What every government should ask itself when considering an ebook deployment

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The viewpoints expressed hereunder do not necessarily reflect the opinion of OLPC.
This page was created by a member of the free volunteer community supporting OLPC.

Questions and answers to/by the Competition OLPC
In pictures" the Competition
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In Pictures OLPC

The XO - Probably the best laptop/ebook/tablet for your kid and it's class.

has been hacked, put wheels under it and now drives around as a robot too.

Detailed comparison as per cf. bottem
  1. Cost=123 € for a game table with limited browser functionality and graphic calculator, excl. 7€ cover. Average lifetime= ? Guarantee=2 years. Costs/year= 123€/2 yrs=61,5€/year.student
  2. 7" (18 cm) TFT 16:9 display
  3. Resolution: 800 x 480 pixels
  4. Non Open Standard System: Only Android™ 4.0
  5. WiFi (802,11 b/g/n)
  6. Capacitive touchscreen with virtual keyboard - Capacitive touchscreen with virtual keyboard
  7. Processor/CPU: Allwinner A13, 1,2 GHz
  8. RAM memory: 512 MB DDR3
  9. 4 GB internal memory
  10. Front-facing camera 0,3 megapixels
  11. E-book function
  12. G-sensor
  13. Supports external USB 3G Dongle
  14. Micro USB & micro SD playback
  15. Audio formats: MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, OGG and WAV
  16. Video formats: MKV, AVI, RMVB/RM, WMV9, MP4, 3GP, DAT, MOV, VOB, FLV, MPEG2 and MPEG1
  17. Photo formats: JPG, BMP, PNG, TIFF and GIF
  18. Battery capacity: up to 5 hours
  19. With pre-installed Kido'z application
  20. White shiny back cover

Connections

  1. Micro USB port
  2. Micro SD card reader for cards up to 32GB
  3. 3,5 mm earphones jack
  4. Solar power - PV ready: no

Including

  1. USB host cable
  2. USB cable
  3. AC adapter
  4. Silicone protective cover
  5. TV Channel: no
  6. IRC and mailing list support: no
  7. Wiki support: no
  8. Open Source community support: no
  9. National Deployments: no
  10. Support to the Ministry of Education: no

Environmental safety: not taken into consideration

Open Source and Hardware Ready: no

Millennium Development Goal nr. 2 compliant: no

  1. as per https://www.facebook.com/pages/LENCO-Malta/443076095739725 = http://www.mobileone.com.mt/ who distributes http://www.lenco.eu/p/cooltab-70/
Detailed comparison as per XO-4_Touch
  1. Cost= ±€ 162.60 for the XO Laptop pivoting and folding back into an ebook and tablet, incl. cover. With an average life-time of 7 years:
  2. So, 1 XO laptop = 162.60€/7 years average life time= 23,23 €/yr= 1,94€/month.student.
  3. Or, 1 XO laptop = 162.60€+30€ PV panel/7 years average life time= 27,51 €/yr= 2,29 €/month.student.
  4. Liquid-crystal display: 7.5” = 19,05 cm, dual-mode TFT display; Viewing area: 152.4 mm × 114.3 mm;sunlight-readable.
  5. Resolution: 984(H) × 738(V) pixels
  6. Open Standard System e.g. Fedora Linux kernel Sugar special kids interface. More: Software_components
  7. WiFi 802,11 b/g 2,4 GHz - Marvell 88w8686 WLAN module - Ad-hoc networking and 802.11s mesh support available
  8. The XO-4 Touch has the ability to sense/track a minimum of two simultaneous touches, and occasionally more. In order to provide this functionality without degrading the performance of the display in direct sunlight, an infrared touchscreen technology from Neonode is used. This technology is also capable of sensing/tracking any stylus with a diameter larger than 8mm. With virtual keyboard AND real water-proof keyboard.
  9. Processor/CPU: dual Marvell PJ4 ARM cores, 1,2 GHz - 32 KB L1 I-cache and 32 KB L1 D-cache per processor, shared 512KB L2 cache
  10. RAM memory: 1GB or 2GB DDR3 dynamic RAM
  11. 4 GiB or 8GiB eMMC managed flash.
  12. Camera can pivot as the cover can pivot: 1.3 Megapixel image sensor
  13. E-book function/Laptop function with keyboard/Tablet function/Robot function
  14. G-sensor ST LIS3DH three axis accelerometer - Light Sensor - Photometric sensor for educational applications;
  15. Supports external USB 3G Dongle
  16. No Micro USB & micro SD playback, they are considered too small. We prefer standard full-size SD card slot and playback. Eventually via an adaptor, but we don't see the use.
  17. Audio formats: Because the tablets and XO's have limited storage and limited RAM, it is not a good idea to support every data format used on regular PCs. It makes more sense to use our PCs to convert data than to put that burden on the OLPC. XO supports: OGG and WAV
  18. Video formats: Because the tablets and XO's have limited storage and limited RAM, it is not a good idea to support every data format used on regular PCs. It makes more sense to use our PCs to convert data than to put that burden on the OLPC. XO supports: OGG, DV
  19. Photo formats: JPEG 2000, JPG, SVG, PNG, TIFF and GIF
  20. Battery capacity: hours don't mean a thing. XO with LiFePO4 battery: 1.36KG (~3lbs); Capacity: 2800 mAh. XO with NiMH battery: 1.58KG (~3.48lbs); Capacity: 3000 mAh
  21. Power flexibility: the XO works with anything between 10 to 25 Volts, hence/and can be powered by a Photo Voltaic Panel, car batteries, etc. The power input regulator has been modified so it even chooses the optimum point of Voltage versus current depending on the given intensity of the sun light at any given time.
  22. Power factor correction ? Yes. VERY IMPORTANT to prevent fires: devices over 70 Watts have to have a power factor correction, devices under 70 Watts not. Many of the devices in schools are under 70 watts and don't have a power factor correction and put a big load and stress on the powerlines, i.e. draw unexpectedly high currents which overheat the electricity cables and can cause melting of the cables and fires in schools when 200 kids use plug in these devices e.g.
  23. Screen: ambient light helps to make the letters, characters, lines, drawings, etc. visible on the laptop. This saves an extra 30 to 4 Watts.
  24. e-Paper: yes, very readable screen, even in brought day-light
  25. Water Resistant: very
  26. Dust Resistant: yes
  27. UV Resistant: yes, can withstand 5 year use in high UV sun environments. Very few devices can withstand sunlight for more than a couple of years.
  28. With pre-installed applications per age group
  29. It doesn't have to be shiny. I has to be rugged. The XO comes with tough kids proof 2-3mm plastic walls (1.3mm is typical for most systems). Shock 125g, 2ms, half-sine (operating) 200g, 2ms, half-sine (non-operating);

Random vibration: 0.75g zero-to-peak, 10Hz to 500Hz, 0.25 oct/min sweep rate (operating); 1.5g zero-to-peak, 10Hz to 500Hz, 0.5 oct/min sweep rate (nonoperating);

Connections

  1. XO only uses types and cables that are standard and easy to use for kids, so no micro.
  2. DC power: 6mm (1.65mm center pin) connector; 11 to 24 V input usable, –32 to +40V input tolerated; power draw limited to 25 W; - see power connector dimensions at Battery and power.
  3. Maximum Power Point Tracking alters voltage/current for maximum battery-charging power from solar panels
  4. Headphone output: standard 3.5mm 3-pin switched stereo audio jack;
  5. Microphone input: standard 3.5mm 3-pin switched stereo microphone jack; selectable 2V DC bias; selectable sensor-input mode (DC or AC coupled);
  6. USB: Two Type-A USB 2.0 connectors; Up to 1A power supplied (total, available through a single connector);
  7. HDMI: A micro-HDMI connector is provided, supporting video output
  8. Flash Expansion: full-size SD Card slot.

