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Negroponte Responds to $100 Laptop Criticisms
teefaf writes "Wired News is running an article on the most recent developments surrounding Nicholas Negroponte's (of MIT) $100 laptop project. The project aims to make 'cheap' computers available to children in developing countries. In the article, Negroponte responds to the inevitable criticism from Intel and Microsoft, "When you have both Intel and Microsoft on your case, you know you're doing something right", and elaborates on his vision for the future of the project, "He also said the display and other specifications could change as enhancements are made. In other words, he seemed to be saying to his critics: Don't get too hung up on how this thing operates now, 'The hundred-dollar laptop is an education project,' he said. 'It's not a laptop project.'". The article also states that the initial production cost of the laptops is expected to be $135; the $100 price-point probably won't be hit until 2008. It's possible that the cost could drop as low as $50 by 2010."
Just wonderin'.
Everyone is very quick to speak ill of Negroponte's efforts here which are all about building a project that works and places computers onto the desks (or laps) of the "have-nots." Based on what I have read of the man he's an original thinker and very creative.
Usually, the entrenched tend to be very frightened of those types.
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
I thought the most interesting thing about this was Negroponte saying "The hundred-dollar laptop is an educaton project. It's not a laptop project."
Given that, it hardly matters what OS it runs, as long as school systems, educators, and students have the ability to write and run the educational software they need on it.
IMHO, the real value of a machine like this in a students hands (especially if they are taught programming) is that they learn problem solving, not just information.
They are making a laptop that will cost $100, and perhaps $50 by 2010. Who cares about the specs, it will not be a buisness machine.
Even if they stuffed a PII 400 mhz and had a 12" screen, it would be very usefull. People could write reports, surf the web, and compile programs. When I was in school, I compiled Java programs on a PII266 without any problems. Sure, I could not run a fancy IDE, but it was good enough to get the job done.
I think a $100 laptop is important. The poor get screwed, and go without. Many poor families will be able to afford a $100 laptop. Also, if I was a charity with $5000 to give away, I would much rather give away 50 basic laptops than 5 thousand dollar laptops.
skeptics have questioned whether the device can meet Negroponte's goal of inspiring huge educational gains
Why do skeptics decide? Of what value is the opinion of a skeptic? Why do people listen to skeptics at all? Offer something constructive, or SHUT THE FUCK UP.
"Geez, so why criticize me in public?" Negroponte said.
Good question. Why everyone isn't on this guy's side is beyond me.
Microsoft did not immediately return calls for comment.
Wait, wait. Let me guess. A meeting! Right?!?!
In time, Negroponte expects the $100 laptop to be a misnomer. For one thing, he believes the cost -- which is actually about $135 now and isn't expected to hit $100 until 2008 -- can drop to $50 by 2010 as more and more are produced.
This man should be given a standing ovation everywhere he goes. Anyone who criticizes him should be ashamed of themselves and their companies. This is a worthwhile, workable project, and it should be supported.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
If this project really takes off, it would be interesting to see if it gives Linux a foothold (dominant market share?) in developing countries. Ten years down the road we might see people in these countries sticking with Linux over Windows when they get a decent computer because that's what they grew up on. Surely this is the main reason Gates is pissed, that it could lose Microsoft the foothold in these developing markets.
Not every community in Africa is starving and lacking teachers.
Think of what benefits would result if every student in a small Kansas town were given a $100 laptop with Net access.
What about shipping your old stuff overseas?
o n_contacts.htm
http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/offices/bost
There are plenty of takers for your old equipment. Why fill up a dump?
--
BMO
THe sole reason why undeveloped countries stay that way is because of the large unproductive workforce that is uneducated.
If Africans (just an example) learn basic computer skills and children use education programs and can learn and connect with the rest of the world and be better informed the result would be tremendous!
Many employers could then setup shops and hire people. One of the reasons India is hot and Sudan is not is because the Indians speak English and are more educated then the Sudanesse.
