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OLPC CTO Quits to Commercialize OLPC Technology

Posted by Zonk on from the there's-more-money-in-money-than-in-charity dept.

theodp writes "The One Laptop Per Child project suffered a blow Monday, with CTO Mary Lou Jepsen quitting the nonprofit to start a for-profit company to commercialize technology she invented with OLPC (the first of Jepsen's pending OLPC patents was published by the USPTO on Dec. 13). The OLPC project halted consumer sales of the cheap laptop at the end of December."

4 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. One Cell Phone Per Child is next ? by gelfling · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wonder if there is some way to bootstrap this to get the price of high function cell phones down? After all the high end HTC phones are little more than palmtop computers that have a phone instead of a modem and NIC.

    1. Re:One Cell Phone Per Child is next ? by sumdumass · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yea, but the sims reader and the locking device would cost around $800 or so. You would still end up with an over priced phone that doesn't do exactly what you want and you can't take it to another provider when you find out the current one is crap when considering your needs.

      And with that, you still need a quality microphone and headset. The plus side is you could wrap the contents into a box like shape that resembles a womens work boot and get that 80's retro look down pat. The good thing about it, unless your driving, would be that you could wind it up when your battery goes dead while talking on it. Just don't wind it up while texting and driving at the same time.

      And for a serious note, I'm sure something productive could be done but I'm not sure anyone with the power to do so would be interested. They already control the game and it is a very profitable one at that. It is easier to just mark up the costs and sell you a "plan" while you think your getting a discount and they are still pulling in the profit.

  2. Re:Is it just me? by DrSkwid · · Score: 2, Funny

    It was a Negroponte project, what did you expect.

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  3. Re:Bought mine (and some child's) yesterday by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 2, Funny

    Baldev Farms which is one of largest Banana plantations on South India exists to raise funds for The George Foundation's Women's Empowerment program.
    Thanks for the (previously unknown to me) examples of this type of business/philanthropy mix.

    But a banana plantation in support of Women's Empowerment, hmmmmmmmmmmm ;-)