Including

  1. AC adapter
  2. Ready for Solar charging with a Photovoltaic Panel, with Maximum Power Point Tracking alters voltage/current for maximum battery-charging power from solar panels
  3. Real protective outer walls of 2-3mm plastic walls (1.3mm is typical for most systems)
  4. TV Channel: yes
  5. IRC and mailing list support: yes
  6. Wiki support: yes
  7. Open Source community support: yes
  8. National Deployments: yes
  9. Support to the Ministry of Education: yes

Photovoltaic Panel

  1. optional at 40$ for the portable flexible 10 W panel. Generates CO2e-certificates together with the increased energy efficiency and some other factors. More: --SvenAERTS 15:19, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

[Here's a video of an OLPC XO laptop powered by a solar panel]

Open Source and Hardware Ready: yes

Millennium Development Goal nr. 2 compliant: yes

Child safety:

  1. Safe batteries, can't catch fire.
  2. No heavy metals
  3. No phtalates - can interfere with the (childs) hormone system
  4. High altitude operation: the insulating capacity of air decreases dramatically the thinner the air gets. Normal standards only require safety of e.g. adaptors upto 3.000 meters. But there are significant number of kids living above those altitudes. Doesn't cost anything more to design for - as in our case we've set the limit to 6.000 m, but the industry simply doesn't acknowledges this, it too immobile, etc.
  5. Case temperature max 50°C iso 70°C which can cause damage in the little testikles of the boys. Kids also get burn wounds quicker than adults. That's why this temperature is important, also the adaptor!
Environmental safety: is extremely important in the hands of kids! OLPC XO's are said to be the greenest in the world according to e.g. IEEE 1680 Consumer Electronics Environmental Impact as per EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool). XO appears destined to be the first laptop to receive their Gold Rating, it has even been suggested that the XO may warrant establishing a new, even higher rating. The XO is also compliant with RoHS
RoHS Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive Logo.png
- EU's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive. Next to that they can be charged by a Photovoltaic Panel, hence produce CO2e certificates for every ton of CO2e that's not emitted. Notably - above and beyond the EPEAT requirements, XO has
  1. Batteries that last 4x longer than standard rechargeable
  2. Power consumption at about 10% of typical laptop
  3. Laptop lifetime of about 2.5x longer than typical (5 year life)
  4. Half the size and weight of a typical laptop
  5. Thus, above and beyond EPEAT, in our first year of deployment of 3–5M units we will save, when compared to any other EPEAT ranked laptop shipped in the same year, the following:
  6. 45-million pounds of e-waste (3 lbs x 5 Munits x 2.5–4x lifetime/2000 lbs/ton) - can be calculated for your countries' specific case.
  7. 240-Giga-Watt hours of energy (20 Watt extra x 8 hours x 300 days x 5M units) - can be calculated for your countries' specific case.
  8. As we scale in our second year of production these savings should increase even more: to preventing as much 500-million pounds of e-waste, and saving 2.5 Tera-watts of power. OLPC is working with other organizations to assure its environmental impact is very low and more information will be available here in the coming weeks. - can be calculated for your countries' specific case.
  9. More: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Green_Machine#IEEE_1680_Consumer_Electronics_Environmental_Impact
  10. It's a costs versus revenues issue. There is a possibility to get a loan from the World Bank or some Development Bank. Indeed, the OLPC Educational Initiative is supported by the UNESCO and the UN Secretary Generals.
    KofiAnnanNicholasNegrponte1.jpg
    OLPC Ban Ki Moon Secretary General of the UN 1.jpg
    3OpenCommunityProjects.png
    . The argument to be developed is that one cannot tax an illiterate, an ICT illiterate population as much as an ICT competent, literate community. So the OLPC Educational Initiative pays for itself through increased tax revenues as the effects are noticeable within the first year: kids take the laptops at home and thus lift-up the adults to a higher level and thus society in a whole at the same time. Parents and youngsters standard of living will improve - even within the first year. It can be estimated how much the revenues of e.g. farmer families, people in crafts, etc. increase just because all of a sudden they find out the true market price of the goods they produce thanks to the connectivity of the laptop to e.g. a website or its ability to communicate with others in nearby villages where the market is so they can find out the real market price of their goods and not what the middle man claims the value of the goods only is. The rise in tax revenues is proportional to this number. It is possible to estimate these numbers and they will top the costs of implementing an XO-XS deployment.
How much does it cost, what's the processor speed and why should I buy it? It costs x€, we have a faster processor and that's why you have to buy it. How much does it cost, what's the processor speed and why should I buy it? The XO-XServer combination costs about € 162.60, the 10 Watt PV panel 30 €, the processor speed can be discussed but is standard a cheap 1.2GHz in the XO and a much faster processor in the XServer. 7.5” Dual-mode TFT display, meaning you can read it in normal use but also in direct sunlight! More: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO-4_Touch

You have to buy the XO-XS because:

