$100 PC Pledges Fail To Meet Minimum

bobthemuse writes, "Nicholas Negroponte's $100 laptop PC was demonstrated back in May, and a PledgeBank was set up: the goal was to get 100,000 people to purchase an OLPC for $300, allowing the project to send two of the devices to the proposed users. Today the pledge ended and only 3,678 people had signed up." It looks like a mention in Slashback a few weeks ago gave a boost to the effort, but not a big enough one.

Comments

Why I didn't

[LiquidCoooled]

I saw this when it was announced and tbh was put off by this:

"I will purchase the $100 laptop at $300 but only if 100,000 other will too."

I would gladly sign up for a $100 laptop if it cost $100.
I realise everything about starting up and getting the ball rolling but I cannot waste an additional $200.

Its that simple.

Re:Why I didn't

[nachmore]

I did - because I think that the cause is justified.

The extra money would have (hopefully) meant an extra two computers distributed, not to mention the fact that I would have become the proud owner of one of the first of these little gadgets. Of course, my personal gain is secondary...

Maybe the target was set a little too high - are there really that many people out there that care?

Re:Why I didn't

[Salvance]

$200 for a tiny laptop with a crank for charging still isn't a very good deal. Look on ebay and you get can far more powerful used laptops for the same price, or you can get $50 desktops (again, used of course) that would run circles around this odd device.

If not a single industrialized or developing nation would support creating the devices, why should we? The concept was pretty decent, but laptops are not going to solve third world problems. Depending on the African nation, they need teachers who won't get shot, kids who won't go hungry, parents who won't die from AIDS, and/or textbooks that won't be burned for fuel. Spending 6 month's salary on a windup laptop sounds rather absurd next to settling some of the bigger issues.

Re:Why I didn't

[jotok]

For about the billionth time...the $100 laptop isn't intended to let kids in a war zone check their gmail. It's intended for areas where a little cheap, portable, and durable computing power would go a long way. Think of it not as an attempt to solve the worst problems, but maybe the fifth-worst problem.

That said, I'm not wholly convinced about the new device for the reasons you stated. I run a charity wherein I refurbish castoffs and give them to high school kids in poor neighborhoods--in about a month we're going to have our first charity drive to get money for free broadband (Verizon here is like $14/month) or to buy cheap stuff on eBay.

Though again, there are "worse" problems in the ghetto than high school kids not being able to type up a paper at home, but ending gang violence, drug abuse, and absentee fathers are not really within my reach, dig?

Re:Why I didn't

[Shadowmist]

And a kid who's starving won't be taking the time to read. Even Bill Gates Sr. figured this out when some time ago he took a trip to Africa and was shown a poor village's proudest posession, a single workstation hooked up to the village's sole electrical outlet. He realised that what village needed most at that time was not a computer, but a refrigerator.

Tech toys like these have theire place and moment can help but the basick foundation of the pyramid must be built first. You need decent health, places to sleep, and a dependable food supply before cranking laptops become not only a luxury but a dangerous drain on time and energy that must be spent on survival.

Africa and the Third World aren't just poorer versions of your hometown, they're places in deep distress with a profound lack of the basic neccessities of life, and sweeping plagues which are taking an enormous toll. These are the problems that must be solved FIRST and foremost before the higher goals can be tackled.

Re:Why I didn't

[Mister Whirly]

Exactly...Don't you think that $300 (for the $100 laptop - someone want to explain this??) could go for, oh I don't know, food, medicine, shelter, water purifying machines?? What good is a laptop if you are starving and have dysentery? (Unless you somehow got an ad-hoc wireless connection to the internet, and you now may actually know what you are dying from...) Technology is not a panacea - giving underdeveloped countries laptops isn't going to magically launch them into the 21st century.. If you want to give poor people computers then give them computers. I have a few old laptops laying around, and I'm sure the big manufacturers could enjoy a big tax write off by donating their surplus stock.

You have an interesting interpretation of boost

[Timesprout]

Given that there were only a couple of hundred more subscribers after the article and the whole thing fell disasterously short of its target quota.

While the project has its merits I wonder if the lack of interest shown by the public at large and quite importantly by the slashdot audience is an indicator of a project doomed to failure by apathy.

Re:Only if 99,999 other will too

[rbarreira]

This was not an official initiative from the OLPC makers.

Frivolity

[Dachannien]

I think one reason why there's not much enthusiasm about this program is a difference of philosophies in how to educate the world's children. Generally speaking, people would rather spend $100 to buy books for a bunch of underprivileged children rather than spend it to buy one computer for one child. The applications of computers in grade school education in the US are kind of fuzzy, which makes it difficult to see how useful they would be in a less industrialized society.

Besides all that, there are numerous other costs associated with making these laptops useful. For example, there's maintenance, theft replacement, training for teachers, and development of a standard computer-based curriculum. Many of these costs are recurring, which means that in the long run, these kids could be worse off from having so much money being tossed onto the bonfire trying to maintain a computer-based education program.

Don't overblow it...

[CptnHarlock]

This is NOT a failiure of the project itself. It's a failet net-pledge only. The goal of which was pretty unrealistic anyway. I still signed up though... :) ... one can always hope I thought. Anyway:

This is NOT a failiure of the "One Laptop Per Child" project.

Cheers...

Re:Don't overblow it...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is NOT a failiure of the "One Laptop Per Child" project.

No the project itself will fail on its own. Why do people in 3rd world countries need laptops? Its not like that's going to feed them or make them learn how to read.

What these children need are: a) stable democracies, b) stable food supply, c) stable housing, and d) stable learning environment. Selling them on this laptop idea is like offering plastic slip covers to squatters. It doesn't adress the problem at all.

Re:Slashdot effect?!

[pla]

There must a whole bunch of cheapskates here on slashdot.

If by "cheap" you mean "not stupid enough to pay $300 for a $100 product", then yeah, you can count me as one of the cheapskates.

Now, I really wouldn't mind getting one of these. I'd even pay a reasonable premium to send some to the actual target market (like perhaps 20-50% extra. But NOT 200% over list just because someone combines the magical phrases "for kids/charity/third world".


Perhaps most importantly, computers don't actually help kids learn. Computers make kids poor spellers, unable to do basic arithmetic, and will only get used for gaming and IM'ing anyway (ever visited an actual school computer lab? I've seen several, and without fail, they have one or two kids writing papers, ten or so wasting time surfing sites like Slashdot, and ten or so gaming (from Solitaire to WoW, depending on connectivity and horsepower).

The whole thing failed for very sound reasons...

[McFadden]

We in rich countries don't give laptops to every one of our kids, yet we seem to think we can tell poor countries that this is what they need. I think of a dozen things that would benefit the poor way before we start thinking about fucking PCs.

Stupidest idea in a looong time!

[Ancient_Hacker]

$100 laptop is a terrible way to burn money.

In case you havent been out in the boonies, if you take the chicken bus from any big city in 95% of the countries of the world, out an hour or so, you get to villages where there are no schools, no paper, no pencils, no books, no nuttin!

Those people need:

1. A SCHOOL! -- meaning four walls and a roof.
2. A TEACHER! -- meaning somebody that can read nad write and add numbers.
3. PAPER! -- just the cheapest grade.
4. PENCILS! -- yes, they do not have pencils.
5. BOOKS! --
6. BREAKFAST!

   They do not need: money wasted on what random first-worlders thing third worlders need.

Re:Slashdot effect?!

[bohemian72]

I can back most of that up, living in the United States but, (Yowzers!) where do you live that ground beef costs $10/lb.? In my little corner of the country it's more like $3.00.