What do you think of this program? Right now they have a “Give One, Get One” program running unit the end of the year (and also specials for those who don’t necessarily want one for themselves, but would rather give two, etc.).
I’d kind of like to get one on the G1G1 program, but it would dink my budget more than I’m comfortable with at this time.
Do you think it is a worthwhile program?
Do you have a link, so that perhaps we might know what program you’re talking about?
Here you go. . We’ve ordered one (or two. 
) You get a $200 tax deduction for doing it (for the laptop you give away). We bought one ( haven’t gotten it yet) since it seems cool, and we support the idea, and so my wife can get a laptop to take simple notes when away from home. She has a desktop she likes, and I have a laptop, but this is a cheap way to get another. Anyone else buy one?
Here is an article about the current status of the program. I didn’t realize you got a free year of T-Mobile access when you ordered- that is very useful, especially if I can use it on mine also.
I’m not sure I’d get it as a primary machine, or without the charitable considerations.
I saw a story about this just the other night. What made it really useful in rough and tumble environment is what I wouldn’t like about it. AFAIK it is a totally sealed box – no disk drives, no IO ports. No mouse, no joystick, no anything that’s not already in the box. No clue as to whether there is any software out there that can be run on it, assuming one could download it from the web.
It seems like it would be a very good web browser. No mention of email capability. It seems like it might be a good teaching aid – if there is good software in it for that purpose.
I think it would be a GREAT kid’s toy, and maybe that’s enough. I’m not convinced kids could learn to program without any help, which is what the inventor claims. He says it’s even more important to get the computers in the hands of kids who AREN’T in school than those who are.
Wiki’s got a pretty good page about the XO-1 hardware.
I have mixed feelings about the program itself. I agree with most of the stuff written in the OLPC Wiki article regarding Effective use of money
I hope their hardware and software is better than their webpage design. I just spent about 10 minutes on there, and I have no idea what it’s about, how to get involved or how your wife got a laptop from them.
Yes, because children who have nothing else need a laptop.
The program is a joke. Ok, it has noble intentions. However, the intentions are completely misplaced. We need to build infrastructure for these children, and their parents, not give them another free handout in the form of a laptop.
Seriously, how is a laptop going to help third world students learn?
I pretty much completely agree with this. It’s misguided at best.
But according to the linked page, not all of the ‘committed’ countries are Third World.
Perhaps local libraries or fully functioning classroom computers could serve mroe students better. I don’t know. Any teachers want to weigh in- can a child get by anymore without a personal/home computer?
I can appreciate the intention, but I really think that kids need a lot of other, more basic things before they need laptop computers.
Just now I’m imagining a billion kids spamming me for lunch money.
I think the underlying idea behind the program is not that you are giving the kids a computer. You are giving them access to a world of knowledge in their own village. Computers can’t change the world, but ideas can. The program has the power to take a kid in a remote village in Africa, and make them part of the world.
I was pretty keen to do this. I like the concept, I think the execution is pretty good, and the trickle down results will have an impact on entire communities.
I can see why there is skepticism. There are things that poor children need more than a laptop. Healthcare, safe living environments, shelter, food, clothes. And I am involved in a small local charity where I live that runs a health clinic and 2 schools in a slum in Nairobi. We are building a new school and a hospital. I hear the stories and talk to the people who work there, and those who have visited the project. And the need is great. It’s challenging and heartbreaking. And I put money into the project because it’s important. And they won’t be ready for the XO for many years, infrastructure is too important.
But for educational spending, once you are beyond classrooms and teachers, the XO is a great investment. A book is a book, until it becomes firestarters or toilet paper or whatever (and books don’t last very long in many places). The XO laptop can be every book ever written. Communities in the third world can be transformed by a single mobile phone - the XO gives that communication capability and much more. So I think it can be a great tool in the right place.
But there is no European program, and then the Asus EEE laptop was released and the full Linux goodness of that has undermined my philanthropic motivations.
I’ll make a choice in the new year.
Si
Well, this BBC story offers some clues
Such skills are very valuable in that part of the world. In a few years, expect to see the kids craft new uses for the OLPCs and their components that the designers never imagined.
Now, suppose a village decides to send one kid to college (or some other higher education institution than is available in the village). If that institution has computers and the kid’s never seen one before, he’s got a steep learning curve ahead of him. But, if he’s been playing with computers for years, then he’ll have a much easier time at school, even if the computers there run Windows.
Right now, much of the innovation in cellphone services is being driven by the developing world, and not by us wealthier folks. In many places, cellphone airtime functions as currency. People are also able to suppliment their income by renting their phones.
