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Why Intel and OLPC Parted Ways

Posted by Zonk on from the so-the-drama dept.

runamock writes "The New York Times has an article that sheds some light on why Intel left the OLPC board: 'A frail partnership between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child educational computing group was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country's commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization's laptops in favor of Intel PCs. Intel and the group had a rocky relationship from the start in their short-lived effort to get inexpensive laptops into the hands of the world's poorest children. But the saleswoman's tactic was the final straw for Nicholas Negroponte.'"

2 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The NYT headline is a bit inflammatory... by burnin1965 · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    It seems you are the one full of it and you don't even know it.

    The OLPC is a non-profit organization, I find it hard to believe you don't understand what that means. Let me give you a hint, non-profit means NO PROFIT? Many people and organizations are donating time, cash, and technology to OLPC which they will write off on their taxes as donations to a charitable organization, it is a non-profit. Obviously OLPC needs capital to continue but its not the same motivation or need as a profit driven corporation. Negroponte had a good explanation when queried about this latest incident...

    We're like the World Food Program and they're McDonald's. They can't compete. They are both food organizations but for completely different purposes. If the Classmate were in the hands of every single child in the world, that would be pretty good. Could it have better power charcteristics, a better display, etc.? Sure, that would be good. But I don't care if kids get the XO so much as that they get laptops.


    And it is outrageous that anyone continues to this day to push the argument that somehow OLPC's objectives are questionable because starving children need drinking water or whatever other basic need people decide to throw in the argument. If you'd bother to research where these laptops are going and the years of research completed by the OLPC people to achieve their objective, which by the way is not simply about giving laptops to kids, you would realize that the kids who are receiving OLPC laptops HAVE DRINKING WATER. There are many poor children in the world who have food, have drinking water, have a place to live, and in many cases are even receiving an education, who can benefit from the theories of constructionism first developed by Papert.

    If your going to post comments attacking OLPC at the very least you should go to laptop.org, click on the 1, and read about the projects vision.
  2. Re:The NYT headline is a bit inflammatory... by tristian_was_here · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yeah your right. If I don't know how to do something I ask Google or if its about something Wikipedia usually has my answer.