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OLPC 2.0 — One Laptop Foundation Reboots
Greg Huang writes "In early January, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation laid off half its staff and shed work on the Sugar graphical interface. Now, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte and president Chuck Kane for the first time detail the foundation's new plans, describe how the XO laptop will do what netbooks can't do, and share their hope to keep working with Sugar developer Walter Bender, who left OLPC last year."
Stop vaporising this dead horse.
Now based on a discontined CPU, and renamed because they never hit the price target; hijacked by Microsoft's department of evil, I really think they need to give up.
I have preordered the Pandora console and I'm happy. It gives me about 10h of running Ubuntu on an ARM cpu in a mere 0.3 kg of weight.
Oh thre's also an unofficial blog and a video vault. You might like the forums too.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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This is significantly more than a simple reboot. The goals of 'OLPC' are entirely different than the plans of this new 'OLPC 2.0' as far as I'm concerned and I imagine it is this way for many others as well. We watched and applauded as OLPC began only to watch in dismay and tears as they project allowed itself to be taken over from within.
There are all kinds of points that could be made here, but I'll let the others bring those up. For me the complete 180 they've done has made me write them off completely as a useless relic of what happens when you completely lose sight of your goal to the point you start to believe the ends justify the means. RIP OLPC.
--bornagainpenguin
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and share their hope to keep working with Sugar developer Walter Bender, who left OLPC last year
I anticipate Bender will tell them to bite his shiny metal ass.
I hope they cut the marketing fluff and kept the brains.. (Braaaaainzzzz)
... I'll have a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster with a side of Plutonium Nyborg
One Layoff Per Worker? Perhaps they should extend the "two for one" and just close the company...
You can already buy eee PC 900A laptops for $200 at BestBuy. Those suckers have 9 inch screens, Atom processors, and a gig of RAM. So who needs this OLPC stuff?
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
The most vivid example of this philosophy, to me, was Negroponteâ(TM)s comparison of the XO and netbooks. XOs cost about $225 apiece. Netbooks, which are produced by companies like Acer and Lenovo, among others, run about $300 to $450 but offer more memory and graphics power and larger screens. So, one could ask, wonâ(TM)t the normal, cost-curve-squashing evolution of computers obviate what OLPC is trying to do, and more efficiently than a non-profit? Negroponte replies that OLPC is not trying to compete with commercial computer makers but instead asking, "What are the things the normal commercial market wonâ(TM)t be pushing?"
What won't the "normal, cost-curve-squashing evolution of computers" include? Well, I don't see a huge rush by Acer, Dell, Lenovo, and others to include cranks, solar panels, and other alternative charging options to their units. I don't think the "normal commercial market" has decided to go that direction yet. Also, I doubt highly that these same companies will ever make their equipment repairable by children as this would cut into their profit margins too much if they had to stop making computer equipment with proprietary and hard-to-replace components.
The underlying, subconscious goal (in other words, whether they realize it or not) of the OLPC project is to prove that reliable, hardy products don't have to cost a fortune. It's the mentality of the business world today to produce cheap crap that is then sold at a premium in order to finance yacht parties and private jets for the upper echelon of their employee-base. the OLPC is just one of the few outfits out there trying their best to disprove that particular business model.
The XO is more rugged, but its not really lower power than netbooks. Most Netbooks are using things like the Atom, which is very low power and with sub-ms sleep states. The XO's only real power-advantage is the non-backlight mode on the screen.
Does the mesh networking actually work in the XO? And the mesh networking, how useful is it anyway?
And the XO's G1G1 is hardly "poor economy", its that the XO early adopter-types got them the first go-round (and realized how useless they are: the keyboard is abysmal, the trackpad flakey, and teh software an abomination in the sight of God and Man), so there was no one LEFT in the second.
Test your net with Netalyzr
As long as they don't restrict the product to less developed nations the uptake will happen. It can be argued that OLPC started the netbook category, when ASUS and Intel saw the outpouring of support. If they create a product, allow it to be sold world wide, and the developed nations will create demand and volume for the charity work.
Last thing we need to do is inject American culture into third world countries. Once these cultures get a taste of technology, they will start consuming the same way we do, poorly. Also, once this countries start consuming, they will be buying from American companies, which is good for us (mostly the company) but will slow down manufacturing growth in said country. Please don't support OLPC for the greater good of the Earth.
Am I the only one for whom the "Exponential Economy" is a black/blue on dark grey color scheme?
The OLPC screen really rocks. Only device I can comfortably surf on sun bathing on the deck.
They should just set up a program where people can turn in old laptops, stick new batteries in them, and then ship 'em over to those who need them. New netbooks cost more then a used laptop and aren't really faster.
