OLPC talk:Community Portal

Discusion on the OLPC community Page

Why does this page exist? It doesn't seem to have a clear purpose or else it is drifted away from its original purpose.

--Aburton 15:32, 12 June 2006 (EDT): I think this page would be a good place to communicate exactly how we want the wiki organized, and the order in which things should be done.

Whoever fixed up the page did a good job starting it out and was exactly what was needed. I'll clean this page up in a bit.--Stranger 21:40, 13 June 2006 (EDT)

finaly figured out how to get the TOC on the right--Stranger 12:26, 15 June 2006 (EDT) 35644158342892671770218

Old content

May I suggest (again) that models distinctly different externally (in color/shape of case, with a different logo, say) be made and sold on the market for a 50% premium ... with the proceeds used to build and distribute the OLPCs. I think you might be able to pay for much of or the whole thing that way ... PLUS the larger market would bring the price per unit down anyway.

The distinction needs, of course, to be virtually inimitable in the practical sense, like case shape and logo (and of course protected in every country re copyright).

One bonus is that everyone who owns one of the latter can clearly be seen to have contributed to building the OLPCs, hence a bit of "pride of ownership". A sort of a more expensive "yellow wrist band" idea ... and more useful.

Good luck with the project!

I applaud the overall concept, the engineering and the product development. However, I only wish the market planning was equally as well thought out. If you believe that you will be able to limit the ownership of these computers solely to schoolchildren in developing countries, you are living in a world so devoid of reality that it makes fantasy gaming look "out on the street" by comparision. As soon as you start distributing these machines they'll be showing up in markets and street stalls from Timbuktu to Toledo. Then knock-offs will start appearing, with factories sprouting up in China making nothing else (and probably at an even lower price). Get real -- you guys came up with a great idea, but if you think you're going to be able to control this thing, you've got about as much chance as King Canute. If your machine sees the light of day, you're going to revolutionise ownership and use of computers, espeically since there's a very large unsatisfied market for a low-cost rugedised laptap among all the rest of us that aren't children in developing countries.

Love it!

We really do need to move towards a more mature, stable platform to go to the next phase of ubiquitous computing. Linux is the way to go. The present $2000 price point and online software updates and so-called "virus protection" is ridiculous for the average person. You lead and we'll follow!

David Haile Fort Collins, CO

It's ridiculous! I live in africa and the last thing we need are PCs. Children here need food, water, medication, clothes- they need food so they wont die of hunger, get it?? A laptop is useless, and by the way, 100USD is too expensive for somenone who has no money to eat on. Regarding this coment from someone who lives in Africa, I stay in South Africa and there are plenty of Instituitions that can donate $100 from their sales to a laptop that will enrich the inteligence and assist in the education of a child in a third world country. I aggree with the concept of distribuing them to the capacity of not being a luxury item as it is seen in a thrid world country but rather a tool for information and a necessity for education at schools etc... I am sure De Beers, AngloGold and other huge profitable African Companies can afford help. South Africa

You have all the support from the northeast of Brazil

I have heard about this project from a friend. You guys are doing a wonderful thing. I was so impressed by this project That I thought to myself: I have to say my word of support ot tell them that people in many part of the world are sending good energy for the accomplishment of this project. A community in the northeast of Brazil is supporting you. Thanks for this initiative. I really want to get involved, but unfortunaly I have no knowlwdge about software. AS soon as The non-software involvement is needed. Please Contact I am more than willing to help.

Sincerely, Gustavo Guimarães,21 leader of the youth council- Pernambuco, Brazil- Another one who believes in this project.

Could I get one for my Friend's Kids?

Living on the country-side in South India as a European since 15 years I DO see the use of a very cheap PC for poor childern. A few points from my perspective:

- Sell them, do not give them for free. Most people do not maintain free items seriously. Do try to get the price even lower (but not so low that they will be canibalised just for the parts)

- Keep the government out of the picture (too much corruption); sell them through normal electronic shops.

- There are many power-cuts/ problems here: supply a hand crank please.

- Can you build in WiMAX? In the rural area's there are great distances to cover. Alternatively leave out any wifi and supply more local storage.

Africa needs technology to solve its numerous problems. This cannot wait until everyone's belly full. The reality is that there are hungry people even in the first world. This guy living in Africa must have sent his original message by a telegram.

