[SirCastor]

Reading through this thread I'm thinking that we're missing the point here. We're looking at this entirely from a modernized, western perspective. We're seeing these kids logging onto myspace, wikipedia, ebay, and amazon.com, and broadly assuming that they could read, interpret, understand, and integrate with these situations.

It has a web browser, yeah, but I gather that the wireless networks that these things are going to be connecting to are the ones that others are creating. This thing is going to provide on large, internal computer networks, sharing between classmates and collegues, and group collaboration.

I'm doubting that the places that these machines are going have an existing wireless super structure that's open and free for these people to connect to. It's great to think that these kids will have broad access to the whole of the internet, but It's pretty doubtful, IMO.

What we need on top of this apparently, is a "One WAP per Village" program. That is if we want to get the kids subscribing to our media sites.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by SirCastor 

Reading through this thread I'm thinking that we're missing the point here. We're looking at this entirely from a modernized, western perspective. We're seeing these kids logging onto myspace, wikipedia, ebay, and amazon.com, and broadly assuming that they could read, interpret, understand, and integrate with these situations.

It has a web browser, yeah, but I gather that the wireless networks that these things are going to be connecting to are the ones that others are creating. This thing is going to provide on large, internal computer networks, sharing between classmates and collegues, and group collaboration.

I'm doubting that the places that these machines are going have an existing wireless super structure that's open and free for these people to connect to. It's great to think that these kids will have broad access to the whole of the internet, but It's pretty doubtful, IMO.

What we need on top of this apparently, is a "One WAP per Village" program. That is if we want to get the kids subscribing to our media sites.

I think that part of the idea of these is that, with the mesh networking capabilities the laptops have, you only need to provide internet access to one or two villages and suddenly they all have access.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

So there's nothing on the net other than things to buy and places to go? What good does buying them bottled water do, when it's just going to run out and they have no idea how to get more? If they have access to the internet they can learn about ways to purify their own water, and they can communicate with other people in Africa to spread that knowledge, or learn from other, or even just to barter the resources they all need to survive. $100 is nothing next to the value of knowledge.

So people who don't know how to purify water have wireless internet, electricity, computer knowledge and can email others they don't know to share the big water secret?

Why don't we send them a 10 cent flyer that tells them how to clean water or even better buy them a filter that lasts a few years.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

So people who don't know how to purify water have wireless internet, electricity, computer knowledge and can email others they don't know to share the big water secret?

Why don't we send them a 10 cent flyer that tells them how to clean water or even better buy them a filter that lasts a few years.

They do if we give them these computers which are much better than 10¢ flyers because they provide access to limitless and ever-increaseing knowledge.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

They do if we give them these computers which are much better than 10¢ flyers because they provide access to limitless and ever-increaseing knowledge.

How about a subscription to Readers Digest then?

[Nicko]

I think the costs of these things will be easily offset for NGOs by the amount of money saved in traditional printing/publishing/distributing of books/manuals/guides. It also opens up a whole new world of communication and knowledge transfer that didn't exist before. Printing thousands of manuals every month and then distributing them to hundreds of sites (most of which are barely reachable by road) is a harrowing task. It would be a miracle to be able to just email updated material instantly to everyone. That alone would make these laptops worth it, and thats just scratching the surface of what they are capable of.

[Dark Helmet]

So where does the free tech support, training, Wifi, web and electricity come from?

BTW $50 buys a goat that can feed a family for years off milk.