Hikery.net - The best hiking site ever. Made by yours truly.
Silly of me to ask, I know.
They have collocated 1 million machines.
The bloody point of these machines is to require as little infrastructure as possible.
Where they failed is:
- Never trying to harness economies of scale.
- Internal political squabbling (mostly brought by Negroponte and his silly decision to use Windows, thus becoming a collaborator with the expansion of the Windows monopoly).
- The failure to harness the impetus of the FOSS community in order to obviate many of the production costs related to software. The bare minimum to achieve this would be to ensure a free OS is at the core of the project.
Sort out these issues and you will have many takers, even in the poorest countries there are children with access to some infrastructure that would benefit enormously with such a device.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I'm sadly looking at a littered trail of broken trusts and relationships which leads back to the Microsoft 'Embrace' of OLPC
S.O.P. move along citizen, nothing to see here, the naive angel got vampired as usual.
Or maybe it was because Nicholas Negroponte sold out to Microsoft and pissed off all the people who were buying from/evangalising the project. I'm amazed to see how much of an effect geeks/nerds can have. Don't think you're powerless fellow nerds, you can make a difference, even if it's from the confines of your mum's basement!
Just look at these threads on their mailing list from last year, Nicholas is signed-up to it, multiple people are telling him in specific terms why trying to use Windows is a bad idea, and what does he do? Ignore them.
Negroponte is getting what he deserves for ignoring the community and selling-out to Microsoft. What an arsehole.
It can be argued that OLPC started the netbook category, when ASUS and Intel saw the outpouring of support.
This is the only article I could find cited by Wikipedia supporting the widely-repeated claim that OLPC inspired the "netbook" market, and this is just speculation by one UK blogger. Yet it's cited as a source for a factual statement in Wikipedia article about the XO-1 filled with "citation needed" tags.
I'm not saying it isn't true, but it's kind of a broad and evangelistic claim and requires a little more research.
Thankfully, Gizmodo did an excellent series on the trials and triumphs of OLPC, including the "who invented the netbook" question. There's no clear answer, but it definitely appears that the OLPC woke up computer manufacturers to the fact that there was a large, untapped market out there for cheap "netbooks."
because OLPC has abandoned their commitment to Free software which I considered to be one of the things which made them both unique and uniquely suited to the needs of the developing world.
Now that OLPC is becoming just another non-profit front for US corporations-- another way of delivering that free first hit-- I saw now reason to support it with my money. If Microsoft wants to get India addicted to windows they can do it on their own dime.
I realize that my view is a minority one, but I expect that a considerable number of the possible G1G1 program were thinking similar things.
I think you mean it facetiously, but you certainly a valid and apt observation. The last thing we need to be sending to people who are starving to death and getting shot by wandering bands of "people's militias" is a damn computer. And we can't even reasonably distribute food - something that actually matters - so why the heck would we be able do distribute what amounts to a trinket.
Brett
Read http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/nepal/negroponte_curriculum_content.html before modding parent down...
I think the zune is a piece of shit, oh wait... this is another microsoft product, right?
I thought this quote from the article was quite scary:
"The Rwandan leader initially ordered 10,000 XOs, then upped it to 100,000. The program now makes up a large fraction of the countryâ(TM)s education budget, according to Negroponte."
I'm all up for the use of computers in a developed world, including the OLPC initiative but considering most of these countries don't have a basic deployment of schools, teachers, books, etc isn't it unwise to spend a "large fraction" of your budget on OLPCs?
OLPC runs at below 2W all included, even below 1W in ebook reading mode, Netbooks need at least 20W all included.
Just imagine how much more funding they'd have if they sold it to the general public at a profit, and then used those profits for R&D, paying their employees, and creating more OLPC laptops? And their public sales figures would definitely help sell their laptops to leaders of 3rd world nations.
The buy-two-get-one was a pretty dumb business decision, too. I have no clue why anyone thought that would've gotten them out of the hole.
Instead, they decided to move to Windows (which made no sense from a cost and configurability aspect) and for some reason thought that the average first worlder was too "bourgeoisie" for their special little laptops. Now they're a sinking ship because nobody cares about them anymore, and instead, everybody is more concerned with the new netbook market.
It is the last thing America needs too! American consumer culture is wrecking the sustainability of many economies.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
OLPC was the product of the western media lab and the geek mind-set.
OLPC's market was the third world education minister - who was expected to sign the purchase order for 100,000 units --- but otherwise keep his big mouth shut.
Come hell or high water ---
OLPC would implement a constructivist philosophy of education.
It would run Linux, the Sugar GUI, open-source apps and only open source apps.
The Windows alternative was the Classmate.