Computer skills are essential and its silly in the US because any kid knows how ot use a computer but back in the mid 80's here in the first world, it was serious a problem with training. Not everyone knew how to be productive with a spreadsheet for example.
http://saveie6.com/
This project is designed to benefit countries as a whole. Some countries have populations with no high-level skills. By providing these cheap laptops (along with a wireless infrastructure) to their citizens, they can prepare them for more high-level work, which will attract business, which will create jobs, which will put bread on the table.
Ergo, $100 laptops will [indirectly] put bread on the tables of those who need it.
You should realize that this Nick Negroponte is the SAME GUY that whored himself to Swatch to promote their ridiculous "Internet Time" initiative.
Where can I get a crank for my laptop? I'd buy just the crank if it could recharge the battery.
Or, just maybe, he thinks fightng AIDS among Africa's orphaned kids fills a tad more urgent need than MITS phantom $100 laptop.
In 1990 I was given an old x86 machine that ran DOS off of floppy, and then Word off of floppy. I took to that computer immediately, and 17 years later, after many different jobs, I work in IT. Without that x86, I wouldn't have pushed my parents to get me a 486 for my birthday, or tried to get a job at the college helpdesk before I arrived at college. Maybe I would have still ended up here, but I doubt it. Putting a computer in the hands of a child can be a powerful thing.
Why knock it?
and how many governments he's lied to
As if lying to governments were a bad thing.
It is just me, or does it seem that this project is much more interested in publicity than in actually producing cheap computers? If it were all about cheap computers for poor nations, just publish the specs and be done with it. Or just collect and ship used throwaway computers overseas. Instead I get the sense that more effort is being spent promoting Negroponte as a wonderful humanitarian than is being spent actually helping the poor.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
How do you fight AIDS in Africa, with a sub-machine gun?
No, you fight it with education. "The hundred dollar laptop is an education project." I'm watching this program on PBS talking about AIDS in Africa, and this doctor is explaining the birds and the bees to this 19-year old kid who has just infected his wife, because he used to have unprotected sex with prostitutes while he was off fighting a war for his country (from the time he was 14). The kid had no idea how AIDS was spread.
Education is the silver bullet.
Are you kidding me... I have an expensive high-end laptop, yet I would definitely buy a crank for it if it were available. Ok I am a nanoscopic niche market. But still... Other than the cool factor (I am a geek, yes I DO find it cool) there were so many times where I was left battery-less, I would really buy a crank. My only concern is the size of the thing. If they could make it light (carbon fiber) and foldable to the size of a laptop battery, I'd be the first customer.
\u262D = \u5350
Well, it's not like it's running from straight ROM. It has a gig or two of flash space. A hard drive would be too fragile for the conditions this thing is built to endure.
Sidenote: If they throw a single USB port on that thing, I'll buy one in the US for whatever they'll sell them to us at (probably roughly $250).
I've upped my standards, so up yours.
"First, they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win."
It appears that we are currently transitioning from 2 to 3.
While in theory, I wholeheartedly support this, in practice, this could have some unintended negative consequences. One aspect of this that is often overlooked, is whether or not these laptops will be used at all. Remember, $100 in the US (and many other countries) is very cheap. In the countries that this is intended for, it's a lot. Perhaps even several months wages. When you are looking at not being able to feed yourself or your family, that laptop will most likely become a bartering tool, or sold outright to get food on the table. Taking it a step further, you may even see people losing their lives over this. In some under-developed countries, it's nothing to take someone's life over something worth a small fraction of the value of these laptops.
Because teenage pranks are fun when you're about to die!
Gates doesn't have a problem with a sub $100 laptop. His problem is that someone other than Microsoft will receive the praise associated with it.
As Microsoft continues to trip over their dicks geting VISTA out the door, I for one am glad these kids will get these laptops prior to becoming senior citizens.
I'd like to take a minute to remind everyone that there are areas in the US that aren't much better off than the third world, and could benefit from devices similar to this. Here's a parts list if you'd like to try your hand at constructing one :
P III ULV Single Board Computer with 10/100 NIC, USB and I/O riser for IDE and LCD : $65 , these usually come with a power supply.
128 MB SODIMM $30
Linux (free)
LCD : $10 - $15 depending on what you can find on e-bay.
