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Pay IT forward (or hello to the $100 laptop)

Michael Warrilow By: Michael Warrilow, Director, Hydrasight
Published: 12th November 2007
Copyright Hydrasight © 2007
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You may have heard of the so-called $100 laptop project, which is more accurately known as 'one laptop per child' (OLPC) if for no better reason than it currently costs more. According to reports, and after much talk (but less action) by many nations, Uruguay has just placed the first major order for 100,000 devices. Mass production has recently begun in China, by all accounts.

This will be one one IT-related initiative that I will allow myself, while also confessing to, a (not insignificant) touch of optimistic hope and bias. When I travel around parts of Asia, which I often do for my job, I see the potential for this kind of initiative. Just look at how mobile phones are being adopted in India, for example (i.e., at a rate of over six million per month) or China. Such improvements have the potential to improve the quality of life for many—be they urban or rural. In fact, I think I'll make a donation as part of my festive end-of-year appeasement to the gods :-).

If you are technically-minded, and live in North America, then make sure you check out 'give one, get one' campaign. If you live elsewhere, as I do, you can still make a donation. Wherever you live in the world, there are VM images available so you can experience the system and/or get involved technically.

Some others don't seem as positive on the idea: I was recently at an event where a Gartner analyst, who shall remain nameless, publicly dismissed the initiative. This was done on the assumptive basis that there are better things that a school / community / group / government / etc could spend its money on. The example given was bicycles, to reduce the time spent riding to/from school, and the implication was that the Gartner collective were dismissing the idea—unofficially, at least. Similar arguments have also been put forward by others, reportedly including some African officials who doubt the initiative's applicability. Schools, classrooms and libraries would be obvious alternatives (to say nothing of food or clean drinking water).

It goes without saying that there will be major challenges to surmount, but many of the technological (i.e., easier) ones are out of the way now. While the (cynical) arguments may have merit, I hope that ingenuity might shine through (see this article on micro-finance for one possibility). In all instances, and from all points of view, this will be something to keep a hopeful eye on.

Reader Comments

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14th November 2007: 'lad.kocb' said:

All food, water, libraries, schools, bicycles etc are naturally important and their accessibility very improtant. But they provide a traditional improvement of conditions, and a very necessary one. OLPC project is about something else. A generally available personal learning oriented—instead of profit oriented—computing and communication devices ("laptops") give the children and their surroundings completely new possibilities. Many of us simply can not imagine that, our computers and our TV-sets are mainly devices for distribution of advertisments and other commercial stuff, leading not to our learning, but exactly the opposite. A very important feature is the durability of the small laptops, and their independence on the infrastructures familiar to us. I would guess that most of the readers of your pages even can not imagine how some of us scientists use the computers—and we live in similar conditions. How can they than imagine how children in very distant society are going to use them. Most of the quoted type of criticism of Negroponte's OLPC project is simply based on misunderstanding and lack of imagination ( but naturally, constructive criticism with suggestions for detail improvements based on knowledge instead of prejudice and lack of imagination, is a different matter ). From my personal view of a scientist and teacher I simply admire the whole enormous OLPC experiment, and I pity the people who lack the imagination and personal experience to understand how great set of ideas this all is (clicking on Windows boxes and counting your dollars does not quite give you the whole perspective)

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14th November 2007: 'Michael Warrilow' (Author) said:

Great point.

The necessities of life only provide a continuation of current conditions whereas OLPC offers the potential for greater personal learning.

Just as you have alluded, there are reports of a number of great innovations in the XO-1: hand cranks, foot pumps, meshed networks. I just hope OLPC owns the patents! (i.e., so that OLPC can get royalties from laptop manufacturers to fund future research).

People work in mysterious ways, though: I do worry about the possibility of theft/resale/black market.

Join me in hoping for a good outcome (as I think you have), make a donation and/or get involved if you can!

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