  1. Cost= ±€ 162.60 for the XO Laptop pivoting and folding back into an ebook and tablet, incl. cover. With an average life-time of 7 years:
  2. So, 1 XO laptop = 162.60€/7 years average life time= 23,23 €/yr= 1,94€/month.student.
  3. Or, 1 XO laptop = 162.60€+30€ PV panel/7 years average life time= 27,51 €/yr= 2,29 €/month.student.
    1. can be easily repaired as the XO is made to be repaired: it holds just 1 type of screw, they're all the same and can be opened with a simple small cross-screwdriver. Teachers and kids get a tutorial on how to open and repair their XO's. That's also part of the educational curriculum. How do you best learn how something works? Just open it and have a look what's inside. They can thus also be updated easily.
  4. Say you have about 10 disciplines:
    1. reading and writing
    2. physics,
    3. biology,
    4. chemistry,
    5. math,
    6. mother language,
    7. english,
    8. religion/psychology,
    9. arts,
    10. gymnastics/sports,
    11. history
    12. geography
    13. economics/entrepreneurship
    14. technological/agricultural education
  5. and you actually want 1 text book and 1 exercise book / discipline, so that would make about 20 books/grade.year. Let's say that every book is about 100 pages? Paper & copy of some text costs about 0.02€/page x 100 pages/book= 2€/book in paper alone x 20 books = 40 €/year.grade.student.20 books. So that's about the double of what the OLPC/XO costs.
  6. The XO can hold about 1000 ebooks, so space enough for ALL the text and ebooks immediately for all grades from ages 5 till 18. So if we'd put all the 10 text-books on the XO, we'd still have enough money to pay for the 10 exercise books on paper!
  7. It's a costs versus revenues issue. There is a possibility to get a loan from the World Bank or some Development Bank. Indeed, the OLPC Educational Initiative is supported by the UNESCO and the UN Secretary Generals.
    KofiAnnanNicholasNegrponte1.jpg
    OLPC Ban Ki Moon Secretary General of the UN 1.jpg
    3OpenCommunityProjects.png
    . The argument to be developed is that one cannot tax an illiterate, an ICT illiterate population as much as an ICT competent, literate community. So the OLPC Educational Initiative pays for itself through increased tax revenues as the effects are noticeable within the first year: kids take the laptops at home and thus lift-up the adults to a higher level and thus society in a whole at the same time. Parents and youngsters standard of living will improve - even within the first year. It can be estimated how much the revenues of e.g. farmer families, people in crafts, etc. increase just because all of a sudden they find out the true market price of the goods they produce thanks to the connectivity of the laptop to e.g. a website or its ability to communicate with others in nearby villages where the market is so they can find out the real market price of their goods and not what the middle man claims the value of the goods only is. The rise in tax revenues is proportional to this number. It is possible to estimate these numbers and they will top the costs of implementing an XO-XS deployment.

Green-and-white-e-book.jpg Green and white machine.jpg 10W Panel.jpg OlpcTvChannelRobotCloseUpSenderReceiver.png

  1. you are a ministry of education and you have to play your strong cards: you're a very well organized and structured insitute, you have specialists of all disciplines necessary both ICT-teachers as teachers that can provide content or collaborate in providing content - after all the best computer is nowhere without good content, ebooks, integration with other materials and in de curriculum, etc.
  2. you have the massive numbers on your side: use the numbers and big order to drive the prices DOWN. Join hands with OLPC to do that. Continuous massive orders, great contacts with the best ICT component manufacturers out there, the latest and newest that's on the market in a standard rugged box: the XO. OLPC considers you - the Ministry of Education and the kids their mission, you are not their market. XO-XServer combinations can't be sold to you via some intermediary. You get them straight from the manufacturing plant. That's OLPC's mission: keep this project open hard and software. The One Laptop per Child non-profit develops the best low-cost laptop configuration possible for education—the "XO Laptop" and XServer combination—to revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Our mission is to provide educational opportunities for the world's children by giving each child a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop; and software tools and content designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. OLPC gives additional attention to the most isolated and poorest kids and expect regions with better structure and more money to be able to develop sufficient capacity, test-projects, etc. to get to a full deployment to all their kids by themselves.
  3. really, you don't want to give 740€ tablets in the hands of kids and teenagers. They will be dropped on some stone floor, they will land unintentionally with their unprotected screen on a corner of a table, they will linger around in the sofa where dad will go sit on it, they will drop in the toilet/the bath or some other form of water
  4. you want maximum allocation of proper resources: you are organized as an educational landscape, so you want cheap processors in the XO-laptop/ebook/tablet and fast processors in the XServers. The XO-laptops query the XServers e.g. for pages on the internet, the XServer will quickly get the info, recompose it and deliver it nice and clean in a processed chunk to the XO-laptop. And probably the page is already in the XServer's huge hard disc. Because kids from last year already went looking for that info 95% of the time.
  5. you can repair and upgrade the laptop with 1 over the counter screw-driver
  6. as mentioned: any laptop/ebook/tablet is as useful as the material that comes with it and the whole environment it's embedded in. An unmotivated student/teacher/parent can have the best laptop you want, it won't matter. Linking up with the One Laptop Per Child initiative, links you up - not with a mere "laptop/tablet" initiative, but with the largest educational effort ever undertaken by Humanity: Millennium Development Goal nr. 2 bringing Universal Primary Education. There are TV channels, there are Instant Relay Chat channels for instant feedback, there are armies of people collaboratively working out not just ebooks but books and exercise books that go hand in hand with the TV programs and the XO laptops. It's all open soft and hardware - Linux, open office, wikipedia etc. And it just IS the best laptop out there for kids and youngsters.
  7. Don't let yourself be caught by the competition, they're going to try to make you stare into some feature they're going to put the light upon. Probably processor speed or something. Don't fall for that. Go for the best user experience and the best environment to be embedded in and sensible allocation of resources: open source - both software AND hardware, cheap processor in the laptop and fast expensive one in the XServer and be and feel embedded and the warmth of the whole open software movement out there.
  8. The XO-laptop XServer combination has it all: it's AND a very very tough kids proof school in a box, AND a laptop, AN an ebook when you twist and flip it over, AND a tablet with its touch screen, AND it's fast thanks to the laptop-server combination, etc, it's got a video-webcam on it for voip calling, making field movies/reports, take pictures, screw on a microscope, you can do math on it, it's got a spreadsheet, text processor, presentation software, you name it, it's there. Some of the teenagers even turned the XO into a robot last year. This makes your kid smart and learn everything it can and wants! Why else would there be over 2,5 million XO-XS combinations out there and complete countries where ALL the kids have them? Many mighty groups have tried to top the XO-XS, all have failed!
  9. Finally, you get support support support: the OLPC not for profit and its OLPC community are there to help you deploy and take you every step of the road to a full and succesful deployment and they won't leave, they stay after the deployment too. TV Channels, irc-instant chat, VOIP, mailing-lists, a wiki - http://wiki.laptop.org , ... You are in contact with other ministries of education, your teachers can team up and continue getting feedback and collaborate with other teachers working on similar projects, the best of the best universities s.a. the M.I.T. are behind this and continuously have engineers and others working on this initiative, updating, improving the hardware, but also the software and also come with new pedagogical insights, the tech and repair center is connected with other such centers, etc. etc. The sun doesn't go under anymore in the OLPC educational Initiative.

WhiteKidsUruguayHoldingTheirXO.jpg WhiteKidsUruguayHoldingUpTheirXos.jpg OlpcMassiveDeploymentNicaragua.jpg

Who is your device for? Eh for students? Who is your device for? The One Laptop Per Child Initiative is an educational initiative supporting Millennium Development Goal nr. 2: bringing Universal Primary Education. We have tried to reduce a school to the maximum so it fits in a rugged box: the XO laptop combi XServer.