Enclosure : You can use almost anything you want thats non conductive. Get creative.
Throw in a small travelstar drive , keyboard and mouse and you're slightly above the $100 limit, however only by $20 or so. Still much cheaper than conventional. Easy to build.
If you are an educator, you may consider having some of your kids strive to build a project similar to the one featured in this article. I'd love to see Gates go after an army of 12 year olds. Start a pen pal program to go along with it and send their creations where they are needed.. be it Indonesia or Kentucky.
Teach kids to enrich culture, compassion and not (always) their wallets so we limit the amount of future 'Gates' produced.
Is he trying to piss off the world? Or just so self absorbed he doesn't notice he's doing it?
The Freeplay Foundation uses radio, all-but-indestructible clockwork and solar powered multiband portables that can be manufactured anywhere.
The MITS laptop is dependent on the giant asian OEMS. Exchange rates, production and shipping costs. It wouldn't take much to push the project over the edge.
The infrastructure for radio is in place and we have seventy-five years of experience in educational broadcasting on which to build. Shortwave means that news filters in from outside.
The networking of the MITS laptop seems limited and fragile. You are essentially limited to whatever information the local powers-that-be are willing and able to provide.
The action in third world countries seems to be in adding features to cell phones, not trimming down PCs. A cell phone is inherently useful; you can make calls. Adding on extra features doesn't run the manufacturing cost up all that much. The niche Negroponte sees will probably be filled by some cell phone based product that looks like a Blackberry or a Game Boy or a Palm Pilot.
Why do these countries need a widespread distribution of $100 computers?
It's aiming to be more than just a laptop, it is being designed for the express purpose of being an ideal educational tool for children in third world countries. Haven't you ever read "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson? Think of it as our primitive version of "The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" based on the technology we have available at our disposal currently. That sounds like a worthy goal to me.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Gates once stood up at a do-gooder tech conference (saving Africa with wifi or some such) and said: These people don't need computers, they need security, clean water and medicine. Bash Gates and MS for their ugly tech all you want, and I do, but he ponies up cash for real health problems. I honestly doupt MS is worried about market share in the Sudan.
Flame away, I can take it.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
What exactly has he done to spread technology?
Well, there's that whole "computer in every home in America" deal.
Other African countries have... well, few things so extreme, but sometimes they have things to prevent their population from being "exploited". And it may just be that a little exploitation is the price of economic success. I have a random column on the matter of Africa by some award-winning economist if you care for a peek.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Has anyone else noticed the correlation between how Catholic Africa is getting, and how much AIDS Africa is getting? Now, I'm no Jack Thompson, and in no way am I saying that correlation == causation. However, the Catholic's prerogative of teaching abstinence as the only safe sex, and demonification of any form of protection is not only making preventing AIDS difficult, but now blasphemous and immoral among the increasingly growing religious population. My $.02
It's poetry with a beat behind it! And guns! They're like beatniks with automatic weapons.
So is this targetted at the poor, but not poor enough that they actually have electricity? I was under the impression that the main issue affecting the poorest people of the world is the real basics, like food and water. Only on /. could the critical problem of world poverty be brought down to a windows vs linux argument.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
The reality is more likely that he's not about charity at all and just using it for political leverage and public relations image.
It probably burns him up to have spent hundreds of millions on PR and have Negroponte steal his limelight with virtually no budget (relatively speaking). Furthermore, it's not just that the open source and open standards on $100 laptop helps break people out of Microsoft's grip, it's also that the publicity breaks the general public out of the mindset of "One Microsoft Way" Simply put, he's probably quite afraid that the public will remember or learn that there are other software and data formats than those provided exclusively by Redmond.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Hi. don't you see a little problem with the fact that he was off fighting a war for his country (from the time he was 14)? Maybe he would of had more time to learn about AIDS had he not been packing mags, slinging rounds?
Bet he knows alot more about an AK or AR than you. So yes, he probably had no idea how AIDS was spread but he knows he can shoot an AK clear for 4-5 mags without jams or barrel sieze. So with that said, how is a $100 dollar laptop going to help him? Do you think he's going to magically look up AIDS and how it's spread?
