31 Responses to “A Strike on One Laptop Per Child”

1. Unofficial DreamHost Blog Says:
   November 27th, 2007 at 1:16 am

   Reminds me of Marie Antoinette: “Let Them Eat Cake!”…

2. silent Says:
   November 27th, 2007 at 1:19 am

   I suggest it have this picture on it, in honor of the italic thinker who made it all possible:

   =))

3. Vladekk Says:
   November 27th, 2007 at 4:29 am

   Many things in post are simply wrong, but I’m too lazy to point them out ;-)

4. Gary Says:
   November 27th, 2007 at 7:11 am

   That is a gross pic!
   Stencil it on a DS?
   and sales will plummet.

5. Tim Says:
   November 27th, 2007 at 7:37 am

   Oh no. Not you Josh.

   Looks like you have prostituted yourself to Digg with all of mankind :(

6. VOO Says:
   November 27th, 2007 at 9:56 am

   Agreed. As a matter of fact, I think that pretty much ALL other charity should be put aside until EVERYONE has clean water and adequate food / shelter.

   How bout, instead of the $200 (or even $100) laptop, the $50 Shelter, made with amazing space age tech with a focus on being able to retain as much generated body heat within its walls as possible.

   I also believe that whenever someone is going to buy a big screen TV, they should take that same money they were about to spend and invest it in the basics for someone who has nothing.

7. Pete Says:
   November 27th, 2007 at 1:31 pm

   I see you’re whipping out that “young Josh” picture again.

   Oddly enough, the One-DS-per-child project makes a kind of twisted sense. Just imagine what kind of efficient guerrilla network these kids could set up over Pictochat.

8. Guy Says:
   November 28th, 2007 at 4:42 am

   Not *everyone* in ‘the third world’ is starving… I’m sure they’re not shipping these out to people *instead of* clean water etc.

   who said Windows was the ‘Standard’ operating system? Oh yeah Bill Gates did- and sure it is the most popular, but that can change- for people in developing countries Linux (on which OLPC is based) makes much more sense- it’s free (in all senses of the word) for a start!

   Learning GNU/Linux might actually be a good start for kids who want to use computers in their jobs… like those working for a hosting company for instance ;)

9. Jamie Kitson Says:
   November 28th, 2007 at 7:10 am

   Nothing new I was thinking, until I came to the DS paragraph, brilliant, truly brilliant! Never mind putting your face on a DS Special, what about bank notes?

10. Mark Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 9:12 am

    Actually I think thats a great idea. I am quite confident that with the size of the potential market some truly useful “games” could be made such as “wikipedia-DS” or “Mario teaches home medicine” or “Learn English with Donkey-Kong” that would give some real-world value to them in addition to the “development” concepts.

    I know my son developed good reading skills playing rpgs and having to read the text to understand what was going on and I believe his cognitive skills also benefited from the puzzle-solving and logic association (I need more power stations because I have made too many robot factories) that games require.

11. Christy Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 2:56 pm

    Why is it that some people are so ignorant as to believe that all people in third world countries have no food or water? Why are people so arrogant as to claim that people in third world countries don’t deserve access to technology because (apparently) they have no food and water? Having worked with some of these children, I’d like to share that they enjoy using technology and that their access to information sources and computing power allows them to make improvements to their communities. One tiny example: “One member of a Computer Clubhouse in India decided to use the Clubhouse’s computer and scientific equipment to test the water quality of the river in his village. After he determined the water quality was poor, he mobilized fellow Clubhouse members to run a campaign to educate the local community about safe drinking water. ” (link to this reference listed as my website since I’m not sure if your comments accept html). I’m not sure where you came across the idea that there are only two “practical” advantages to giving these kids laptops (and not terribly creative ones at that), but you could clearly use some education yourself. While I’m at it, how about a “Strike” on all the people who sit around and bitch about OLPC, but do absolutely nothing to make a difference themselves? Nick Negroponte is trying to help, whether you agree with his approach or not. I suggest that instead of spending so much time abusing italics, you might do the same.