OLPC has a youtube channel - watch these 2' video's and see what kind of people support OLPC:

  1. OLPC in 2' part 1
  2. OLPC in 2' part 2

The XO-XS combinations's are open source, open software and open hardware laptops that can be transformed into an ebook and tablet with a touchscreen. The age frame is 5 to 15 years. The keyboard is made for small hands so the XO's are not interesting for adults e.g. to steal. This said, the OLPC educational initiative is a way to reach adults via the children and lift them too to a higher level. OLPC is a small not for profit that guards over the fact that the XO-XS combination remains an open soft and hardware project. OLPC can support on a large OLPC community of people from the educational sector and supporters. These groups find grands, fill out grant forms to set-up OLPC XO-XS lab/test deployments. It is like open source projects: if the community cannot get organized or doesn't do anything, then nothing happens in that particular region. Of course, as you know, several countries now have 100% XO-XS OLPC deployments, e.g. Peru and Uruguay. Now there are OLPC TV Channels, there is the http://http://wiki.laptop.org/ where the whole OLPC community can organize itself, there are IRC chat channels and video conference tools for instant support, there are more and more wikibooks made specially for XO laptop working hand in hand with physical books or excercise books, etc. etc. In all there are over 2.5 million XO laptop-XS server combinations out there. A 20 foot container holds 3.000 XO's, a 40 foot container of course 6.000. Minimum orders are 100 XO's. With so many projects happening now worldwide, OLPC Headquarters can only free human resources when the Ministry of Education is convinced of an OLPC deployment and send over an OLPC team to help with the preparations for a large scale order and implementation. If not learn to know the OLPC community, e.g. via http://http://wiki.laptop.org/ - look-up your country or region - and get in contact with active members who will help you out to reach a next level. Again, OLPC is an educational project, not a laptop project. Make sure there is interest by the educational landscape for an OLPC-XO-XS implementation. Make sure there is a test-site, make sure groups of educators are motivated and teaming up in developing e.g. ebooks. If not, there are enough places where that level has been reached and they get attended to first of course. OLPC is not "selling" anything. It is not possible to make money from reselling XO-XServers e.g. It is like linux and openoffice: you can make money with giving consulting, or making sure you get hired for specific jobs, but not for re-selling XO's-XServers as these have been developed and continue to be improved under an open soft and hardware licence. Looking forward collaborating with you at http://http://wiki.laptop.org/ or one of the irc-chat channels. WhiteKidsUruguayHoldingTheirXO.jpg WhiteKidsUruguayHoldingUpTheirXos.jpg OlpcMassiveDeploymentNicaragua.jpg

Can you give examples where one can reach the parents via the kids?' Eh, no. Normally parents prohibit their children to "play" with our beautiful, expensive, powerful machine. Can you give examples where one can reach the parents via the kids?' One of the OLPC key principles is that kids get to keep the laptops and can take them home. Although OLPC give extra attention to those kids that need a basic form of education most, the XO-XServer combination is not for "poor" kids. The XO-XServer combination are just as good a blessing and what you want in rich countries and regions. At OLPC it is expected that in these rich regions, groups can organize themselves to bring it to XO-XServer combination test deployments and then bring things further to country wide deployments. In regions that lack even basic forms of education, and mostly poor regions, the difference an XO-XServer project implementation makes is of course the highest. The XO is often also a first form of bright light in a home. A first connexion to the outside world, with video-phoning, finding out what the true market value of their crops and cattle is. It is indeed via the kids that parents can be reached and learn to work with VOIP-phonecalls, even to re-learn to read or write and calculate and a whole population can be lifted to a higher level. Warning: when an XO-XS deployment is implemented, and the educational landscape is enthousiastic about it, a couple of years later, you are confronted with a computer literate generation which may bypass many first world regions that stall or make different (wrong) decisions and choices. All OLPC-XO-XS kids are 100% tuned into collaborating, wikipedians, wikibook collaborators, know about linux, open source, lowering costs, being performant, etc.

OlpcKidTeachingParents.jpg OlpcKidsMomParents180px-Galadima1.jpg Kid2FatherParents.jpg OlpcKidsParentsMom.jpg

What do you recommend? The laptop, the tablet or an ebook? Eh ... the one I'm making most profit/commission on! What do you recommend? The laptop, the tablet or an ebook?

The worldwide OLPC community has discussed this thoroughly. All have their advantages. The OLPC XO doesn't put you for a choice. It is all four at the same time: a laptop for real intensive working and typing. When you twist the screen and fold it backwards, the XO is an ebook, with buttons as our youngest kids don't have the small hand coordination necessary for some applications on the web. The XO-4 Touch also has a touch screen, so you have ... a tablet. All with a solar Photovoltaic panel so the kids and families can recharge and make some money - e.g. from charging rechargeable batteries - iso that this costs them money. Last year some students who had their XO's for the 3rd year - turned their XO's into robots.

Green-and-white-e-book.jpg Green and white machine.jpg 10W Panel.jpg OlpcTvChannelRobotCloseUpSenderReceiver.png

(picture on the right: OLPC XO in Peru and Uruguay. Students invented how to make a robot out of the XO. One XO is the sender/receiver/controller that can be programmed. The second XO has been foreseen of wheels, a motor, etc. A robot ... The lessons on robotica are now being broadcasted on the national OLPC TV Channel. Yes there is a national OLPC TV Channel with lessons, reports and competitions. A very vibrant community! http://laptop.org/images/flash/OLPC_laptop_360.swf More on OLPC Robots: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Robotics

Does your laptop have an own TV Channel, can it be turned into a robot and does your laptop brings you coffee? Eh ? Does your laptop have an own TV Channel, can it be turned into a robot and does your laptop brings you coffee? Of course the XO can bring coffee!

OlpcTvChannelRobotCloseUpSenderReceiver.png OlpcTvChannelRobotLetsMakeARobotGirlTeachers.png OlpcTvChannelRobotPresentationWithTheGeeks.png OlpcTvChannelRobotPresentationWithTheGeeksCloseUp.png OlpcTvChannelRobotTvLesson.png OLPC XO in Peru and Uruguay. Students invented how to make a robot out of the XO. One XO is the sender/receiver/controller that can be programmed. The second XO has been foreseen of wheels, a motor, etc. A robot ... The lessons on robotica are now being broadcasted on the national OLPC TV Channel. Yes there is a national OLPC TV Channel with lessons, reports and competitions. A very vibrant community! Picture 2: showing a student explaining a teacher how to transform the XO laptop into a robot. Picture 3: the funny characters are the OLPC Kids Channel animators. They are allowing the "smart teacher" to explain how the XO-robot works. Of course they want to know if it can bring their morning coffee. And of course the XO can.

