[DDN] Questions about the Hundred Dollar Laptop / One LaptopPer Child / X0-1

[tom abeles]

First, I have posted some of the items below on the olpc web site. This is 
in response to the 15th mtg and Arthur's post on DDN as well as Elizabeth 
Finn's blog:

1) Apple's iPhone is an indicator where tech is going. One pocket device for 
folks built around the phone. The cyber immigrants said small screens won't 
work but have not observed what is happening with the iPod and other really 
portable devices. The cell phone is ubiquitous and easily used in a variety 
of settings not necessarily conducive to lap tops, no matter how 
sophisticated

2) Bandwidth is an issue if the device is to be wireless or wifi. Wireless 
providers give phones away but sell access. If the world is going to move to 
wireless everywhere, then cost of accessing bandwidth outweighs to cost of 
the hardware, regardless of how sophisticated. As Negroponte has pointed 
out, the expectations of the OLPC device are that capabilities will rise and 
price will drop. But the capital cost is the small part when operating costs 
on a daily basis (including other support) are considered

The idea that the cost is "too high" (now 175usd) is not the cost issue

3) The idea behind OLPC is still mapping bricks into clicks. It is a virtual 
"brick space" class room at a time when learning has moved outside of the 
brick space phsically and out of the synchronous only mode.

4) Many students have to work to keep the family from starving. That is a 
considerable barrier which OLPC in its current embodiment is unable to 
off-set. A family with several children can live for more than a year on the 
funds to equip the children with an OLPC computer much less support. Yes 
they would be spending their future for food today. But no food today is no 
future considering that nutrition is critical for the development of the 
child from conception through 20's when the brain stops growing.

The issue is not the front capital, but the life-cycle costs of OLPC in all 
dimensions.

The DDN and the entire WB effort and that of others around ITC for all is 
the techie equivalent of a PLayboy center fold. Time after time what one 
sees is that the problem is not the technology but the misallocation or 
inaccessibility of capital by the fiscally disenfranchised. Yunis's work 
with microlending and DeSoto's trenchant and significant economic analysis. 
The recent news reporting of misallocation of funds by country leaders and 
within, even, the WB (Wolfowitz is just a red flag within a sea of fiscal 
greed), point out that OLPC is just another opportunity, but not for the 
poor.

tpa

>From: arthur richards <ttuvvy at yahoo.com.au>
>Reply-To: The Digital Divide Network discussion 
>group<digitaldivide at digitaldivide.net>
>To: The Digital Divide Network discussion 
>group<digitaldivide at digitaldivide.net>
>Subject: Re: [DDN] Questions about the Hundred Dollar Laptop / One 
>LaptopPer Child / X0-1 Project
>Date: Sat, 12 May 2007 13:18:12 +1000 (EST)
>
>On the surface it the so-called OLPC has been dressed as beneficial to 
>third world children and families, but have the proponents of the 
>initiative spared a thought for the following:
>
>   a) that the children being targeted for the initiative are mostly going 
>to be unable to pay school fees and hence do not and cannot gain education. 
>why would a sensible family spend $100 for a laptop instead of using the 
>funds to pay school fees and educate the child?
>   b) Suppose 200 million african children could be provided with these 
>laptops. Who coughs up this $20 billion for the laptops? The african 
>continent cannot sustain $20 billion being etracted out of the continent 
>since none of the laptops are built in the continent to provide employment. 
>Indeed this amount represents hard earned foreign currency which is being 
>sucked out of the continent. The economic disadvantages of buying the 
>laptops makes them grossly unsuitable for a poor continent like africa.
>   c) Who is going to be responsible for maintaining the laptops? How much 
>will the bill for spare parts or replacements amount to?
>
>   In my view from the African perspective, what the african child needs 
>first is ability to be educated normally like every other child in the 
>West. They need those who can pay their school fees and $100 will support 
>this for more than a couple of years.
>
>   I think the OLPC is a business strategy and a new front for 
>globalisation - aimed at increasing the sale of computers, software, 
>network devices and foreign content to third world countries and at the 
>same time impoverishing them beyond where they are now.
>
>   How will the proponents of the OLPC initiative address these issues?
>
>   Arthur
>
>Deborah Elizabeth Finn <deborah_elizabeth_finn at post.harvard.edu> wrote:
>   Dear Digital Divide Network Colleagues,
>
>The Ethos Roundtable (of which I am a co-convener) is hosting a
>presentation on the One Laptop Per Child project on May 15th.
>
>More details can be found here:
>
>"One Laptop Per Child: How is this going to work?"
>
>
>As you will see from my blog article, I'm collecting questions about
>the project from members of the nonprofit technology community, which
>I will then bring to the Ethos Roundtable discussion. You are welcome
>to add your questions by posting them as comments to the blog article.
>
>Many thanks and best regards from Deborah
>
>P.S. If you'd like to know more about the Ethos Roundtable, please go
>to .
>
>Deborah Elizabeth Finn
>Boston, Massachusetts, USA
>deborah_elizabeth_finn at post.harvard.edu
>www.cyber-yenta.org
>
>Recommended reading:
>"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
>
>_______________________________________________
>DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list
>DIGITALDIVIDE at digitaldivide.net
>http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide
>To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org 
>with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
>Switch to Yahoo!7 Mail: Transfer all your contacts and emails from Hotmail 
>and other providers to Yahoo!7 Mail. Switch now
>_______________________________________________
>DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list
>DIGITALDIVIDE at digitaldivide.net
>http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide
>To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org 
>with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.

_________________________________________________________________
More photos, more messages, more storage—get 2GB with Windows Live Hotmail. 
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_2G_0507