12. VOO Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

    Christy, that sounds like a mighty selective rebuttal example to me. It is a FACT that there are TONS of people in 3rd world countries with no clean water or food… like, TONS! I have seen documentaries that show it to be so.

    I suspect that someone at Harvard is brainwashing you people who were rich to begin with (otherwise you wouldn’t be in Harvard) to believe that you are on some sort of superior stratum of knowledge than the rest of us common folk who know a bunch of waterless, hungry people when we see them in documentaries.

    For instance, in your example country of India, I once saw a doc about an entire SUBCULTURE of people who have to live in the trash dumps and dig in the refuse for both their food, and hopefully something to sell for a little money, but often even that gets squashed because a sort of SUBMOB takes a cut of their find. These people have to piss and shit in their yards. I’m thinkin they could use some plumbing rather than stinkin fuckin laptops.

    If that MIT dude REALLY wants to help, why don’t he figure out a way to MAKE laptops for next to nothing, SELL them to RICH HARVARD people at a significant MARKUP, then take the HUGE PROFITS and plumb those folks some WATER!

13. Phi Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 9:23 pm

    +1 agreeing with Christy. Despite VOO’s “solid” documentary evidence, I have a sneaking suspicion that there might be people on the world who can afford basic sustenance, but don’t have access to communication technology in their own language.

    However, clearly since those people aren’t living in shit they should be thrilled with their lives and not aspire to anything else. (stating the obvious: that was sarcasm)

    I like that OLPC isn’t really a charity in the “give free stuff” sense. They’re not dumping laptops on starving third world communities, they’re selling them to countries that have decided XOs would be beneficial. If they don’t sell, that’s a separate issue. Maybe Nintendo DSs actually would fit some people’s needs better.

    The point is that whether or not OLPC is a successful part a solution, at least it isn’t part of the problem. And that’s more than I can say for some crop dumping practises.

14. scott Says:
    November 29th, 2007 at 7:19 am

    We’re taking a chance with the give one get one program to help us and our daughter understand the OLPC intent and to explore the hardware and software first hand. If local or international collaborative networks (of children!) take off due to the OLPC effort, it will be fun to be along for the ride. If not, well, it won’t be the first failed experiment in learning-community construction.

    We are not a monetarily rich family by U.S. standards, but the G1G1 offer isn’t a bank breaker anyway. I don’t see this as an either/or situation — computers or clean water — but as an opportunity to broaden our support for developing communities.

15. Matt Good Says:
    November 29th, 2007 at 9:59 am

    I don’t think that the people working on the OLPC project believe that laptops are more important than food and shelter, but does that mean that they should forget about educating children in developing nations? These people are trying to put their computer science background to effective use to improve *one* of the problems in developing nations, not solve all of them.

    There are lots of problems in the world, but we don’t have to focus solely on one to the exclusion of others. If that was the case DreamHost wouldn’t be supporting the VHL Family Alliance this month since VHL affects less than 200,000 people world-wide. The OLPC project is hoping to reach some of the 2 billion children in developing nations. However, if DreamHost does want to help provide food to some of the poorest parts of the world I’ll happily make a donation to an organization such as Heifer International (http://heifer.org) through the DreamHost charity page if one is available.

16. Mike Says:
    November 29th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

    I think it should be One Rolex Per Child. Sure, not all of them have food, water, or laptops… but at least they’d know what time it is.

17. John Says:
    November 29th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    Water, Food, Medicine etc… are things that are needed. The would also be more use to them than “home electronics”

    BUT the idea is unique and caused a media frenzy all over the world. It’s been in the news for months creating publicity that will also put peoples thoughts, onto the people in these countries who need clean water, food etc…. Hopefully increasing the amount of donations to charities who offer aid.

    The laptops also offer a connection to the biggest information resource in the world (if I’m correct) These children will be taught how to read and use these laptops. They can then use the internet to access information which they couldn’t even dream of. Whats to say access to this information and the lack of distractions from PS3’s and XBOX 360’s they can’t become some of the greatest minds in the world.