Mr Minister, when were you convinced this laptop was the one you wanted for your kids? Look at how flashy our flyers are ! Mr Minister, when were you convinced this laptop was the one you wanted for your kids? When the XO transformed itself into a robot, drove off, a bit later came back and presented me my coffee ! I was sold!
Are you selling a throw away product or an easy to repair and update product? Throw away and short after registering, we offer your fast device a free software upgrade so it gets bloated with stuff that's irrelevant and so your machine slows down. Our specialists will then consider your problem and advise you to buy a bigger hard disc or upgrade the processor or buy additional RAM, only to offer you a couple of months later again a free software upgrade, so your device becomes bloated again with irrelevant stuff and you get into a cycle of continuous upgrading, printers that don't work anymore because of compatibility issues and eventually you'll throw everything out and buy a new one. And a new printer. Are you selling a throw away product or an easy to repair and update product? At OLPC and the worldwide OLPC community, your kids/our kids, the minister of education are not considered a market nor a product.
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Universal Primary education with an open hardware and software rugged laptop for our and your kids is our mission. The XO's have been designed with rough kids handling in mind. Basically what you want for kids is a very rugged box that protects the laptop, rounded cordners, strong hinges, a strong handle so kids automatically take the laptop right at hand, and two strong holes where the computer can be attached to a belt e.g. The XO is 3 devices in one: a pc with a keyboard, it can be twisted and flipped backwards and becomes an ebook, and with the XO-4 you also have a touch screen and it becomes a tablet. Never buy tablets without a strong protection for the screen. The XO is honest and gives a very very strong protective cover on all sides. The XO is made for the hardest environments out there: kids hands! You can drop it on the floor, on pointy stones, drop it on its corners... it will survive. And even if something breaks, the XO is made with easy repair in mind: with one and the same screw-driver you can open de laptop and see what causes the failure. Spare parts and upgrades are very cheap and most repairs and update replacements can be done by and in the school. There's plenty of people in the OLPC community that help out to help you detect the failure and help you repair an XO. In 2013, a teacher learned his students how to connect a self made 3D-printer to an XO and printed a framing device they could stick in the usb port of the XO and which allowed them to take more accurate pictures. More on the dedicated repair pages of the world wide OLPC community: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Repair

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How do you protect the device from kids rough handling? What additional adaptations have you made to make it kids-proof? Eh ... nothing really. How do you protect the device from kids rough handling? What additional adaptations have you made to make it kids-proof? OLPC-XO's have been designed with rough kids handling in mind. Basically what you want for kids is a very rugged box that protects the laptop, rounded corners, spill-proof/drizzle rain proof sealed rubber-membrane keyboard, strong hinges where the screen is attached to the keyboard
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and a pivoting hinge as kids will often open the laptop not straight but curved with a lot of torsion, a strong handle so kids automatically take the laptop right at hand, and two strong holes where the computer can be attached to a belt e.g. The laptop has 2-3mm plastic walls; 1.3mm is typical for most competing laptops. Never buy tablets without a strong protection for the screen. With an XO kids can never forget their protective cover. The XO always has its cover with it. That's smart kids rough friendly thinking. The XO is honest and gives a very very strong protective cover on all sides. The XO is made for the hardest environments out there: kids hands! You can drop it on the floor, on pointy stones, drop it on its rounded corners... it will survive. And even if something breaks, the XO is made with easy repair in mind: with one and the same screw-driver you can open de laptop and see what causes the failure. Spare parts are very cheap and most repairs can be done by and in the school. There's plenty of people in the OLPC community that help out to help you detect the failure and help you repair an XO. More on the dedicated repair pages of the world wide OLPC community: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Repair And please check if your laptop has strong connectors for peripherals and the charger. At OLPC we don't use hypersmall ones, we use the strongest-most standdard-cheap versions of the small cables. Everything is focussed on durability. Hence also why the XO is the greenest laptop out there according to many. More on the peripherals and connectors: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO-4_Touch
How do you reduce costs for the Ministry of Education, the kids and families? How do your laptops put themselves in a wireless network? Not How do you reduce costs for the Ministry of Education, the kids and families? How do your laptops put themselves in a wireless network? With OLPC you connect to the worldwide open source and open hardware community. As a ministry and education community, you get a place next to the ministries of education of countries s.a. Uruguay, Peru, Rwanda, Haiti, Mongolia, the United States, and of course the worldwide community of open source and hardware users and developers. The laptops put themselves in a network automatically and become the internet. Before wifi, and when not part of data-providing institutions, s.a. universities with databases full of useful information, or the public transport company, or the government with websites with loads of useful information, one needed the service to get access to these linked computer databases and networks that form the internet. Since the introduction of wifi, our laptops can bridge and help connect to sites holding interesting info.
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With their two "ears", the OLPC XO laptops can communicate with other wifi equipped devices about 100 to 200 m in the round. If you want to video talk to a little friend that's 600 m away, then the laptops of your friends will help to reach your friend. Even so, if the Ministry of Education can put a wifi antenna to the server hosting its website and eradiate the website for free. This will be captured by the OLPC kids and they'll help pass it on and make it freely accessible via the spare computing capacity on their machines. Kids and people actually visit 80% of the time the same websites: the wikipedia, when the bus leaves, when the airplane leaves, grant forms at the Ministries'websites, or other useful data. All these data providers want you to get access to their data for free. So if they equip their server hosting their website with a wifi antenna, the kids and schools can pick it up for free and distribute it for free around them. The OLPC XS - Server holds copies of these most visited websites and a website with the 10.000 ebooks that have been selected in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Teachers. The OLPC XS - Server is also a very fast calculating machine/processor, so kids with their XO's actually first get the information - e.g. copy of the wikipedia that's stored on the OLPC XS - Server - and only once a week or once a day, the XS-Server updates itself with the original website. This way the kids have a very fast user experience when surfing the internet, even if - in a couple of years - their processor speeds are not among the fastest anymore. This way, upgrades can be postponed to the maximum, reducing costs and avoiding getting trapped in a cycle of continuous buying and upgrading. The open source / linux community, open office community, OLPC community, make sure the software proposed is as small and hence as fast as possible. You dont' get "free upgrades" immediately after you've "bought a laptop". This way your laptop doesn't get bloated with irrelevant software and code that will slow down your computer mulching through irrelevant lines of code. On the contrary, you get the smallest operating system - thus the fastest - and only the parts of the programs you really need. If ever you would need a part of code, you can add it in blocks according to what you need. You don't get the 1001 pieces that 1001 separate specialists people indeed needed because they have a very specific job to do, that only a handfull of people really need, but that's no reason to push ALL these 1001 things onto all of them. Its makes a laptop bloated with functions, adds complexity you probably never need and if you need, then download that specific module. It's all open soft and hardware anyway. Your kids get what your kids and teachers need. The laptop comes with a built-in wireless card compatible with 802.11b/g standards. Marvell developed the wireless chip and wrote its firmware and the initial device drivers. A unique ability of the laptop is that the wireless chip will have very low-level mesh routing capabilities built-in. Because of this, the laptop will be able to act as a router while the main processor is idle (turned off). In this mode, the machine is expected to use roughly 0.5 watts of battery power.