[kick52]

wasnt there something like this ages ago? i think it was one lappy for $100, and it ran fedora or something..

dunno if this is the same thing. doesnt look like it

[PB2K]

I guess the project is stuck in limbo, everyone is enthusiastic but if decisions have to be made no one is home. The FAQ on the OLPC website is strange, it's like they ask the internetcommunity to give them all the answers to all their questions. A famous line goes "it's like all problems seem to solve themselves when companies hand us the solutions sooner or later"

this projekt is no more about realism. it's just a massive brainstorm event about getting 100.000.000 gadgets to children who are supposed to need a notebook that is also a voicerecorder, webcam, mp3 player, gamingmachine , photoalbum, soundmachine, wind-up battery, ebook, PDA, lamp, videocamera, wordprocessor and WIFI antenna

[SirCastor]

Does anyone feel like this product shouldn't be excluded from nations where the superstructure already exists?I think it would be great to stick this thing into the hands of every kid in a district. iBooks are great, but in the end a computer is a computer, and I'd like to be able to take a million dollar grant and supply a whole district (every child) with a laptop. (Yes, I realize that some districts are bigger than that, but It's just an example).

Yes there are other problems that arise, but they'll arise whether or not the computers are Macs or Windows machines, or running linux. Kids will figure it out. And administrators will block their efforts, and the kids will get around that.

[residentEvil]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

So where does the free tech support, training, Wifi, web and electricity come from?

BTW $50 buys a goat that can feed a family for years off milk.

really? huh. $50? and for years?

[DeathMan]

that goat has to have somewhere to graze. and someone has to make sure no one eats it, or that it doesn't run away.

It doesn't seem like a bad idea to bring information to the 3rd world. Its not like the money and resources put toward the project would have gone instead to water purification systems, or that now no one can or will work on those systems. It would have gone to some other technical project that those involved in thought was interesting and/or worthwhile.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by Visnaut 

I'm sorry, this is a ridiculous idea.

On many levels. But it shows how much people want to feel good about doing something. Oh vanity.

[PB2K]

critics about this project are emphesizing on BASIC human needs. Without these met you can't get to create a fun video about life in the Guinea Jungle or Saharan desert.

A project that keeps relying on wealthy givers is not a sustainable project.

I am quite jaleous at seeing so much effort being put into the 100$ notebook. i am experiencing really big difficulties in just getting 40 collected imac G3's into Sri Lanka, it takes me up to a year to get a project done. Progress is steady but so slow.

I have to work together with other agencies, they take care of the shipping, they have somebody there to keep an eye on things, make sure there is a skilled person giving courses. i don't care about getting a 1000 imacs into Sri Lanka, I just want to achieve maximum efficiency in my goals:

: To get many people to increase their chances at making a decent living. Children shouldn't have to make a living, they should play together and get an education. It's the 16+ and parents i am aiming at. I know other projects that aim at younger people, like too young mothers that have children and are rejected by family and friends. Situations in those countries are so much the same and so much culturally different, you can't just use the rules of this culture, it won't work. If poverty was a simple problem we would have had the answer already.

[Gamoe]

I think Zeeb is right. Most of you who are opposed to this idea or find it "ridiculous" still see the computer as a "luxury good". That has not be true for a while, and it should not be true for the poor.

The tired old argument is "they should be giving them food", etc. and "that money should be going to shelter and food". Well, guess what-- there are already a number of organizations on that front, and if you want to help out you can by either donating supplies or money or by going out yourself with one of these groups and lending a hand.

These people are trying to do something different. They are not taking away money from the other efforts. This is a new, independent effort, and I believe it to be an important one with much potential.

By the way, if you look at the "laptop" specs, it is more like a PDA than a modern laptop. The term "laptop" is probably throwing a lot of people off and conjuring up images of iBooks. Even a G3 iBook could run circles around this thing in terms of raw processing power. It is instead a more specialized device meant to aid the educational needs of children and for communications.

One poster called a laptop "an insult" to these people. First off, what people are you talking about? The project is aimed at people who already have their basic needs met. It seems these generic poor people are rather figments of the imagination.

Secondly, I think it is an "insult" to believe that because these people have less than us, they could not or will not benefit from the many great advantages that this device can bring. You simply don't understand: These computers will not be a supplement to text books, educative materials and the local Internet café-- they will be the only access to these vast resources that a lot of these people will have.

