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UN Internet Summit High Points
hotsauce writes "Negroponte has unveiled his $100 laptop with Kofi Annan at the UN Internet summit. The plan is to have several countries, both rich and poor, sign up for at least a million each of these machines within a year. Many countries and companies seem interested. Also at the UN summit, the ITU is predicting an internet of things, and warning that social safeguards need to be put in place, as the BBC gleefully talks about employers watching workers via RFID tags." From the article: "Although children will be able to interact with each other through the machines, education was still the priority for the laptops. But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale. "
But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale.
Kids already have a way to interact while doing school work: It's called SCHOOL!
Let's stop waiting and hoping for "Pie in the sky" solutions for problems that already have a low-tech solution.
Let's start using what we have, and stop looking as technology as a panacea to fix the worlds' ills.
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
I love the quote... "now students can learn by doing"
OMFG it took this long for people to realize this? I get a kick out of the experts that poo-poo the small scale engineering projects that MIT is doing that give basically an electronics lab, CAD system, Machine shop and other advanced equipment to common people in small villages. They say that it takes years of higher education to learn how to design things, while 8-12 year old kids learn how to do their craft in less than 24 months and create things that the masters degrees could not think of them selves.
if you give children and people the tools they will learn how to use those tools and usually exceed the experts that are trained to use them in a specific way.
I really hope that they allow these $100.00 laptops to be modified as that is the real place to learn by taking that device way outside the box it was defined in.
If a kid in Kenya can write his own software on the machine instead os using it as an appliance then they will learn even more.
and personally, I really want one for a hiking/7day backpacking device for recording journal events and carrying maps and other information.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The important question is, where can I get one?
My blog
>Lets start with books
These are books! Not paper books (...which I love...) but effective books: an entire dictionary, access to google, and even Wikipedia [snicker]
>...a trade system which doesn't punish the poorest ...
That's a fair 'nuf righteous comment, but I submit these poor people are going to have to implement a fairer trade system on their own because the people who profit from the current trading system have no motivation to give it to them. And because knowledge=power, the improved access to information this technology offers may be the decisive force multiplier.
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
How?, Where? What will RFID tags do to make HIV drugs cheaper? When can we expect these revolutions? Who is working on them? Where in hell did this assertion come from? What does this have to do with "Cars that warn their owners when they develop a fault"? Mine already does that via dashboard lights?
Honestly, is this an article about the issues surrounding next-generation technology and the direction whe are heading or is just some free-association wishlist?
Lets look at the underlying issues. A UN body presents a report outlining privacy issues, health-and safety issues, and other looming crises that must be addressed now before ubiquitous sensors, and rfid tags become too commonplace to regulate effectively.
And what does the BBC do? They give us more padding than pudding and spend most of the article lauding the joys of ubiqquitous sensors ("better coffee") and the growth of RFID tags ("Wal-Mart made the chinese use them") than addressing or even framing the issues raised. And then whan they run out of filler factoids they make more pie-in-the-sky promises like the ones above.
This isn't an article, it's a lullaby: "don't worry about privacy, your bag will tell you when you forgot to shop at Wal-Mart."
Proprietary formats will have to be marginalized. I know this laptop is "just for kids" but if all the content is in .doc , .wma, quicktime, etc. then a lot of people will be left out in the dark. I think there will be a groundswell of resentment and awareness of the ridiculousness of proprietary formats. Once most content is available in standard formats, one of the largest hurdles to adopting Linux elsewhere will disappear.
I'd love to roll Linux out district-wide in our school district. The problem is that there is so much content our there that our teachers and students wouldn't have access to. Sure, the older formats have been reverse engineered or cracked, but the modern, up-to-date content would probably be unusable. What about eBooks? Most of the text book vendors can't agree on a standard and when they do it DRM'ed to hell and require a proprietary [Windows] app to play it. If "all the children of the world" get a linux laptop, that will have to change.
Here's hoping!
"terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
While I find this accomplishment impressive, I think energy should be focused on the basics in poor nations. Basic necessities like food, clean water, healthcare are more vital. Yes technology is great, but look at the US. Every kid uses a computer from day one and we still lag behind many countries in the basics like math and science.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Yeah, that's it... or maybe good teachers know that good old fashioned books, lectures and activities are still the best way to teach. My wife is an eighth grade science teacher. She uses technology probably more than any other teacher in the school, but still realizes that the old-fashioned ways of teaching are the most effective. Technology certainly has it's place in modern classrooms, but far too many people think that it should replace traditional teaching methods.
Finding other idiots on
from TFA:
"He did not say who would build the machine, which will cost $110 to make, but at least five are considering bids to do so. Negroponte said the laptops could become available on the commercial market, but at a higher price."
Like he said, we'll get them, they'll just cost more but... um... so it's going to cost $110 to make, and they're selling them to the countries for $100? Or are the countries paying $110 each, and selling them to... huh? How are these $100 laptops if they cost $110 to make, who's only paying $100? The countries? And he's going to eat $10 per laptop multiplied by 1 million laptops?
i love this though:
"He said they were colored lime green, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and to fend off potential thieves."
ohhh.... so if they were Dell black, grey & silver they'd be stolen more right? interesting theory... yeah what man would wanna sit on the subway with a lime green laptop in his lap?
Maybe the commercial versions will be $199 but painted Dell black, grey & silver and have upgradeable flash memory storage?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
I've travelled extensively throughout the 3rd world and with this attitude the program is going to be a disaster "The goal is to provide the machines free of charge to children in poor countries who cannot afford computers of their own,". If you provide them free of charge all of the most abject poor are going to get them and sell them, especially all the children who have hardly enough $ to eat, and many parents would send their children to get them free so they can sell them. It's not nice but it's reality.
Selling cheap stuff as long as they pay for it and cant resell it for a profit isn't such a bad idea however I've generally found that even the poorest people interested in pcs have been able to get a dodgy box to learn and use their skills to get some sort of computer related job.
Very interesting post, and correct. This laptop is a utopian fantasy looking for a problem. The point that 'gifts' like this distort fragile local economies is well made. The $100 would be better spend on immunization and a trip to the dentist for the kids. Good for Chile for judging this program for the boondoggle that it is.
an ill wind that blows no good
For every one such machine sold at $200 in the more well-off parts of the world, they could give two more laptops away at even half price (or if need be, even another one for free ) to the countries and people otherwise most unlikely to afford them even at $100.
Moreover, I don't see how it makes sense to withhold the machine (despite a focus on open source so strong that it reportedly made them reject even free MacOS) from those who may want to develop for it, "pro bono", without being part of the target audience.
So why in the world would they not sell it to everyone... probably with a less colorful lid - so it would be even more validated (and valued by the students) as something that's useful beyond school, while the green color would make everyone with a diverted "educational edition" look ridiculous at first sight in the early years) from day one?
(And please don't you say: "because it would cannibalize a market for overprized low-end laptops"!)
As of yet, they don't seem to have realized how the restriction to the educational market (and its unnecessary automated enforcement with huge potential for abuse) only add to a problem...