Two 'bunny ear' antenna on either side of the display swivel upwards. Doing this reveals USB and audio ports, normally sealed from the elements, and also extends the wireless range significantly to over 150 m and field tests even indicated ranges to 200 m. Wikipedia's article on Ad hoc routing protocol notes that: "Transmitting a signal half the distance requires one fourth of the energy and if there is a node in the middle willing spend another fourth of its energy for the second half, data would be transmitted for half of the energy than through a direct transmission." Marvell's card is designed to scale to very low power usage. Lower power output allows for less wasted battery. Longer range transmissions are also possible with lower power/bandwidth, allowing a large area to be covered by the mesh. An Active Antenna provides the same wireless mesh network interface in a USB peripheral. It may be used to connect a School server or other computer to the mesh network, simultaneously repeating any packets on the local mesh. It may also be provided with only power, in which case it acts solely as a repeater to extend the mesh. Details on the card itself can be found on the wireless page: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Wireless

How many of specifically these laptops have you actually sold? What experience do you have deploying your laptops nation wide? None. A couple of thousand? Note: propriety software, version x and hardware component y will react differently to e.g. printers/internet/etc. than a twin copy laptop with propriety software, version x+1 and hardware component y or propriety software, version x and hardware component y+1. Let alone all other combinations. The fact is there isn't a single producer that comes near the numbers as OLPC: OLPC has NATION wide deployments! How many of specifically these laptops have you sold? What experience do you have deploying your laptops nation wide? OLPC XO laptops and server combinations have been sold in excess of 2 million. OLPC: The fact is there isn't a single producer that comes near the numbers as OLPC: OLPC has NATION wide deployments!

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How do you help protecting our kids against porn and crap content? You can subscribe to a list with such sites and then block their access. How do you help protecting our kids against porn and crap content? The XO laptops put themselves in an internet. That is your kids internet. How many of your fellow kids would host crap on their laptops? The OLPC community contributes to such child approved list to where they can surf. But even more basically, we don't pay for connecting to internet sites that don't provide access to their sites for free. Doesn't the Ministry of Education want kids and parents and teachers to be able to reach its website? Then why doesn't the Ministry of Education put a wifi antenna to the server that hosts its website? All our laptops are equipped with wifi antenna's. Our kids can capture the website of the Ministry. Idem the hours of the bus. Doesn't the bus company want us to know that for free? Let them also connect a wifi antenna. Our OLPC kids will help distribute it to each other. What site do you actually want to visit that you have to pay for? The wikipedia? It's open source, you can host it on an OLPOC XS-Server and distribute it for free. The only websites that are not free are porn sites and those of the same sort. They want you to pay to get access to their data. But, we don't take them up in our networks and certainly don't distribute them via our wifi equipped OLPC XS-Server. Remember, the internet with interesting info, that you and us, the internet are we. Our OLPC-XO kids have free communication, video webcalling among them. Switch to Open Source and join ! Further, kids are not impressed by porn, they just click it away: "...again that adult crap...". Just as publicity.
How many different screws are there in the laptop? 8 Different types, needing 3 different, difficult to find hence expensive screwdrivers and some other tools to lift things! How many different screws are there in the laptop? OLPC laptops/ebooks have 1 type of screws, can be unscrewed easily with the same easy to find standard screwdriver. OLPC laptops are made to be repaired, even by kids !!! Again, kids nor the ministry of education is to be considered as a market, they are OLPC's mission !

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Are you an open hardware and software project? Does your laptop's vision aligns and helps the Ministry of Education / Schools / Principles / Educators / Kids connecting with Open Source collaboration projects? No. Are you an open hardware and software project? Does your laptop's vision aligns and helps the Ministry of Education / Schools / Principles / Educators / Kids connecting with Open Source collaboration projects?
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Yes, that's one of OLPC's founding principles. With connected laptops, learners are liberated to actively engage with others with similar missions and harnassing the free power and intelligence that is available world wide: connecting teachers to collaborate in making the BEST book for their discipline, connecting to wikibooks, a sister project of the wikipedia, and many many more. OLPC is just like the wikipedia, wikibooks, like linux and open office ... we combine the power of massive collaboration with massive orders to get minimum prices. The wikipedia you know for sure, and your students spend hours looking up and learning there. But there's much more projects like the wikipedia, e.g. wikibooks - to collaboratively make the best book in your discipline instead of everyone trying to make some syllabus each in their little corner, this is better, join in! A great laptop/ebook/tablet gets better with adapted interactive books and printed exercise books to take over. Of course there is a market for video's, books, lessons on how to work with the XO. But won't you get more orders as a top collaborator in the BEST video/book/lesson exercise book, or do you think you're better of fighting against a million wide community with your own little book/video/exercise book? The XO has been built this way. There is a 7 billion market out there. Maybe THAT should be your ambition.

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Our tabblet has a faster processor. Yep. Maybe but we have the nicer user experience. The latest processor is the http://www.marvell.com/application-processors/armada/pxa2128/ = 1.2GHz. Nevertheless, sleek selling technique. We've had the same courses in marketing and sales.
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Out of a 101 points to take into consideration, you point to 1 and keep hammering into that one. But Ministries of Education and the Education sector is smarter than that. They have ICT professors and specialists too, who get into a debate and come to the right conclusions. Processor speed is just 1 factor out of many to create a nice user experience. At OLPC, we come in from a birds-eye perspective, from a school, several schools, hundreds and thousands of students and teachers and the whole ministry of education. Don't you want to take advantage of that? E.g. isn't it logical to have a tandem: fast XServer processor for the whole school, and a cheaper processor in every single laptop? You want to push all your money in expensive processors in every laptop? Doesn't sound like smart allocation of a buget ! Isn't the XO-XServer configuration going to bring all a much longer way for the same buck? So are you faster per laptop / can you give a better user - teacher - minister of education experience than our XO-XServer combination? Besides, maybe you have a faster processor now - for a couple of months. But with our next upgrade, we'll put in another, faster processor and then we'll be faster. Do you know who our technical partners are? E.g. Google and Marvell. For now the XO features "Marvell optimized ARMv7 dual high-performance mobile processors with hSMP running at up to 1.2GHz. The ARMADA PXA2128 provides robust 3D graphics, video, audio, and image processing acceleration features, as well as full-featured system management and modem/radio interfaces." XO's are made to be upgraded. 1 Standard screwdrawer and all the same screws. Our teachers and kids are taught how to do that and - oh - be sure they understand about computers whilst taking it apart and back together. And yours? At OLPC - and actually anybody who comes with a solution at this level, we prefer to put 1 cheap processor in every tabblet and keep the money for 1 very fast processor in the XServer. What does a kid needs so much processing power for? For when it is thinking about filling out a spreadsheet? Thinking whilst doing math? Writing or reading a book? Certainly not. Surfing the web. Yes, but the XServer does the bulk of that and sends back fast processeable chunks. Even playing games is very possible on the XO. Even online games. Why? Because the XO's operating system is hyper-small and not bloathed with code and unnecessary software. You know what you have to do when your laptop at home gets slow: switch to linux and open software. XO's are an adapted Linux for kids and learning and all software is open source, no hidden updates that bloath your laptop with software and viruses. Just common sense: fast processor in the XServer, cheap processor in the OLPC tablets and all updatable with a single screwdrawer. Our XO's put themselves in a network all by themselves. Show us that. And when your fast tabblet runs out of power after a couple of hours and its battery is broken after so many charging cycles, our XO-kids are still working as their XO laptop has a lot of features that make them very energy efficient and then they go way past yours. The XO's display-controller chip (DCON) comes with memory that enables the display to remain live with the processor suspended. The DCON also formats data for the display. The Liquid-crystal display is the basis of our extremely low power architecture. The XO is usable while the CPU and much of the motherboard is regularly turned off (and on) so quickly that it's imperceptible to the user. Huge power savings are harvested in this way (e.g. by turning stuff on the motherboard off when it's not being used (if even for a few seconds), while keeping the display on). More: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware
What are your ideals? Make as much profit as possible. E.g. use tiny little hidden screws, so that when you want to repair the laptop, you break something beyond repair and you void the warrenty. We sneak in a laptop very cheaply and we don't tell you we're actually going to make money by selling you all kind of "services", proprietary soft and hardware that's programmed to fail and things you don't need afterwards. We make you good consumers. Look out for the next container load as they have the newer and improved charger 2X which of course doesn't fit with the original charger, which you'll have to dispose off, but the 2X is so much better looking :) ? What are your ideals? Millennium Development Goal nr. 2: Bringing Universal Primary Education. The OLPC laptop is both an open hardware as software project. The hardware and operating system is dedicated to kids. Hardware: the keyboard is made for children's fingers. They are no use to adults to prevent stealing. They are also the greenest laptops in the world. They consume very little power. No toxic elements have been used.
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There is a special recycling program. The little energy the laptop needs can be provided by a PV panel. Kids are not our market, kids are OLPC's mission. Connect with the largest educational initiative ever undertaken by Humanity ! Don't go for anything less! Another laptop has a little nifty something? Wait until we place an order of 1 million of these components and leave competition behind us. Laptop deployments in education are not just hardware projects. It's about developing the highest average speed: open and free soft and hardware where everybody in the educational sector in the WHOLE WORLD can collaborate. It's about allowing kids to collaborate, not about one kid having the latest / fastest gadget at 3 times the price because one parent can pay for it. They are not match to a world wide community continuously improving, building, exchanging. The kid with his high-tech machine will be just left out of that crucial topic what it is all about actually: collaborating, sharing, building improving. And how much technological advance does he/she actually have? It's just a matter of a couple of months when OLPC shifts gear again - continuously - in speed and other characteristics. Sometimes OLPC is a bit faster, sometimes a bit slower. But it's average speed in implementing new things is unmatched. How is any other distributor going to get better prices than whole governments worldwide ordering laptops that can be folded to ebooks all together and all the time?