Ignorance is the problem, sure.. education can help. The laptop isn't going to cure ignorance. I'm sure, a laptop wasn't used in communicating to him how the spread of AIDS occurs. +5 Insightful my ass.
Surely, you're educated enough to come to your own conclusion.
I think why most people are frustrated about this project is because its such a piece of crap. The "have-nots" of the world deserve something better than a hand-crank. The deserve something wonderful as Mac OS.
But Negroponte's intention has never been to provide the best. Its always been going for the lowest common denominator. And for that he deserves all the criticisms.
Wait a second there ... now, I'm willing to give Gates credit where credit's due, particularly in terms of being a shrewd (one might say ruthless) businessman, but I think it's totally out of line to just hand him credit for the PC revolution. Anybody who believes that is either seriously misguided, or getting a paycheck from Redmond, or both.
If IBM had gone with a different company to make an OS for its computers, nobody would have ever heard of Bill Gates or Microsoft, 90% of the world would be running some other operating system, and we'd still have computers on our desks. In fact, if you wanted to find a single company to give the majority of the credit to, I'd say Compaq is probably the most deserving, for reverse-engineering the IBM BIOS and producing the first clones, thus breaking IBM's pricing structure.
Really I think the only credit you can give Microsoft and Windows is for driving a very rapid hardware upgrade cycle over the last decade; this created sales volumes which led to economies of scale in the past few years which have kept the price of computer hardware on an ever-decreasing spiral.
I don't think there's anything that Microsoft did that you can't argue would have happened anyway, had they never existed or had IBM adopted a different OS. And frankly I can think of several scenarios which might have resulted in better outcomes for the average PC owner than the current one.
On the other hand, maybe you were just trolling.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I lived in Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama) for two years, back in 1972-74. The literacy rate in Honduras and Nicaragua at that time was around 25-30%; there were no public schools; still, most people had electricity and a significant number had telephones. I knew lots of bright kids and young adults who would have benefitted tremendously from something like the $100 laptop. Using the US consumer price index as a crude measure of purchasing power, a current (2006) $100 laptop would be a $25 laptop back then--and lots of families I knew could have afforded that (and would have leapt at the opportunity).
..bruce..
Interestingly enough, the literacy rate in neighboring Costa Rica at that time was something over 95%, higher than even in the US. The people were well educated, but (compared to the US) poor. I can argue that they would benefit even more from the $100 laptop.
Several posters here seem stuck on a image of giving these laptops to Masai tribes in unelectrified Kenyan backcountry. The potential market for such laptops is global; there are many millions of people who live in countries with the requisite electric infrastructure, who could eke out $100 for one of these laptops, and who could benefit thereby due to poor educational opportunities in their countries.
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
We, the people who live in those needy countries do not need cheap computers.
Thank you Nicholas, but we need some other stuff first if you guys want to help us. And our governments are so stupid that they will buy these computers for our people instead of using that money to address some other issues.
The will is ok, but it will end up doing us worse.
In my country (Argentina) all those computers will end up in wrong hands. We dont need computers for education; it seems that americans believe that are helping the world, but from this side of the counter it is all different.
Countries dont need to be invaded to get help... not with your armies, not with your patents, not with your companies that take full advantage of our corrupt governments (as this project)... It is our fault, but please stop "helping" us in those ways because it harms people seriously.
Your banks lend money to our govs, that money goes somewhere else, no-one controls that seriously and we all end up paying that "help" and nobody gets anything.
Nicholas, if you want to help then travel to our country and do something punctual. But SKIP governments; or else you will be feeding corruption and you will never know.
Regards,
AiZ
umm.. actually..
Putting a computer in the hands of a nerd can be a powerful thing.
I am sure if the said computer was given to Chuck Norris as a child, the computer would have ended up as a totally shattered thing.
Actually, I got $500 that says 90% of these things are going to end up in one huge beowulf cluster in Nigeria, set up as spam zombies bombarding us with more messages of how the late general's wife has $15,000,000 in some bank account in Zambia that they need some dumb American's bank account information to get the money out of the country,...