I think a lot of people are thinking about the modern, industrialized countries in which most of live, where even if you're poor, you can always walk into a library and check out a book, or look up something online, and you can still rely on an old set of Encyclopedias at home. The thing is, this is because, even if you're poor in a developed country, an infrastructure already exist, and you almost always have access to it.

But in a lot of these poor countries, this infrastructure does not exist and you cannot simply walk into a library or pull out your old Encyclopedia or school text book-- in many cases, it simply isn't there. It doesn't exist and you have no access to them.

What these computers will do is allow these people, with little or no prior access to these types of resources a way of tapping these resources and quickly dispersing them via a local ad-hoc network or Internet access. It only takes one computer to have net access for knowledge to be dispersed throughout the local network. And the cost of maintaining these computers will be negligible compared to the continual cost of physical resources for everyone over a number of years.

Also, as more of these people have these devices they will start to gain a voice on the net, and it will be a lot less easy to ignore them. And they will be armed with more than food and shelter, but with knowledge which will ultimately help them develop and prosper as individuals and as a society. Sometimes all it takes is one individual in a community to become prosperous for the town to prosper as a whole. And this is giving them the tools to be so.

All this talk of MySpace and such is also rather fictitious and imaginative. Most intended users of this laptop device will not have Internet access at first. Instead, they will rely on the built-in ad-hoc networking capabilities of the device. But those who will have Internet access will more likely use and benefit from e-Mail, and access to educational and medical information not available locally, as well as for making connections with other individuals and organizations in the world that will benefit them and others.

Originally Posted by finboy 

On many levels. But it shows how much people want to feel good about doing something. Oh vanity.

It's not about "feeling good", it's about trying something different that hasn't been tried before and giving these people something more than food and shelter-- a tool they can use to access more informational resources than they've ever had a chance to which will empower them in ways that they have never been before.

Will this project succeed? I don't know. There are many factors and variables, including corruption and distribution of the units which need to be worked out before hand. But does it have great potential? Yes, and I hope it succeeds.

Originally Posted by SirCastor 

Does anyone feel like this product shouldn't be excluded from nations where the superstructure already exists?

Yes, I think this could benefit a whole lot of poorer people in developed countries as well, but I suppose it's a supply and priority issue. And yep, I want one, too.

[Millennium]

Originally Posted by SirCastor 

Does anyone feel like this product shouldn't be excluded from nations where the superstructure already exists?I think it would be great to stick this thing into the hands of every kid in a district.

See, here's what I'm thinking...

1) Remove the game controls, stylus area, and tablet-converting screen. They're not necessary for the stated purpose of these consoles and needlessly add to the cost.
2) Sell this version in developed nations, while retaining the $100 price tag. This should, at least in theory, provide quite a nice profit margin with the fluff gone.
3) Use these profits to help fund the programs in undeveloped nations. Again, with the fluff gone from the machines, they will be cheaper to make, meaning that more of them can be funded.

Everybody wins. Developed nations get cheap laptops, undeveloped nations get free laptops, and the program gets its funding.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

really? huh. $50? and for years?

yup. All sorts of good stash for that money:

http://www.gfa.org/gift-stable

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by Millennium 

1) Remove the game controls, stylus area, and tablet-converting screen. They're not necessary for the stated purpose of these consoles and needlessly add to the cost.

Certainly, if cutting out some extranious features might lead to significant reduction in cost, I'm all for it, but for one I doubt that and I happen to think that some of these features are indeed important.

The rotating screen, for instance, is somewhat of an important feature for sharing content with another and this combined with the stylus features gives it book and paper and pencil-like capabilities, which I think is the point.

I see this device being in a lot of ways as in lieu of non-available paper, pencils and books. Also the "game buttons" are probably useful for educational software (remember, there could be educational entertainment or "edutainment" loaded on to the devices) and other kinds of things while in "tablet" form.

[PB2K]

this plan is too complicated from the beginning, everything you add will make it worse