OLPC has a youtube channel - watch these 2' video's and see what kind of people support OLPC:

  1. OLPC in 2' part 1
  2. OLPC in 2' part 2
Can your laptop be powered straight by a PV panel? No Can your laptop be powered straight by a PV panel? YES, OLPC laptops are quoted to be the greenest laptops around. They need very little power and the little they need can be provided by plugging in a light flexible PV panel. The screen is so that kids can read them even when they are in direct sunlight. With a solar Photovoltaic panel kids and families can recharge for free and often make some money - e.g. from charging rechargeable batteries - iso that this costs them money.

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What anti-theft strategy do you have? None ... buy software to prevent and relocate laptops? What anti-theft strategy do you have? Theft has been taken into account from the concept. After all OLPC was meant for the poorest first. Every laptop is unique and can be switched-off from a distance. All parts are logged. Apart from that there's some other factors: OLPC goes for region wide deployments, every kid gets a laptop, no one gets left out. So why steal one when you have one of your own. An adult running around with these very distinguishable OLPC laptops? You'd make a fool out of yourself. Everybody knows they're for kids only. Besides your adult fingers don't fit on the keyboard. You'll get very annoyed very quickly. And who are you going to sell it to? Everyone has one. And it's switched off from a distance anyhow. And we CAN trace you .. it's all networked after all, isnt' it?
Do you come with a solution or with a problem? Just throwing some laptops inside a school is a problem. Where to turn for free support? What software should be on it? How does that software work? Didn't we want interactive ebook versions of our school-books? My laptop doesn't reboot, what now? Do you come with a solution or with a problem? 100% spot on! OLPC is an education project, not a laptop project. Just throwing some laptops inside a school is a problem and can be a drain for very valuable money. Laptops without content and trained motivated teachers are a waste of time and money. With OLPC you connect to a worldwide community of supporters that go for open and free soft and hardware. Indeed, the OLPC laptops are easy to open and to exchange some component with a newer version. That way you always have an up to date machine. OLPC laptops are made to last, not programmed to fail ! OLPC is not a laptop project, hence OLPC doesn't "throw laptops" inside classrooms and then let's the teachers and the minister of education take the heat. OLPC comes with a staged approach:
  1. Sensibilisation: apply for a fund and set-up a test lab with some 100 XO-laptops and some XS-Servers where teachers, parents and students can get a feel. Build capacity, build support. Visit come countries where there has been a full deployment. As a minister of education, talk to their ministers of education, as teachers, talk to teachers there. Invite them back to your country, show they your test lab of 100 XO's. We need a communication strategy and press officer. These CO's print CO2e certificates. Governments that caused the Global Climate Destabilization need these CO2e certificates. How does that work? Where are the forms to get money for our sensibilization OLPC labo? Ask: --SvenAERTS 12:37, 25 April 2013 (UTC) Only then go to step 2.
  2. Data retrieval phase: We/you are now gearing up for a Pre-Deployment and a Full Deployment. Come together with a kernel team. Think about a second grant you will have to ask to bring together a team from the Ministry of Education. To make a list with all the questions and answers: how many kids exactly, how many schools are there and how many should there actually be, what books per grade, how to integrade the XO laptops in the lessons, during all the lessons or some lessons? Where do we start with the first deployment. What if the first container with 6.000 XO laptops arrives? Do we know what to put on them? How to do that? How much time is that going to take? And the XServers? Don't we need a technical hub for answering technical questions and problem solving/repairs? Don't we want the Peru and Uruguay team to accompany us in our first steps? When everything is looks ok on paper. Then we are ready for the Pre-deployment.
  3. Pre-Deployment phase: All data has been retrieved. This is the final rehearsal. The first container arrives and gets unpacked, and the first schools gets its XO's. Core team gets familiar with the job. They'll have to transfer their know how to many more core-teams that will then deploy region per region. Evaluation? Ready for the big jump?
  4. Deployment phase: The regional teams are trained for a last time in by the core team. Then they follow their shiploads / containers of XO's for regional deployments. We have to get through this phase systematically.
  5. Deployment phase: Everybody has a laptop. We have to work with energy of this massive group. Continuously train-the-trainer sessions. Evaluation, implementation of what's been learned, improve, etc. Exchange info and experience from other regions. You will be able to earn money as an expertise center. Make sure you have a visitor center to receive all these visitors from abroad that want to see, hear, feel, be coached by you as experts.
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More: Deployment and Deployment guide