Ideas are certainly nice when we’re sitting comfortably in our climate controlled brick houses. Ideas are pretty useless when you’re squatting in your mud shack.
The counter-argument considers the real investment in the program verus the potential benefits. On an individual basis, the idea isn’t bad. However, for developing nations to invest considerable sums to buy laptops for rural children who desperately need better access to clean water, not a free computer, the idea is bad. And how does this laptop give them or their village access to a “world of knowledge”? Where is the internet in rural Africa?
Johnny needs access to medicine, clean water, food, proper shelter, all way before he needs a laptop. Pretending that a laptop can somehow redress his fundamental, his basis, inadequacies is… baffling. (Only a population of people who have never experienced daily life without the basic necessities already fulfilled could assume that providing a laptop would somehow benefit people without basic necessities.)
This all excludes the fact that these laptops are going to have terribly short lifespans. Their owners don’t have the facilities to properly accommodate these pieces of technology. Do they possess shelter that is immune from the elements? Dust, rain, heat; I can’t see how these laptops will prove worth the investment.
Personally, I’d much rather see the money being spent on basic infrastructure construction. Give these children access to clean water and health care. Once they have the essentials, the fundamentals, maybe then we can start to address higher order concerns. Until then, I can only really see this program as synonymous with giving our homeless populations laptops.
Well, since I still can’t discover exactly what it is these people are trying to do (they’re full up on jargon and using a lot of words to say nothing at all), I can only argue blindly. But there’s a lot of room between “squatting in your mud shack” and “sitting comfortably in our climate controlled brick houses”. While I don’t think that giving computers to children in remote areas without electrical outlets to charge their new laptops makes sense, there are plenty of places that do have electricity and water (probably drawn from a well) and enough food to live on, if not grow to 6 feet tall, that could benefit from an infusion of simple educational technology.
And I don’t think it necessarily true that efforts like this take away resources from other worthy programs. There’s no reason one can’t work on clean water *and *laptop access. The people who know about water should do the one, and the people who know about computers should do the other. And each of them should reach out to donors, whether that be cash, time or knowledge, to give as their skills and funds allow. Doesn’t it make more sense to put a computer programmer to work programming laptops, rather than paying him to go to school to learn about water reclamation?
Wait until you order. They really, really want you to use Paypal - obnoxiously so.
When we ordered the day before Thanksgiving there were six days left, so the buy one give one program may be over. I looked at it when the stories on the sale came out, and was expecting some announcement that it was starting, but I never saw anything. I’m glad I remembered it before it was too late.
Take a look at hardware/features at my first link. The laptop comes with a crank at least for charging by muscle power, and is designed to be chargeable from car batteries. Please give them some credit - they are quite aware that there isn’t electricity in their target environment.
You have it totally backwards. Ideas are nice in our environment. Ideas like better agricultural methods, methods of disease control, the importance of nutrition can be life savers there.
I’ve seen a picture of a house in rural India with no water but with Internet access. No one is saying that a laptop will solve everyone’s problems, but access to information is something these villages don’t have now. It’s not an either/or thing. Plus, these laptops are a hell of a lot cheaper than running water to villages.
Do you see the inhabitants of rural villages as the functional equivalent of the homeless in the US? Not counting refugees, why do you think that they don’t have shelter? They’ve got food and water also - again, except in areas of famine or drought, people can make a living like this. The laptop can make them work more efficiently, and open their eyes to so many things that we take for granted.
You’ve just insulted hundreds of millions of people. People living in rural villages can be very successful at what they do. They are not homeless. They are very likely not starving. Also, have you even looked at the laptop? It looks pretty rugged to me. Whyever do you think its designers are so stupid as to not realize that this thing had better stand up to a rural environment and kids?
Just a couple of points about the XO laptop- It can be hand cranked, string cranked, pedal powered (I think) or solar powered. It is a completely sealed unit that was designed to survive in multiple environments including deserts and humid conditions, to survive falls, and to last about 5 years. It also uses a mesh network were it automatically contacts any nearby internet access.
Another cool feature is the ability to switch between screen types (color and black and white) so it can be used in daylight, as many school classes in the world happen outdoors. Also, the user cna look behind the screen at the programming using just one click.
Negroponte says its popular in villages without electricity because it is often the only light source in the home and that illiterate parents can communicate with the teacher through the video feature. He reports in the video below that some places have to turn the servers off at night because the teachers were getting so many emails from the kids asking for school help!
Negroponte stresses that it is not a ‘laptop project’, but an ‘education project’.
Here is a 17 minute video of Negroponte discussing the project: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/41