    I know it sounds a little pathetic and far fetched how I worded it. But some of the greatest athletes come from some of the poorest countries. Lets see what comes of giving these children access to all the information in the world. One of the greatest things we take for granted every day.

18. Jeff @ DreamHost Says:
    November 29th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    I agree with those who suggest that working to improve education and access to information for those in the 3rd world needn’t be at the expense of other things like clean water, food, medicine and shelter.

    Something to consider: If the techies behind OLPC weren’t working on this project, they’d probably be doing something else that would only benefit modern western countries. They almost certainly wouldn’t be working on vaccines or whatever.

    I honestly don’t see the OLPC project taking away from other charitable/developmental projects - if anything, it has made the 3rd world more visible to a group of people (tech geeks) who typically don’t pay much attention to such things.

    Whether or not that will translate into an actual hand of help to those in less privileged conditions remains to be seen. I have my doubts - and weird Josh-ness aside, some variation of the DS thing would probably make more sense than their funky laptop idea - but I don’t see any reason to knock it on principle.

    - Jeff @ DreamHost

19. frank Says:
    November 30th, 2007 at 6:58 am

    A variation on the DS idea does’t make more sense than the XO laptop for the simple reason that the software stack on the DS isn’t Open. The XO has an Open stack, so it can be customized by the LOCAL deployers and USERS to meet LOCAL requirements.

    You Dreamhosters should understand this obvious advantage, but you must be too busy moving systems around between your data centers to remember why you’re using Apache instead of IIS.

20. db Says:
    November 30th, 2007 at 8:18 am

    Christy you don’t have to travel far from the US to see the third world (no food or clean water). First stop off in New Orleans (still) and than hop over to Haiti. Its real and it sucks.

21. JT Says:
    November 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am

    “For those less charitably-minded, let me explain the project a little. A few years ago Nicholas Negroponte, already hardly-notorious for his crazy Wired columns and being director of the the MIT Media Lab, decided that what would most benefit the poorest children of the world is not basic necessities and safe living conditions (like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet believe), but consumer electronics!”

    Whether purposefully inflammatory or not — this was so far beyond the bounds of truth/good taste that I just didn’t bother to read on. For those of you ignorant of OLPC’s history and goal, do yourself a favor and check their website before you let the stereotyping chatter of morons here color your thinking…

    Seriously.

22. Christy Says:
    December 1st, 2007 at 9:51 am

    Hmm. I don’t believe I said I went to Harvard, because I didn’t, nor did I say that I’m wealthy. I used the Harvard URL to show an example of how technology helps people (children) meet their basic needs. I believe I said that in my post.

    Of course there are people who don’t have their basic needs being met here and in other countries. No one is claiming otherwise. I recently donated clothes to Haiti and have also donated to the Katrina relief efforts. My point is that not ALL people in Third World countries have no food an water. But regardless of that, the introduction of technology to the community can help the people in that community rise up and enact change. It’s along the lines of “teach a man to fish.”

    The people at OLPC are trying to make a difference using their own skills and interests. They are not inhibiting humanitarian aid, nor are they suggesting that you donate to them instead of other relief efforts. Instead they’re saying, “Hey. Get this great laptop for your kid and you’ll help out another kid while you’re at it.” If you don’t think people in third world countries deserve access to technology, simply don’t participate. There is no reason to tear people down for trying to make a difference. This is especially true if you’re not doing anything to help yourself.

    And, please, don’t believe everything you see, read, or hear.

23. Annie Niemoose Says:
    December 2nd, 2007 at 2:52 pm

    It’s along the lines of “teach a man to fish.”

    Actually, I think it’s more along the lines of “give a man a fishing pole and some instructions and let him figure out how to fish,” and since the goal has more to do with teaching children how to learn than it does with teaching them specific things (i.e., the constructionist principles behind the project), it seems like a worthwhile exercise. It will be interesting to see what measurable effects (if any) this program will have after, say, 20 years.

24. VOO Says:
    December 2nd, 2007 at 5:01 pm

    “It will be interesting to see what measurable effects (if any) this program will have after, say, 20 years”

    There will be many more hackers, phishers and general web scammers!

