OLPC Wins Popular Science Award

paulmac84 writes "Popular Science has released their Best of What's New 2006 awards. In the computing section the One Laptop Per Child project took home the Grand Prize. From the article: 'The goal of the XO is simple and noble: to give every child a laptop, especially in developing countries, where the machines will be sold in bulk for about $130 apiece. But the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit, formed at MIT, didn't just create a cheap computer. In addition to cutting costs — by designing lower-priced circuitry and using an open-source operating system, among other things — it also improved on the standard laptop by slashing the machine's energy use by 90 percent, ideal for a device that could be charged by hand-cranked power in rural villages.' The Innovation of The Year Award went to 'the alpha nail that makes your home twice as tough'. Sometimes the simple ideas really are the best."

Comments

Wells don't have DRAM or OLED displays.

[Kadin2048]

Yeah, but building water wells in far-away villages doesn't open up a vast new market for computers, electronic components, and software; not to mention creating new economies of scale for products not headed for the Third World.

And besides, water wells are passe; giving some poor kid a laptop looks much more magnanimous -- it looks so much better in the nice glossy annual report under some facile slogan like "Caring for the world." The fact that he'll probably use it as a flashlight more than anything else can be easily ignored.

There are other reasons besides altruism why a whole lot of money got poured into OLPC...