26 June 2008

One Laptop per Child, two years on: Nicholas Negroponte on TED.com

Nicholas Negroponte talks about how One Laptop per Child is doing, two years in. Speaking at the EG conference while the first XO laptops roll off the production line, he recaps the controversies and recommits to the goals of this far-reaching project. (Recorded December 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Duration: 20:46.)

Watch Nicholas Negroponte's 2008 talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances -- including Negroponte's talk at TED2006, just one week after he committed himself fully to One Laptop per Child for the rest of his life; and his eye-opening talk from the very first TED, in 1984, where he makes 5 predictions about the future (and 4 of them are right).

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20 May 2008

XO laptop redesign: Pics!

One Laptop per Child designer Yves Behar (watch his TEDTalk) shares exciting news about the top-to-bottom redesign of the XO laptop -- sometimes called the "$100 laptop." He writes:

With the XO (1.0), we pushed the boundaries of what a laptop could be by lowering the cost dramatically, being green (no heavy metals, lowest energy consumption ever), and a human-driven unique design approach.

Now, with XOXO (2.0), we are challenging what a truly collaborative and creative computing experience could be ... a true departure from the traditional keyboard and screen layout, a new way to interface and play with data, information and communication:

- imagine if your learning machine was an un-interrupted screen one could interface with from any direction

- imagine if it was a reading experience just like a book, and at the same time a seamless large visual tablet

- imagine if children could play board games sitting across from each other (or computer games).

The XOXO is a book, a tablet, a board...and yes, a laptop too if that is what you need. The design is still green and white, but thin, simple, and un-interrupted by keyboards, buttons, speaker holes, input devices and visible connectors. And it is soft to the touch, like a piece of luggage, everyday luggage you can take anywhere.

Planned for early 2010, the XOXO should be the next learning object of desire, from Bogota, to Istanbul, to New York.

31 August 2007

Catching up with One Laptop Per Child

Olpclaptop

Update: OLPC has announced that, starting Nov. 12, it will begin selling the XO laptop to consumers through its Give 1 Get 1 program. From the site:

For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home.

Or, right now, you can donate $200 to send a laptop to a child in a developing nation.

[This summer], the US news show 60 Minutes rebroadcast its segment on Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. As Bruno Giussani has reported on the TED Blog, much news has emerged since that segment first aired in May:

+ OLPC and Intel have agreed to work together, not compete, to put laptops in the hands of every kid on the planet.
+ OLPC's chief technology officer, Mary Lou Jepsen, said last month that a retail version of the laptop may be commercially available by this Christmas.

You can see more from Nicholas Negroponte here on TED.com -- he gave a rousing talk at TED2006, just days after he took a leave of absence from MIT's Media Lab to devote himself fully to One Laptop Per Child. Watch the TEDTalk and join the conversation >>

To contact Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project, visit the OLPC website's Contacts page >>

18 July 2007

"100-dollar laptop" could go commercial by September

Olpclaptop For all those who, seeing the first "100-dollar laptops," have wondered "when can I get one?" the answer is: sooner than expected.

One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte said this week during a speech in Geneva, Switzerland, that a retail version of the laptop may be commercially available in September 2007, according to a report published by local blog GenevaLunch. Negroponte presented the laptop project at TED2006 (watch video or read summary) and had already spoken of the possibility of a commercial rollout, suggesting however a longer time-horizon. The laptop may be sold under a "buy one, pay two" model (the second going to a kid in a developing country).

Currently, 7,000 of the computers are in use, said Negroponte. He expects to see this figure grow to 1 million by the end of the year. And being the ambitious visionary we know, he believes that within five years -- if not sooner -- OLPC could account for 20 percent of the world's computer production ... Rolling out large numbers of computers could be made easier by last week's announcement that OLPC and Intel -- which until then had pursued competing inexpensive computers for developing countries (OLPC's laptop is built around a chip by AMD, Intel's main competitor) -- have agreed to work together.