Great Project

I live in Nigeria and I am excited that my country is involved in the OLPC project. Education and communication is traditionally greatly valued in Nigeria and this project, I believe, hits at the heart of what is essential in moving the next generation of Nigerians across the digital chasm.

We have debated, in international circles, what needs to be done to help 3rd world countries breach the poverty gap. For the first time, we have finally been able to create a project that has the best chance of making a difference.

The access, motivation and education that these laptops will give these kids will be far greater than $100 of grain, rice, bread or any other form of aid.

I will support this project in any way that I can.

The laptop is not for individual sale... Ministries of education will purchase, just like they do with textbooks... Or should they not spend any money for education?

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It's ridiculous! I live in africa and the last thing we need are PCs. Children here need food, water, medication, clothes- they need food so they wont die of hunger, get it?? A laptop is useless, and by the way, 100USD is too expensive for somenone who has no money to eat on.

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Answer,

as you see, dear african (btw: are you really?), your message here reached my bedroom in Italy today thanks to a pc (maybe a really really cheap one), isn't it?

--87.4.183.151 06:04, 17 March 2006 (EST) Francesco R. - Castelfranco Veneto - Italy

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Another Answer:

if the last thing you need in africa are PCs, will africa ever start needing them? Children need food, water, medication, etc. - this is true and the most important right now, but that is by far not the only important thing for the african future! Simply providing food, water, medication, etc. does never cure the underlying reasons for their lack. If we strive to provide only the basics it might help a bit immediately but will not sustain for too long... it tends to make things rather worse in the long run - it only deepens economic dependency. Of course that does not mean we should stop providing the basics though. But if you ask for limiting help to the basic priorities, you could therefore just as well ask for stopping all the help... sad but true. Africa needs all help it can get and on all levels to become independent, free and strong!

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Yet another answer: Empowerment and Self Help

Africa was colonialized as were many other areas of the world such as Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, ...Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. as well in more recent times Hungary, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria etc by the USSR. (Even the USA by England ..) Now that Africa is no longer colonialized and there is no "apertheid" what prevents its free nations from being on the road to self-sufficiency? That is a critical question every African must ask - and must demand creative and committed answers from its leaders.

Seems that without meaningful education and a feeling of empowerment by people the only African hope is await CARE packages from more dynamic and successful continents. That is a sad hope for the African continent. An initiative like OLPC can't solve Africa's chronic health and food problems. For that there are organizations like the UN, and even that is not the solution. Africa's, and any continent's and nation's, only real hope and escape from dire circumstances is self-help and forming local helping communities based on a strong sense of kinship. If these are missing there is no real hope.

Only Africans can help Africans. Others can apply band aid solutions.

OLPC can plant valuable seeds whose fruit will ripen maybe after a decade or more. Sometimes there are no quick fix solutions and often quick fixes tend to make problems worse.

L Pfeffer March 18, 2006

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Yet another yet another answer,

Quote from somewhere:

"Give someone bread, he eats for a day, teach someone how to make bread, he eats for a lifetime"

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The OLPC project is acting (in my mind) in a way that will free the emergency needs of Africa and similar in the long-terms. It is a long-term GREAT project. Instruction: 100$ to grant ACCESS, communication, and unlimited BOOKS. Future employment: open source software and culture is the emerging countries freedom. As you teach people to act the collaborative way, as you teach them they can do the same things investing on their learning curve and not in the major softwarehouse products, they will never be "computer slaves". This project was "saved" from having an OS-X based OS, and hardly attatched from Microsoft.

But... the need will be to prevent family from selling the laptops to feed themself!!!

Please, SELL these PCs in the first world, $200 each. With the earned money finance the project. I'd buy it!

Luca Vascon, Venice, Italy. March 18, 2006

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Vascon said: Please, SELL these PCs in the first world, $200 each. With the earned money finance the project. I'd buy it! ---- ---

--- ME TOO --Dagoflores 03:42, 19 March 2006 (EST) AGS MEX

I think MANY(1st world) people will buy it.

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Hunger and medical attention are the most needed, I agree. And trying to get gouvernments to stop violence and start respecting people's lives and rights. But while now being idle, the young generation is not getting any education, the African continent stands still in it's own developement and will not evolve into prosperity.