Do you have an open platform for collaboration among users? No Do you have an open platform for collaboration among users? Yes, several. OLPC offers a wiki, discussion mailing lists, TV Channels, and even (video)-chatrooms for instant feedback and solution providing. More and more schools and governments make financial resources available to be present in these chatrooms to feedback governments / ministries / teachers and kids that have questions; be they organizational, hardware, software, or whatever.
Does your laptop generates money? No, it just costs money. Does your laptop generates money? Yes, OLPC educational project normally print CO2e certificates, i.e. CO2e money. A normal laptop uses x+1 kWh, an OLPC laptop only uses x kWh and whatever that little bit of energy is, it produces it with PV panels.
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For every ton of CO2e NOT emitted into the atmosphere, the OLPC project "prints/generates" a CO2e certificate. More:--SvenAERTS 15:27, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
Do you think environmental safety is important in the hands of kids? Eh, yes? Do you think environmental safety is important in the hands of kids? OLPC XO's are said to be the greenest in the world according to e.g. IEEE 1680 Consumer Electronics Environmental Impact as per EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool). XO appears destined to be the first laptop to receive their Gold Rating, it has even been suggested that the XO may warrant establishing a new, even higher rating. The XO is also compliant with RoHS
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Next to that they can be charged by a Photovoltaic Panel, hence produce CO2e certificates for every ton of CO2e that's not emitted. Notably - above and beyond the EPEAT requirements, XO has
  1. Batteries that last 4x longer than standard rechargeable
  2. Power consumption at about 10% of typical laptop
  3. Laptop lifetime of about 2.5x longer than typical (5 year life)
  4. Half the size and weight of a typical laptop
  5. Thus, above and beyond EPEAT, in our first year of deployment of 3–5M units we will save, when compared to any other EPEAT ranked laptop shipped in the same year, the following:
  6. 45-million pounds of e-waste (3 lbs x 5 Munits x 2.5–4x lifetime/2000 lbs/ton)
  7. 240-Giga-Watt hours of energy (20 Watt extra x 8 hours x 300 days x 5M units)
  8. As we scale in our second year of production these savings should increase even more: to preventing as much 500-million pounds of e-waste, and saving 2.5 Tera-watts of power. OLPC is working with other organizations to assure its environmental impact is very low and more information will be available here in the coming weeks.
  9. More: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Green_Machine#IEEE_1680_Consumer_Electronics_Environmental_Impact
What do you see as possible outcomes from implementing your laptop/ebook/tablet? Eh? What do you see as possible outcomes from implementing your laptop/ebook/tablet? Here are some things that have been mentioned as positive outcomes from an OLPC project. Many of these observations come very early in the project.

This list could also be considered reasons for launching a project.

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  1. Reduced absenteeism
  2. Greater engagement by children
  3. Empowerment of teachers
  4. Increased esteem of teachers
  5. Reduced need of discipline
  6. Less disruption by students
  7. Increase in self esteem by students
  8. Increased “connection” with the world (other cultures, languages, ideas)
  9. Increased involvement by parents
  10. School becomes the centre of the community
  11. Development of a sharing culture (child to child, school to community, teacher to parent)
  12. Much better results than with Computer Labs
Any final questions? Can you sign here? Any final remarks?
  1. OLPC XO sur Argent Rwanda billet.jpg Our OLPC XO-XS laptop-to-tablet computer is stamped on the money bills. How inspiring is your brand?
  2. Mr President-Minister of Education, if we'd propose collaborating in making the best laptop for your kids and classroom and ask you 1 cent/frank per child as contribution. What would your answer be?
  3. Mr President-Minister of Education, if we'd propose collaborating in making the best ebooks and software for your kids and classroom and ask you 1 cent/frank per child as contribution. What would your answer be?
  4. Mr President-Minister of Education, how different would the situation of teachers and ict-teachers be NOW, if your predecessors would have given them the opportunity to link up with the OLPC-One Laptop Per Child initiative. They wouldn't be working alone in their little corners developing books/lessons etc. The ICT person of the school would switch on his/her laptop, would be welcomed by hundreds/thousands of peers in the OLPC community, he/she would immediately be presented an overview of the projects he/she'd be collaborating in and be surprised and amazed to where the whole community would have brought the project/ebook he/she's been working in since the last time he/she'd have logged in. Gone with developing a syllabus alone in some little dark corner of a room, you'd be doing that in a team with peers from your own region but even from other countries around the planet, they'd take over when you go to sleep and you'd be amazed next morning or next time you re-connect. But your predecessor chose not to connect some around the year 2000.
  5. Mr President-Minister of Education, your country didn't collaborate in making the best laptop - but you can have access to it now for free. Nor did your countries' teachers get the opportunity to link-up with these hundreds and thousands of peers working on subjects that really are their class room lessons/ebooks, etc. But you can give them access to all this now.
  6. Mr President-Minister of Education, what your country, your kids - also your own kids, your educational sector needs is a regional OLPC - laboratory/HUB with some 10 XO's, 2 XServers, 3 rooms with 3 ICT personel and where your educational landscape can always come to, to get a feel, see and experience, touch, live the user experience of these XO laptops and the OLPC community. For that we need some 130.000 €. Do you see any way to free this budget / some grant form to fill out?

Thank you--SvenAERTS 09:26, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Tablet comparison Tablet comparison Special Educational Characteristics of the OLPC tablet are explained in this video: http://engt.co/12wrOwU . Personally, our team advises to go for the XO-laptop. It is what kids need: a strong box with a laptop inside, the XO-laptop can transform into an ebook, and a tablet and a robot and it can be charged from a Photo Voltaic panel. The tablet cannot be charged by a Photovoltaic panel. The XO-laptop is what you want for your kid: a solid box with a school inside. It's a laptop, an ebook, a tablet and a robot all in once. No need to make compromises.

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Any final remarks? That's a laptop for poor kids. Our's is for executives! And the previous ones I sold you, they're outdated and catching dust somewhere. You just need to buy something new from me! Again: look how crisp and glossy my publicity is and my costume ! Any final remarks? Mr President, the kids took a screwdriver, mounted wheels on their XO laptop, transformed it into a robot and you're drinking the coffee the laptop just fetched you. That's not a laptop for poor kids, that's a laptop for kids that want to learn how to world works! At least their world works, is open, free and connected and above they're not even surprised that it works and not afraid of their future! Their future just brought you a coffee! These are certainly not catching dust! These kids are probably figuring out how to make it happen that their XO is taking of the dust, doing the ironing, the washing, feed the cattle and water the garden! Set-up an OLPC lab with 10 XO's, 2 XServers, 3 rooms for 3 ICT-ers to join the OLPC community to allow people in your region a place where they can see the XO-XServer combination and experiment with it. Make it happen. Remmber, if not make it happen and join now, then when? If not you, then who? That's one of the top sayings at One Laptop Per Child, the Educational Initiative that goes for Millennium Development Goal nr. 2: bringing Universal Primary Education with an open software and hardware project that crystallized into the XO and the XServer combination.

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See also