Tuesday, March 28, 2006

One Laptop per Child










One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a new, non-profit association dedicated to research to develop a $100 laptop — a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children, by providing them with inexpensive computers, especially in developing countries. This initiative was first announced by Nicholas Negroponte, from the Massachussetts Institute of Techology MediaLab, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2005 [http://laptop.org/].

OLPC has developped three prototypes so far. The first one is the Green Machine (no hard disk, flash memory, a crank to produce energy in case of a blackout, WiFi, etc.), the Blue Machine and the Yellow Machine, using open source sofware to be developped by Red Hat of Linux fame [http://tinyurl.com/j427k].

Obviously such a worthwhile project should be supported by everybody in the industry, including the major players, right? Wrong!
Microsoft Corp Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates mocked the $100 laptop computer being developed with the backing of rival Google Inc. [http://tinyurl.com/q5wqb]

"The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen," Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington.

"Hardware is a small part of the cost" of providing computing capabilities, he said, adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support.

His solution is to introduce Origami [http://tinyurl.com/j5lqy], except that his machine costs between 600 to 1000$, which puts it in a completely different ballgame.

The conflict of interest did not go unnoticed. While the Green, Blue and Yellow Machines are not perfect - and how could it be at such a price - it will still be a major breakthrough in the educational field. The idea that young people all over the world will be able to communicate, to share knowledge and insights and to better understand each other, and maybe not be as prone to violence and aggressiveness as their adult parents, is a prospect that makes me giddy with hope and anticipation.

In his March 18 post called «Bill Gates l'indécent» [http://pisani.blog.lemonde.fr/pisani/], Francis Pisani of Le Monde says : Bill Gates, who can be generous through his eponymic foundation, cannot stand the slightest threat to the machines that made him the richest man in the world. He's not too happy that this new system works thanks to Linux or that Google is part of the MIT project.

But when one is as wealthy and powerful as Gates, one doesn't attack a projet that aims to provide every child in the world with a global communication tool and an access to universal knowledge. And if the machine is not perfect, let him provide the engineers and the ressources required to make it perfect.

What is indecent is not a 100$ laptop, it's Bill Gates.

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