Thoughts 26 Nov 2007 11:01 am
OLPC
One laptop per child. –A commendable idea.
This project has become the flavor of the month among tech bloggers and the press, but the so called facts are inevitably skewed.
In an article on a ZD Blog, this weird logic was found:
XO laptops, the flagship model of the OLPC project, can be bought for educational purchases in quantities of 100-999 at $299 each, 1000-9999 at $249 each, and 10,000 and up at $199 each. That scale means that if you buy 10,000 XOs in the Give One, Get One program you can hit the $100 barrier per laptop, the OLPC’s initial price target….. Huh??
You buy two laptops at $199 each and you hit the $100 dollar price point?
$199 per unit looks like $200 bucks each plus shipping to me.
Unless the article failed to mention some other details I must assume that the person who came up with this wonderful logic was a marketing major.
Negroponte was on an interview show and said that the reason kids in third world counties don’t go to school isn’t poverty, it’s because school is boring.
And from what I heard during the interview, being computer literate will miraculously produce abundant clean water and food.
While I applaud the basic concept, I feel that Mr. Negroponte’s logic is entirely unrealistic and self-serving to the point that it has no bearing on the real world.
Question Mr. Negroponte.
If you are in a refugee camp or in a small village miles from the nearest power line where do you charge the battery?
And where do you get the much lauded internet connection?
I know, I know. –”Buy our product and they will come”….
This article is about another attempt to educate children in the use of technology. The Hole-in-the-Wall project.
And as far as I can tell, this guy isn’t trying to make a profit.
Sounds a bit more charitable doesn’t it.