25. Kalle Says:
    December 4th, 2007 at 8:17 am

    Well, it’s been great fun reading your blog. You’ve made me laugh many times and I’ve always thought you were great people over all, but after this, LifeRea has one less feed to check every hour.

26. Jason Coleman Says:
    December 5th, 2007 at 8:07 am

    “For those of you ignorant of OLPC’s history and goal, do yourself a favor and check their website before you let the stereotyping chatter of morons here color your thinking”

    Wow, what a usefull way to acquire non-biased information about an organization! Surely no propaganda there!

    For me, I’ll stick to objective observations of this organiztion from the outside before I drink their $100, no $200 (actually the real figure is MUCH higher if you count in the overhead, development costs, “market reseach” (HA!) and the wages of N.N. and the other (clue it’s not 20 people, it’s HUNDREDS, even THOUSANDS) first worlders who came up with this boondogle while drawing a salary that dwarfs most in the IT field.

    The simple fact is that the money that went into this could have been used to complete infrastructure projects that would allow a real hand up to those in need.

    Sure lets give a bunch of underpriviledged kids access to the internet through consumer electronics rather than develop the tools in their societies that actually employ mothers and fathers locally and allow for community development. That way these kids can look at how the better half lives and they can aspire to be just like them. Assuming of course that magically their economies improve and critical infrastructure for the modern world appears through magical means.

    I’m all for giving kids the world round an education, what I’m not for is the assumption that a laptop=education. Here’s a hint, it DOESN’T.

    Taxing the first world to give laptops to third (and fourth) world children is a grand idea IF suitable infrastructure is in place to take advantage of it. Here’s a hint, it’s NOT!

    Use the money to train teachers and provide for the basic necessities that allow an environment conducive to education to develop, then let the people who build computers by the billions handle the hardware. If there is a market, and there is, they’ll build the machines. Oh, wait. . . they already did, it’s cheaper, and it’s got the world’s most used operating system on it.

    But no, the OLPC wants them to “learn” a system that isn’t used anywhere else, offers no real skills beyond how to hit a power button, turn a crank and interact in a proprietary environ so they come out with very few practical skills and even fewer imaginary ones.

    The DS idea is great. It’s being panned because people haven’t thought it through. Think it through to it’s logical conclusions however, and it’s quite brilliant. With the 100 or so per child savings (even more at the numbers of units we’re talking about) you’ll have plenty of money to train teachers and provide some supportive infrastructure. Additionally, these kids will have some familiarity with objects used in the first world and I’ll betcha, dollars to donuts that if you hit up Nintendo for 150 million or so units, they’d most definately open up the code.

    If they don’t open the code, you can bet someone will come along and do it for them, and the DS will be replaced.

    Don’t look to any quasi-government unaccoutable organization to create anything other than a series of press releases about how they have put 20 laptops into the hands of the children of abroriginal people X who stare at the thing and think (how much rice/beans/wheat etc) could I buy if I sold that thing!

    If we in the first world are going to tax ourselves to elevate the third and forth, let’s give them practical hands up, not impractical hand me downs.

    –Jason

    PS - The city of Birmingham, AL is the first U.S. city to buy these units for schoolchildren, it’s day three and it’s already a boondoggle (now they have to figure out a way to teach the teachers and the focus is going to shift away from teaching kids skills they can use on the many millions of computers they might one day use in this area, now they will be teaching an operating system they will never see in the REAL world beyond middle school).

27. Christy Says:
    December 5th, 2007 at 8:28 pm

    Jason, ok, already, we need to contribute in other ways. Some of us are already doing that. But if people want to buy laptops for their children, buying one that also donates to someone else is a great way to give back. For some of us, anyway.