Installed with more or less full versions of core MS Office apps, a media player and a browser, a laptop that would look and perform much like any other, but with more help and localization for beginners.
In other words, a serviceable machine shaped purely by market forces and in no way limited to the primary grades.
OLPC has shipped (IIRC) 1 million machines, a number of pilot programs have gone well and will soon probably turn into larger purchases, the number of volunteers doing support, local training and infrastructure continues to increase geometrically.
OLPC doesn't have a bunch of market droids making sure that the PR is out there, but IMHO they have done, and are continuing to do, great things.
I don't think OLPC is over yet - quite the contrary.
And in answer to the 'poor folks don't need computers' - that is just stupid. The OLPC is one of the _answers_ to the problems of not enough books, schools, teachers, etc. For my own part, if I had had an XO when I was a kid, I could have taught myself at more than twice the rate that the schools worked at.
For real students, the net is the key to breaking out of the straitjacket of public education, which (like a team of horses) can only go as fast as the slowest person in the room. A networked laptop has the potential to provide a kind and level of freedom most people could not have dreamed of a few decades ago - the freedom to learn, to understand, to communicate and to compete.
Many developing nations are foregoing the expense of wired telecomms, using cellular instead - it's cheaper to do unless you already have wires in place. By adding a simple Wi-Fi hook at appropriate places, these countries could support the XO's networking at minimal extra cost.
Think of it this way - a developing nation with a computer-savvy young cohort, that is used to living on dirt, could become the biggest competitive nightmare that the developed world has seen yet. In ten years, we could have budding computer and bio-tech gurus coming out of Rwanda, like Steve Jobs and the other Silicon Valley geeks came out of the SF Bay Area in the 1970's.
Those kids will have the potential and the tools to break the cycle of cultural suppression that Africa has long suffered, to break the traditions of tribal conflict and to join together in creating new 'Black Tiger' national economic engines, like the 'Asian Tiger' nations of the 1980's.
And that will be something to see. I look forward to it.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Never recruit the zealot wing of the FOSS crowd to be your tech evangelists. Far better would have been to use more traditional evangelists... get the same buzzword crowd that talks about "Web 2.0" and "Long Tails" to do the evangelizing--O'Reilly, 37 signals guys, that Schoble Guy, you know, the folk who dream in technology.
Going for the zealots was a huge mistake because they are so easy to piss off. Plus they aren't exactly folks living on the edge of the technology adoption curve. You need gadget geeks, not political activists.
Start with people who can barely support themselves off the land. Add food. The population grows like crazy, ensuring that it is impossible for the people to support themselves off the land.
Since the resulting population depends on food handouts for survival, it is obviously more in poverty than the prior population.
Plus the economy was even destroyed by the handouts. (called "dumping")
OLPC = Tragedy of the commons
I'd like to buy homeland for our 10 million people. http://twitter.com/mahadiga
So who needs this OLPC stuff?
My three-and-a-half year old son, who really likes his little computer and is learning a lot from playing with it with Dad, that's who. His XO laptop has become one of his favorite three toys. And did I mention that he's learning as we play together? He learned how to play a basic version of soduko (using shapes instead of numbers), playing gcompris. And he's learning to spell playing childzplay.
The most important feature of the XO laptop for him is that it's HIS. The second most important feature is that he gets to emulate Daddy while he's playing with it. I like that he's emulating me in a positive way and learning at the same time.
The most important feature for me is that it's rugged. I have owned a number of sturdy laptops, and I can say for sure that none of them would have held up to the punishment he and his younger brother have given the XO. And neither would any of these netbooks.
Seriously, if you ruggedized one of the popular netbooks to the same standard as the XO, what would it cost then?
Now that Obama is president, at some point he's going to want to do something for Africa. George Bush spent 15 billion on the AIDs initiative. I think we can spare 10 billion for OLPC. It's a lot of money but the return on the investment would improve the global economy and the US economy and make it worth the investment. 10 billion could wind up boosting the economy by a trillion dollars.
10 billion would be enough to fund the program for 10 years. 1 billion for every year would be enough money to spread the laptops around the globe at a fast pace.
The real problem is brain drain. If Africa does produce geniuses, they usually come to America to work and live because theres not much opportunity in Africa. Barack Obama's father is a perfect example. Sometimes they return home but the problem is that there isn't much trade going on between the developed countries and the undeveloped countries. So even with knowledge it's going to take a while.
The good thing about OLPC is that it's the kinda technology which allows telecommuting, this would do a lot to help the economy.
I understand that ebooks are cheaper, but given a choice I think anyone with common sense would choose a laptop over an ebook.
Where is President Obama on this issue? He's African American, he should lead on OLPC.