Sure, but do you think our govs should spend that money on that when you happen to go to a public hospital and you have no bandages? Let them spend U$S 100 on that kind of things, then we will talk about getting computers. Take a look at Maslow's theory of Hierarchy Of Human Necessity and you will find out that before computers, human beings need food, clothing, shelter and health. Education comes after that... and education with laptops comes waaaaay after that. If you were living in third world countries you would see that we got credits from IMF, from several other funds, from the World Bank... and that does not reach "WE THE PEOPLE". This laptops idea is the same thing. And who will pay for that? WE THE PEOPLE. If you lived in a 3rd world country then you will know what half a million dollars mean here. It means A LOT OF MONEY for us, much more than for you. (500k is the minimum amount a govermnet need to "invest" in this project). So please dont sell this idea to our govs. It really sucks to be down here stuck in the 3rd world, paying 21% of sale taxes (instead of 6 or 8 percent as you guys do in the USA) and not having covered even first needs for our population. Regards, AiZ
When his foundation gave money to African countries to buy AIDS drugs they were had to agree not to buy ANY drugs from countries that circumvent patents to produce generics. Even though the cost of these generics is like 1/4 the cost of the same drugs from big pharma. Bill Gates owns a lot of stock in pharmaceuticals and has a lot of "friends" among those who run them.
He might care, but he doesn't care anywhere near what the amount of money would imply. Not to mention that 28b$ out of what he has still leaves him with more than any person could possibly spend outside of trying to recreate the pyramids of Egypt at 100x actual size using union labour.
NOOOOO!!! Have you ever wanted to go camping for a month and program at the same time? The crank is THE thing which does it for me. I have a portable solar panel, and a dynamo generator on my bike. If I were to combine the three power sources, and use the book for text editing, only occasionally compiling, I have calculated that I could get about 5.5 hours of laptop usage per travelling day for free, with no additional power source! Once I get my hands on one of these, I will live like a wild animal in the woods all summer long, biking from hippy festival to hippy festival. When the season ends, I will come back to society having produced valuable code. PLEASE SOMEONE PRODUCE A DISKLESS LAPTOP WITH A FULL SIZE KEYBOARD AND 20+ HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE AND I WILL PAY YOU $10,000. Even if it has 33mhz CPU and 8mb RAM.
A laptop is all well and good. However, do we really have the software infrastucture to educate the people using this thing? ESPECIALLY in languages other than english? At the momement I'd have to go with no.
I think what the world needs more than anything at the moment, is a device to connect everyone. Read Steven Baxters "Manifold Time". I much prefer his conception of the global device than the idea of a laptop.
And TBH, that device could be made for under 100 bones. Add in the idea of a kiosk operator and you'd have a winning combination!
He's holding pro-education banners to mask the fact that this is a non-profit cash cow for his darling media lab. Having experience in high volume manufacturing and design in this area, I totally agree optimized systems can be knocked down in price, but they are pitching a way to rosy picture to everyone with respect to features, schedule, and cost. The original releases were saying volume in 2006 targeting $100. Notice how the cost is now listed as 'actually $135', less than $100 in 2008, and the magic crank dropped? Well wait and see cost goes up and features get dropped or schedules get pushed. He's a master at vision and hype, and likely a master of getting away from the fan before reality hits it.
Its got the wind up, a rechargable battery, and solar cell on top. Frankly the thing is awsome, and is near indestructable. However, it is also made in China, like most other things in the world. Since I am in Kenya, if it broke, I'm quite sure that it would not be fixable. I would have to buy a new one. I got this radio through an NGO I worked with. In the field I saw dozens of freeplay radios that had the hand crank broken! They were just sitting in a store room gathering dust. Also about price, I think they come out to around $40 each, in quantity. Anyway, I don't really see why people are against the handcrank computer. If they could have even 1 per SCHOOL, that would be a great achievement. If a student could even just send one email a month to a penpal, or do some simple research, that would be a giant leap. I have worked with Interactive radio instruction programs and from what I have seen, the innovation that the windup computer could introduce would be nothing but a good thing. Radio is last century's technology, its time to move into the future (though it may bruise a few radio egos). IMO
I also notice that you obviously do have access to a computer, and the time to post on Slashdot. What gives you the right of speaking on behalf of all of those that don't have that luxury about what their needs are?
