OLPC Unveils Plans For Tablets By 2012

adeelarshad82 writes "The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative outlined its product roadmap for the next three years, a plan that includes the release of tablet-based OLPC by 2012. During the next three years, OLPC plans on releasing two laptops, the first two years' priced around $200 and $150 respectively, before launching a tablet in 2011 for less than $100."

Comments

Fat lot of good that will do...

[hargrand]

Don't they know that the world is going to end that year? What are they thinking?

Re:I hate to say it,

[sakdoctor]

Oh look, it's the obligatory "The whole of the African continent resembles the Serengeti, and everyone lives in a mud hut" comment.

NO U

Reliance on technology as an end in itself?

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

I still am not entirely sure about this project -- there seems to be more of a reliance on technology as an end in itself, simply crossing fingers for some kind of digital third-world transformation to occur.

Instead of outcomes, they seem to be focusing on outputs, namely laptops distributed. But what are they supposed to do with them practically? Does it give them a pocket library, replacing books if not thousands of books? Will this help them with agriculture? Are there any structured curriculums for learning? Can it do anything with disaster recovery, like help locate food and water? Are there guides on it for setting up sanitation systems and preventing disease?

It seems just to be a bunch of vague educational programs wrapped in sweet talk without any specific outcomes intended.

If you want to see how this turns out, look at America's school system, for example, where there's been at least a 20-year focus on giving every child a computer for the sake of it. Granted, some school systems use technology in an excellent fashion. But how many billions were spent on computers that did nothing more than, on occasion, provide a replacement for typewriters when students needed to type a proper paper?

Let's hope the same doesn't happen here.

Re:Reliance on technology as an end in itself?

[DragonWriter]

I still am not entirely sure about this project -- there seems to be more of a reliance on technology as an end in itself, simply crossing fingers for some kind of digital third-world transformation to occur.

From the beginning, the OLPC project has been clear that it is an education project in which technolgoy is a means of enabling a particular mode of education, not a project in which technology is an ends.

Instead of outcomes, they seem to be focusing on outputs, namely laptops distributed. But what are they supposed to do with them practically? Does it give them a pocket library, replacing books if not thousands of books?

Yes, one focus of the project has been developing Free (libre) content.

Will this help them with agriculture?

Its not intended to, directly, though if it succeeds either in increasing the quality or (by being a more efficient replacement for other materials) reducing the cost (or both) of education, it is likely to do so as a secondary effect, but improving skill base and/or freeing resources.

Are there any structured curriculums for learning?

There is some work on those in some of the content projects, though, remember, that the prime focus of the OLPC has been to sell to national education ministries. Constructing structured curricula around the provided resources would remain the responsibility of those users, for the most part. (Also, the focus of the OLPC project has been on enabling constructivist education, which has less focus on structured curricula; still, its features are also useful for more traditional education.)

Can it do anything with disaster recovery, like help locate food and water?

Not that I know of. Nor is it advertised or promoted as a disaster recovery tool.

Are there guides on it for setting up sanitation systems and preventing disease?

There's at least one project for that, yes.

Dupe?

[Gothmolly]

Weren't these prices posted when OLPC first came out?

Negroponte, please.

Re:I hate to say it,

[fche]

I bet a majority of children who recieve a tablet will go to town and sell it so that they might be able to one day buy a goat.

Certainly, it should help their private, er, social life.

Re:pre-doom stock inflation

[MathiasRav]

I propose mmxii

Re:pre-doom stock inflation

[oldspewey]

What's stopping you? I make up tags all the time ... sometimes they even persist and the story stays tagged that way for hours or more.

Re:I hate to say it,

[Angst Badger]

Oh look, it's the obligatory "The whole of the African continent resembles the Serengeti, and everyone lives in a mud hut" comment.

Yeah, it would probably shock most Americans to learn that there are actual cities in Africa with skyscrapers and neon lights and cell phones. They just don't see those on National Geographic specials -- no doubt because Kenyan accountants aren't as colorful as herd-following Maasai tribesmen, to say nothing of not being very effective at arousing paternalistic western feelings.

A more constructive observation might be that creating jobs in Africa by manufacturing the damn things there would help to address the other problems that stem from poverty, to say nothing of getting around the excessive import duties that will otherwise make even $100 computers unaffordable to most Africans.

Now, mind you, there are Africans living in utter destitution, and we should by all means remember to help them out, too, but if we have higher hopes for our African friends than leaving them waiting for the latest UN food convoy, lending a hand to help their less-deprived neighbors build a stable urban life is a good idea. I'm not sure the OLPC is the way to do it, but it's not a bad idea, and certainly more productive than carping from the sidelines.

Re:I hate to say it,

[jmorris42]

> ..making it so cheap that countries wouldn't even have to think about acquiring one..

Exactly. But Negroponte is about PR and vapor, not producing actual solutions or products. It isn't a coincidence that he worked for the UN, a useless institution known for exactly the same flaws.

At his point it should be possible to build an ARM based OLPC style machine for $100 in quantity one, far less when sold by the cargo container.

And once you get past the poorest of the poor, where even basic sanitation is scarce and electricity is virtually unknown, most folks manage to wrangle a TV set. So why not build a $25 computer for them by tucking an ARM into a keyboard and using that existing TV as the output. Not as sexy as pitching a tablet that will likely never actually be built (like his last big idea) but my idea would get a computer into the hands of a billion people by this time next year if somebody ran with it.

Re:I hate to say it,

[griffjon]

I hear it also runs Duke Nukem Forever like a dream!

