlds of education which largely speaking governments are not going to lead and teaching professions are stuck piggy in the curriulum middle of
so I hope its ok to add this quite startling video - in which the view is put that the blog could be an edu revolution
.. raw:: html
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 20:30:16 PDT
IT dunce's question
is there anyway of sending a text file made on laptop through email ; I was trying to attach or paste a text file into yahoo out of my laptop but failed
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 21:28:33 PDT
Either of those should work Chris.
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 07:04:55 PDT
my specific problem:
i opened journal where I had logged up some text the day before as I was writing a script for a tv interview - I seemed to succeed in copied text
got online and into a space to send a yahoo message but could not find any way it would let me paste into the yahoo post
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 07:30:55 PDT
Control V won't work?
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 14:44:52 PDT
yes thanks that works
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 15:32:40 PDT
`XO redesign`_
.. _`XO redesign` : http://blog.ted.com/2008/05/xo_laptop_redes.php
----
:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 17:11:44 PDT
This link is crashing my browser for some reason. Is it resource intensive? With the rainy season here, the clouds are really eating my connectivity so that might be it.
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:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 09:53:51 PDT
:Modified: Sat, 24 May 2008 09:55:12 PDT
so does this mean that the announcement of this design in late 2010 or whenver is also their obituary to XO 1
I mean I cant imagine anyone would place a huge order for xo1 if they see this sort of launch spin going on in paralel for xo2
I feel sad cos there are some unique features of xo1 - like browsing each other's work- and I would love to 1) know what is the best in class use that has been made of that; and 2 whether we could still do a great experiment; I believe the best way the xo could have launched itself would have been to get 1000 fashion but development conscious youth in one big city playing with it; its a talking point where people see it; it could have been a first rate research/education project; what a pity that as hugely resourced institution as MIT could not have done this
or I am missing a clue?
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 03:43:50 PDT
I simply think they need to market the product like every other computer is marketed - in 1's.
Selling 250k to Peru for $100 should not preclude me buying one myself for $300.
I don't have a problem with XO1 or XO2 - I'll have either, if I can buy either. At the moment, I can't buy either, even though I want to. I don't think for one minute that rural African kids are going to turn their noses up at XO1. For some reason they don't seem to have developed the Reebok trainer syndrome yet, to their credit.
I agree, Chris, that the machine needs more exposure and frankly I don't care how it gets it. Having bundles of small 5-machine projects all over the world making big differences in small communities strangely will end up giving them more column inches than one massive project.
I don't think, as some have posted on the blog that Mark pointed us to, that we should consider XO2 as a "pandering to the market". To me it looks bolder and better and it may even be cheaper. A maturing of the product has got to be beneficial for its future.
----
:Author: chris macrae
:Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 11:07:27 PDT
I dont think buying a different version of computer is like buying a different shoe; first I am unclear whether there will be software and features compaibility between the two; second I assume the x02 will be 4 or more times powerful than x01. I thought that X0 was aiming to be timeless by only offering one spec that had been the result of many years thinking on application features
And even if kids dont mind, I cant imagine a government placing an order for the old with the new on the horizon.
----
:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:37:40 PDT
`The $100 Distraction Device - Why giving poor kids laptops doesn't improve their scholastic performance.`_
Slate By Ray Fisman Thursday, June 5, 2008
.. _`The $100 Distraction Device - Why giving poor kids laptops doesn't improve their scholastic performance.` : http://www.slate.com/id/2192798/pagenum/all/
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:26:12 PDT
:Modified: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:26:45 PDT
This is rather an odd headline for the article, as it doesn't really summarise the findings.
Scholastic performance won't build a well or treat diseased cattle. It won't subvert corruption or produce great music. It's information, guidance and stimulus which can do this - all things provided by internet.
A diversion from homework - when universities are complaining about the blandness of knowledge that our education system is feeding into young people, turning them into carbon copies of each other, perhaps this is a good thing?
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:Author: Linda Nowakowski
:Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:51:13 PDT
I agree with you to a point, Ben. If the people who are teaching them how to use the tools don't know how to use them either than....
I mean you can use a hammer to build a house or break a window. If no one shows you how to build the house the best new use you might come up with inspired by the receipt of the hammer is cracking nuts.
There are plenty of computers in Thailand. That is not to say that most of the people have a clue as to their valuable use. And I don't count MSN and HI5 among valuable uses.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:53:15 PDT
The Lost Tribe of OLPC:
http://www.olpcnews.com/use_cases/community/lost_tribe_of_olpc.html
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:Author: Ben Parkinson
:Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:14:55 PDT
Thanks, Mark. I still get the feeling, though, that XO's time is still to come. In this risk-averse world of ours, no one ever wants to make the first move. I'm also told that the XO has a number of "unfinished" aspects to it, in addition to a lack of software. One would hope that these would be finished soon, but perhaps this is simply a situation of "too early hype", when the natural progression of a product's development has been pre-empted and it genuinely needed more time to come to market.
I think we should just plug away at them to allow for low volume sales. That's what I'm trying to do anyway.
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:Author: Mark Grimes
:Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:00:29 PDT
Yeah, I wish they would just sell them ala the Bogo Solar Flashlights, buy one, one goes to a developing country.
Also, while I agree 100% that X0's time is yet to come (or a version of it), I think that mobile phone usage