And your idea about the US tax system is completely far out there. Most people in the US pay far more than 21% once you've added up federal income tax, state income taxes (for the states that have them), and local taxes (including property taxes etc.). For most working people in the US the total direct tax burden will add up to more like 25%-30% unless they're on extremely low salaries or live in extremely low tax areas.
One of the greatest drivers of economic development across Africa is the mobile phone. It's done more for development than almost any number of international agencies. The mobile phone has enabled people to find out what's happening in other parts of their country, or other parts of the world, without having to go there. It enables farmers to find out what prices are in markets, or traders to find stock. It's even allowed millions of kids to set up their own telecoms businesses, with phone booths providing affordable calls to local people. Affordable computers will enable similar progress. Not everyone needs one - although you'll be surprised how many people will be able to scrimp, save and trade. But many communities will, in one way or another, get one. Typical ingenuity will enable people to do all kinds of things we won't anticipate. Allowing them the freedom to share, innovate, discover and get entrepreneurial will drive incomes up and improve democracy. So much better than the usual well-meaning but ineffectual direct attempts to improve lives in developing countries.
What an incredibly simplistic, narrow and ignorant viewpoint.
The challanges facing emerging third-world nations are very much rooted in education (or lack-there-of). Anachronistic feudal systems are a symptom, not a cause.
When one's only knowledge of issues like disease and sexuality comes from an oral tradition that is lacking in causality-based logic, being told "don't shoot up drugs with strangers and don't have sex with them" is going to be completely meaningless; especially if one's heard such gems as "having sex with a virgin will cure you of X disease" from your peers for most of your life. In order to understand and incorporate the importance of "don't have sex with strangers", one first needs to understand what can happen when this rule is broken and why/how it happens.
This means teaching, at a minimum, the basis of critical thinking; e.g. causality. In developed societies, east or west, causality is taught almost from birth (whether explicitly or implicitly); and it is often assumed that causality-reasoning is a "built-in" human feature. This is very much not true, and has not been the majority-case until relatively recent history. Such knowledge comes no more naturally or automatically to man than it does to your dog. The difference is that humans have the physiological capability to significantly extend and modify their reasoning abilities, while rover is somewhat limited in this capacity.
When you're giving away that $28 billion to organizations which you, or your business compadres, already control it makes perfect sense.
See, for example this guy.
There is always an ulterior motive and, in today's US, multimillion dollar charity is just a PR front for the pyramid scheme.
The government itself is not stealing your liberties. Their new programs are enabling criminals who will.
For the one-hunderth-time! These laptops are NOT for people who are goig hungry or living in a tent in some barren wasteland. You go to any village in China, and you can see what Negroponte etc. are talking about. People who farm, who have gone to schools and are already educated, but don't really make a whole lot of cash. People who would otherwise be left out in the cold as far as a higher education goes.
THOSE are the people who would benefit from these laptops! Oh, I forgot, you gringos don't know a damn thing about the world, as the only thing you know you get from CNN. To you, the rest of the world is a bunch of Somalians living under a tent in some dry field. Well how about using some of that cash of yours and go out and visit the world. And I'm not talking about getting drunk in a Cancun hotel room.
Infact, alot of the people working in hotels in poor countries could really use a laptop, but can't afford one. They already have an income and plenty of food, would they sell it for food?
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
Yeah, those knuckleheads are wasting their time trying to keep people alive. Silly bastards.
i seases/
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/Pri_D
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Am I the only one that thought it might be fun to have a 'workstation' that included a built in recumbent exercise cycle. If I'm not tied to a computer, I like to be doing something physical when I think. One time, I was trying to figure out how to do a contour integral while walking around campus. The scary part was that no idea how I got to the other side of Commonwealth Avenue in Boston - not something you should try to cross without paying attention. I honestly think I could focus on my computer better if my body could go into autopilot with a moderate level of exercise to actually keep the oxygenated blood flowing freely. I know that this is really off topic, but if Negroponte can really get a PC down to 2 Watts, you wouldn't even need to break a sweat while pedalling the crank.