Forming it's own local networks and with free access to the internet, this generation can and will be educated. One has to learn how to read and write, otherwise you can't use the laptop. But even THAT can be done from this laptop. And after that, all is available at their own fingertips. And do not only think in ways of education, but specially in information.

Due to the developement of the internet and the free source of information, the first world has hurdled into the next millenium. Also the third world countries can start to close this gap and speed up their developement. The increase in free available information, will have a positive effect on the personal developement of people.

The current HIV and Aids crisis in African countries can be slowed down through the use of direct information. In stead of staying ignorant or being mislead by self-called healers, children will be informed of the real risks of non-protected sexual contacts. Parents will learn how to protect their children from the risks of infection.

People can look for solutions of local problems. What can be done about getting water to the surface? Where can I get a pump for my village?

In a later stage it will also have a positive side for the international Aid organisations and their workers. Instead of having to travel all over these countries looking for problems to solve, the information will directly to them. This will safe time and resources and therefore money.

But I agree with Luca Vascon from Italy. We have to prevent that these laptops are being sold. Or stolen to use as trade goods. The only way to do this, is make them so generally available, that it is not worth stealing or selling them.

I also would really like to have one. I am going to travel the world for a year and this laptop would be perfect to carry around. Developed for rugged situations and self-sustaining for power, so that I can use it everywhere. I would like to have more memory, but that cannot be that expensive. And I would pay for it as well. And for the $ 200, they can give away 2 instead of 1.

Richard Seinstra, Capelle aan den IJssel (The Netherlands) 21-03-2006

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Africa needs technology to leapfrog to suatainable development. Africa will benefit tremendously from this project.

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As an outsider, we always seem to have an answer... "the power of internet, education, exposure, communication etc etc....". We fail to understand what does an average African really needs. And believe me its not obvious. I guess we can all try, but the best answer would come from Africa itself. The laptop in itself is no good, we need to focus on software... i.e. the applications, the content, the course material... all that needs to be looked at, and then only we'll feel the true power of $100 laptop.

Prabhdeep, Montreal April 4, 2006

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I live in Vancouver BC. I'm quite lucky to reside in one of the high tech cities of Canada.

Consider this. Say the technology was taken care of and the laptop was to go for sale for $100. Is there any charity that would be willing to have 1st world families buy the laptop and have them shipped to countries with needs?

This could take care of the resource management (the money going to the corrupt government).

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I think this is a very good idea, I strongly believe in the power of education. But I also fear that many governments won't be willing to spend the money because of corruption and other issues. The idea of a charity buying the laptops seems a bit unlikely to me. How about teaming with a TV station and organizing a telethon to raise money? I think people would be willing to contribute to this project, especially because it's more tangible than other initiatives: the money made will be dedicated to the production and shipping of the laptops.

Diana, Madrid April 10th, 2006

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OLPC seems to be just one of many great projects to emerge of the MIT Media Lab over recent years that demonstrate intent to use the wealth of knowledge and resource available to the western world to help our less well off friends. Exploring this site however, while I can find believe that a $100 dollar laptop can be made and understand why laptops are great, I cant find a document that actually details the actual need, or attempts to answers many of the questions that have been raised on this page. Is there such a doucument available to the public?? Without wanting to knock a project which I'm sure has a rich future, it would be great to hear answers to some key questions:

How do you give a $100 laptop to a family who makes perhaps $1-5 a day?

How do you persuade aid agencies in the wisdom of paying for high complexity solutions to the developing world, no matter how inexpensive, when written into many of their mission statements is "to help the developing world help themselves" i.e. help them to decide what they need and help them build it?

Who is this $100 laptop specifically for? (country, average income, other facilities) - claiming that the light from OLPC is the brightest source of light in a cambodian family house prompts me to ask are we addressing the REAL problems...

I contributed to the KINKAJOU project with Design that Matters and took the idea to many international agencies in the UK and these were just the kind of questions I struggled to find answers for.

Keep up the good work

Gareth Sumner, Cambridge, UK. 15th April 2006

SVG in this wiki

SVG is a recomended image format for olpc. The wiki is not SVG enabled and gives this warning:

Upload warning ".svg" is not a recommended image file format.

Wikimedia 1.5 supports SVG, this must be enabled in the wiki configuration. Wikipedia already supports SVG. --Bz 08:03, 14 June 2006 (EDT)