The holy grail... NOT

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

For some reason everyone seems to think a tablet is the holy grail of computing. I can tell you, for most uses they don't add any value. I have owned two of them, and found both to be uncomfortable, and difficult to use. On the other hand, my HackBook Mini (AKA HP Mini 1000 with Snow leopard) gets used daily, and is an absolute pleasure to use.

Tablets seem like a solution in search of a problem to me.

Re:The holy grail... NOT

[Solandri]

Well they're not the holy grail of computing, but they're the natural evolution of the clipboard. A lot of tasks need to be done while moving around, not sitting at a desk. A keyboard doesn't work for those tasks because you'd have to support the netbook with one hand while typing with the other. Clipboards were invented as a combination desk + writing surface for these situations. Tablets are the same thing for computing.

The problem IMHO is people are still trying to make tablets too much like a desktop computer. It needs to be small, thin, light, and of course cheap with rudimentary pen-based data entry. It doesn't need to be a super-powerful computer which can run the latest version of Windows and calculate Pi to 1 million digits in 30 seconds. The most processor-intensive task it should have to handle is handwriting recognition. In that respect I think an OLPC tablet would be closer to the ideal than the 4-pound $1k tablets on the market today (ebook readers are getting there too). Make something which can replace the clipboard, and businesses will buy them in droves, I think.

Re:The holy grail... NOT

[thatkid_2002]

I totally agree that tablets are not all they are cracked up to be (Keyboards ftw!) but in the context of the OLPC they make the most sense. They have the less parts/meterials and you have to remember that the OLPC computers are not used like standard laptops and are made to provide computing to people with minimal education and encourage interaction between the youngsters.

They make music, draw and play games more than word processing in a very hands on fashion. Tablets are also very much like a book - they can be easily passed around amongst a group of kids - which amongst the targeted cultures is very common, they share everything because they very aware of family and community.

I think this solution has found its' problem.

Yeah

[Bruce Perens]

I wish it were for real, but their history of late says anything but.

Sugar works fine on other platforms. At least we have that.

lack of consistency = higher support costs

[Artifex]

Different hardware models every year, different complete form factor when the tablet gets out... surely these people could take a page from the people who design for corporate laptop orders, and make a rugged model that simply doesn't change for 3-5 years? These poor countries have enough trouble paying for these up front without having to worry about not being able to cannibalize parts among the models when some break.

Not to mention the possibility that the hardware user interface may change enough among the models to require some extra training for teachers of classrooms with mixed hardware.

Oh, and will it will be harder to care for tablets, which don't have a protective cover over them when being carried around? They might be "unbreakable," but what about unscratchable?

XO-1.5/1.75 shipping?

[soupforare]

How about we get the 1.5 and 1.75 boards/machines shipping before this absolutely insane concept gets press releases. Looking at the specs and mockups, I think Ol' Nick has completely lost it. He's doing more damage to an already ailing charity, someone needs to shut him up.

Re:I hate to say it,

[hairyfeet]

The problem with the OLPC is the Negroponte is an ivy league moron IMHO. He could have sold it to the first world, gotten the economies of scale on his side, and used the profits to subsidize the third world sales, possibly even bringing the price down to $100 each like originally planned. But what does he do?

He tries to "force" charity with the G1G1 program, instead of selling to the first world in a normal manner (like we don't have poor kids? WTF?) and let the EEE and other Netbooks steal any momentum he could have had, he burns and pisses off the FLOSS community, which he frankly needed more than air to get decent performance out of such a tiny machine, by going with MSFT and putting XP on the things, which BTW as someone who has used every version of every MSFT OS, including WinFlip and XP Embedded, putting MSFT anything on a flash based device is suicide because MSFT never made an OS that don't hit swap like there is no tomorrow, and has just generally burned his bridges and missed every opportunity to make the OLPC into a true "laptop for every child".

So I hope when they go under, which with Negroponte at the helm they will, someone buys the OLPC designs and sells the OLPC to the world. Because there was some really great ideas like the mesh network, the daylight readable screen, and the crank for providing power when in BFN. But sadly it looks like Negroponte has done missed the boat and it will end up being ARM Netbooks that end up breaking the $100 barrier and thus becoming the "laptop for any kid". Sad to see such potential wasted, but Negroponte has pretty much proven, at least to me, that he just don't have what it takes to lead the OLPC to greatness.

Re:I hate to say it,

[samurphy21]

I agree.. We up here in Canada would love to have some tablets, but where would we plug them in? Our igloos have no electrical and solar chargers are out since we don't get sun for 6 months of the year.

More photos

[davide marney]

over at PC World. Actually, I like the idea of the XO-3. Sure, it's totally blue-sky, but it's great to have at least one outfit taking a completely clean-slate design approach to mobile computing.

I like the hinged-panel XO-2 and MS Courier better, however. I think it's just more practical to have one part of the screen that can tilt up into the light. That said, the ring thingy of the XO-3 is interesting, too. I hadn't really thought about the mechanics of trying to hold a panel with one hand while touching with the other.

Remember 10/GUI, Clayton Miller's 10-fingered touch screen interface? Imagine a flexible 10/GUI touch pad that could be pulled out from under the XO screen. That might be interesting.

Re:I hate to say it,

[DragonWriter]

Exactly. But Negroponte is about PR and vapor, not producing actual solutions or products.

So, ignoring the rest of what OLPC has delivered, the 380,000+ computers in the hands of Uruguayan students that have raised the average computer literacy of 8 year olds to the average level of 18 year olds prior to the project aren't "actual solutions or products"?

(And, yes, while XO are used, the local project is a lot broader than just getting OLPC laptops -- which is exactly the point of the OLPC project, to enable broader projects in the countries that use it.)