Think global, act loco
Another noteworthy thing about this project is that it's going to be based on entirely free software. Free as in beer, and free as in speech, right down to the BIOS (LinuxBIOS in this case). And seeing how LinuxBIOS + GNU/Linux breaks their dreams of controlling everyone's machine via "Trusted Computing" (Or whatever they're calling it these days) I doubt Intel and Microsoft are very fond of the deployment of this machine on a grand scale. Their own greed has caused them to be cut out of the picture like a cancer.
;-)
OLPC is on the virge of doing what the fossils in these companies and in governments have only been able to talk about for the past several years--Bridge the digital divide. I'll bet the FSF people are happy they can now have their 100% free software+firmware laptop, though maybe not in the form they were expecting it
This $100 laptop has in its design a way for it to work in a P2P fashion by acting as frame/packet/both forwarders. (Now will this cause signal loops?) To connect to places outside its pool all it needs is a single access point that acts as a router per school/village/block that connects to a copper wire. Though in this case I'm very worried about effects of constantly being exposed to source of radiation transmitting so close to the body.
This $100 laptop would not work universally in all situations. Though I'm sure there will be places where something like this would be of much benefit.
In my particular example poverty was caused by war and bad government. The telecoms expertise was definitely there. The copper wire trunk line infrastructure was there as well.
Even if the infrastructure isn't there, maybe they can come up with ingenious ways to exchange information. For example by giving their memory cards to the to the teacher on his visit to the city and let him download information for them.
Negroponte has I believe said IIRC from one of his presentations that as tech improves, the $100 pricepoint could be maintained but keep improving the machine. To me, this means that as an economy improves the machine will appear cheaper while becoming more powerful.
People used to laugh at him about even being able to do it for $100, the key I think he had said was a $30 LCD. Looks like he did it.
Consider there are perhaps the same number of geniuses (in literature, chemistry, particle physics, politics, whatever) born per million in population in the third world as in say the U.S.A. or other countries. The number of Nobels handed out would seem to speak more of the educational system. What if there is no way for geniuses to get more than grade school teaching?
Imagine the same exact you was born in the third world. If you are a slashdot geek maybe you are a self-starter and just need the machine in your hands. Personally I used Pascal, 6502 Assembler and two flavors of Basic on my Apple ][ and it was great. But I was so frustrated having hear a whisper of something called the Internet (not public then) and being able to figure out how to reach it. Got stuck in BBSs and finally the Source (Compuserve). They were not really the gateways to knowledge I was trying to find but I used what I could get to. Screw politics and economic systems. Tell me you wouldn't want that machine. I used to dream of something called a Dynabook described in the World Book Encylopedia's Year Book, in which you could make a character move around using Smalltalk commands. I saw it in my sleep. Of course these kids need medicine and food, this assumes that is available for at least smart kids.
I helped support a Cambodian school for children with no parents called Future Light. A friend who started it got Apple to donate a bunch of Macs, and it is growing perhaps the next generation of Cambodia's leaders, at least as that friend believes.
A representative from Nigeria at a conference I remember said you cannot solve everything with IT - there is a problem finding firewood, and the worst problem is the brain drain from rural to the city. Maybe these machines would help support the rural populace too. Assume the smartest people you have ever met live in an economically disadvantaged locale. Are you telling me they couldn't do anything with a laptop like this which makes its own grid lan?
I think one thing a lot of people are not understanding is that people need help at all economic and social levels that are sub-standard. Sure, people who are starving can't afford this, and people who use their computers to play the latest 3D game won't want it. But it misses the point that there are people who do fit the profile this project will help. If I donate to a local food shelf, am I an idiot or heartless bastard because some of the people who receive services there aren't dirt-poor and on the brink of starvation? Of course not.