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.

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Paul Disu-Lord – August 4 2007

Buy one get one free is a great idea, but here is my take on the education project. OLPC@$100, as a charitable giving org is now a $xxx adpot a child funky game machine. China, Nigeria, Thailand, Egypt, India, Brazil, Argentina are some of the most corrupt Nations in the world. They should be looking to getting their people out of the poverty trap by improving on their rule of law. People should be brought out of the village mentality and given tools that will improve the lives of their people.

To critizite OLPC is to be labelled "stupid" but could this ambitious visionary be one of the best brains on the planet? Well, look around you, at least he is not poor. He may claim this idea grew over decades, but my concern is simply this; it is wrong to think an internet enabled gadget (ask Intel who is now a member of the OLPC board) will solve the problem that took about a century to create.

Business gurus talk about "create a cause, not a business but get in first and fast and build it big". Bill Gates is now in the charity business and is building it very big. Small is not dead, but why does OLPC have to be HUGE? Ego or deep concern about order and relationships in a more productive and constructive way of life? Children are our most precious natural resource but keeping them in the poor village where water is considered gold does not sound good to me.

Fine, lets make this work with the most corrupt nations on the planet and where their people are illegal immigrants everywhere else. The solution to poverty, peace & environment is education and teaching is one but not the only way to achieve learning. Lets teach them how to learn about the internet bomb "all you need is a battery, a 2 liter plastic bottle, and hydrogen peroxide(3% by solution is fine), a hammer and a sharp nail"..

OLPC, great idea, but wait, I am considered stupid yet my trips in and out of airports have become a nightmare where I am subjected to the worst type of delays, all because the new human netowrks has made me a little bit clever.