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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.

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

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.

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).

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

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.

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.