    As for laptops=education, you’re missing the point. I didn’t want to get into it, but Annie is right. The idea behind that technology is to give children a tool to facilitate their learning process. These kids don’t need to learn Windows or Leopard. Children who learn to use technology through exploration can extrapolate their learning to other areas. It’s unfortunate that the teachers in Birmingham aren’t savvy enough to switch between operating systems, but most children who have grown up with technology are. The school system might just sit back and let the kids teach the adults…

    Having worked with children in computer labs around the world (including several third world countries where they had to scrounge to get enough electricity to keep things running), I’ll give you a clue. Kids are smart, they’re versatile and, given the proper tools, teach themselves how to learn.

    I don’t if the OLPC project is the best use of resources for the particular goal, but I do know that they’re doing something, which is a lot more than most people can say. And, by the way, the laptops come with a number of programs that teach a lot more than how to press a button. They’re certainly not hand-me-downs, as I know plenty of folks here in the US who are clamoring for one to take home. Not all of us are intimidated by an operating system called Sugar. Which brings me to another HINT for you. Reading the OLPC may not give you an unbiased view of the organization, but it would at least help you get some of your facts straight about the laptops, the software and the goals of the project.

    On a final note, I was wondering if you had a bet about using the word “boondoggle” twice in a post? It’s apropos, as blogging has to be the biggest boondoggle of all. But, it’s your blog, so I’ll give up trying to convince you that many, many kids in the third world are thrilled to get access to technology and their parents are thrilled as well. Since I can’t speak for all of them, I suppose it’s a good thing that you think that you can. Maybe someday you’ll actually go out into the REAL world beyond your computer and… oh, I don’t know… talk to some REAL people and see what they think.

28. Jason Coleman Says:
    December 5th, 2007 at 10:19 pm

    Christy,

    You must not be reading the page you’re commenting on, if you are, then your comprehension is faulty.

    This isn’t my blog, it’s the Dreamhost blog, and I’m just a customer of dreamhost. But lets get back to the point and I suggest you stop worrying about things like bets on boondoggle, the fact that you’re commenting here given your opinion makes even less sense than some of your commentary.

    The problem with the OS is that it’s not transferable to the real world. It’s not used anywhere else and nor will it be, it just doesn’t have any crossover appeal and it’s not going to be a skillset that can travel with the students elsewhere. Additionally it’s a waste of money in both it’s development and it’s implementation. As demonstrated above there are more powerful and cheaper alternatives to the OLPC units, and these cheaper and more powerful units DO have an OS that has application beyond the classroom.

    In short, the OLPC is putting a more expensive less useful unit in the hands of people who are hamstrung by their environment. It’s a waste of money and effort for a non-existent return, when coupled with the more efficient and more practical options out there, it’s obvious that this has just become a feel-good measure that’s only good for supplying some first worlders with press release fodder and fundraising opportunities. We might as well be handing these people shovels with a rubber blade, because that’s about what it’s useful for.

    As for teachers, they’ve trained on systems that students will experience outside of the classroom, systems that the students NEED experience with, because it will help them in the long run when they enter the workforce and deal with real world objects. ANYONE handed one of these units will have to learn a new OS, so don’t give us any BS about how sorry you are and allude to these teachers being stupid.

    As for “doing something” you’re right, they are doing something, they are handicapping an entire subset of children who, when faced with competition from students who learn a real-world OS will fall behind and be less viable candidates.

    What the OLPC essentially did was re-invent the wheel in a square form, and guess what, square wheels don’t work all that well. I’d rather people do nothing than give people false hope and worse yet, useless skills. Sure, these kids will be “exposed” to technology, but the technology they are going to be exposed to is a fantasy set, viable only in a very limited context.

    The wheel wasn’t broke, it was just the hubris of types like Nick Negroponte who decided that they were smarter than 40+ years of the market and industry that is the IT world. Their hubris is going to cost these kids far more than the millions upon millions wasted to create an inferior product at an inflated price for equipment that is WORSE THAN OBSOLETE, it was never equal to the available technology in the first place.

    In an era of precision bait-cast fishing rods and reels, we’re handing them a broken bamboo pole, and it’s not going to do them any real good other than give false hope.

    So shut it about, “that’s more than some do” or give us any holier than thou speeches about your experience in the third world, it’s a false argument you’re presenting to defend an inferior product.

    For someone who wants to talk about the real world Christy, it’s ironic that you’re here doing the same things as the rest of us, only you’re trying to defend policy and initiatives that were doomed to failure before they even got off the ground; but it’s the function of useful idiots like yourself to support the taxation of one group for income redistribution to another while using inferior products and technology as your vechicle. Unfortunately for your plan, you’re not redistributing any wealth, nor providing any benefit, we might as well be throwing this money on a bonfire for all the good it won’t do.

    I’ve laid hands on one of these machine already Christy, which is more than you can say. They’re USELESS for integration into a traditional teaching environment and even more USELESS in a non-traditional environment. The OLPC tries to put a pretty face on these machines but that’s all they are, makeup on a pig, unable to access modern web content, unable to run standard applications one would find in the real world and unable to adapt to the next generation of computing and internet applications. These machines are multiple generations behind everyone else and no one is going to step backwards to support them.

    If you want to put technology in the hands of the thrid and fourth world, then make an effort to collect the millions of Pentium 2 and 3 machines that are sitting idle in millions of homes and office storage spaces, clean them up, and get real OS’s on them, Linux, Windows, OS X, whatever, then put them in the hands of people who can use them and if you’re really worried about the power to run them, give families a desktop with a bike/generator, so that not only can they run their computer, but they can also power other things like radios and lights.

    These laptops are a waste of time for the kids, and only give a false sense of hope; only to have that shred into bits once they are slapped in the face with the real-world for which they will be unprepared for. Oh, but you’ll feel good that you’ve “done something”, unfortunately what you’ve done is hang an albatross around their neck.

    Finally, the “facts” as presented by the OLPC on these machines are nothing but vacuous talking points which have no real relationship to the abilities of the machine which grossly fail to live up to the hype. The OLPC information about these machines amount to nothing more than propaganda and misrepresentation about what they’ve done. No matter how you try to spin it, they’ve put inferior hardware together with inferior software and slapped it in a green and white plastic case with a crank. Giving false hope and useless information is worse than doing nothing, and what’s even more unfortunate is that they could have used the money to actually get real machines with real software and get a real tool into the hands of people who can use them.

    Oh yeah, one final little note on these machines, they are completely vulnerable to the simplest of viruses, of the 10 demonstrators we have here in Birmingham, AL, three of them were useless bricks within just a few hours of testing and exposure to the internet. There’s no Norton of McAfee out there to protect these machines from those who would do them and their users harm, nor will such a company stand up to protect these machines, the OLPC will have to once again re-create the wheel each and every time a new security flaw is developed. But I guess that’s part of the plan, to keep fleecing others to support a product that has no rightful place in today’s world and will be even more of a hinderance for users in the world of tomorrow.

    Spend the money on critical infrastructure so that a viable economy can develop in regions you’re targeting for development, that’ll do a lot more for the individuals people are supposedly trying to help. Once you take care of feeding everyone and sheltering everyone, you can get into the game of giving them consumer electronics that no consumer wants to buy and which is overpriced to boot. You don’t care about that though because it’s not your money, you’re just happy to feed off the propaganda and internalized it into a feel-good moment for yourself. Worst of all, you’re doing it at the expense of people you purport to want to help.

    I’ll say it again, give them a hand up rather than useless hand-me-downs.

    These machines are in no way shape or form a hand up.

    –Jason

29. Endre Stølsvik Says:
    December 10th, 2007 at 6:29 am

    You are wrong, Negroponte is right.

    This is an awesome project - I believe it will free the minds of those children. Wonder how many brilliant minds have never been able to work out how brilliant they were because of lack of “bootstrap options”.

    When a guy in some village gets sick, the 30 kids that got a OLPC machine two years ago will be able to use internet to figure out what’s wrong with him, and how to fix him. Not to mention information about tools, machines, crop handling etc.

    I will be fucking brilliant.

    Intel did do about-turn, joining the OLPC project - because Negroponte was right, they tried to rape the entire idea.

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