Non-technical ideas
To produce cheap computers and free software is a thing people in industrialized countries can do. There are about 1.2 billion children at the age of 6-15 years and about half of them are potential users of this hardware.
Even if only 10% (60 Million) of the children will receive a computer this will be the biggest IT project in history.
Hardware Cost
- 600 million children
- 600 million computer
- 60 billion dollar
Bill Gates has 50 billion dollar.
To pay the hardware maybe isn't a big problem.
Support/Infrastructure
A computer isn't a TV and it needs a lot support. Even if the operating system can be repaired or updated by simply booting from USB and clicking one button, millions of people are needed for software training, hardware repair, network infrastructure, translating,...
This is a much bigger challenge than producing the hardware.
- Simplifying computing and using it for development with the least hardware specification is a work-in-progress since 1998, and the best suite of software for this that is now ready is PuppyLinux. It is now moving into translation. Training of teachers and innovative applications in education have been started and being published at http://schoolpup.net. A new site will be up soon for online training of school executives. - Raffy
The teachers
More than 20 million teachers have to be trained and motivated. Most of the teachers don't have a computer. Lots of them never used a computer. Some of them have never seen a computer.
The children will learn quickly, but think about a teacher with lower computer skills than the children. The teachers will boycott this project if they don't have a personal benefit.
Activities in poor countries
I was traveling in Laos in february and march 2006. I read all the information that is available online about olpc but I couldn't answer a single of the many questions from people (teachers) I told about this project.
Is this a project to clear conscience of people in rich counties? Shouldn't there already be much more people from poor countries involved in this project than people from rich countries?
- Getting one's hands on an information device such as the laptop is empowering in itself. Rather than ask questions, people should get started and equip themselves with skills for making the most out of the device. Some ideas for getting started are available from http://littlecandle.net.
Only for "rich" countries like thailand and china?
There are poor countries like cambodia, laos, myanmar, ... If I look at the map at http://laptop.org/map.en_US.html only the more devoloped countries are marked green. What is the reason for ignoring the poorest of the poor?
- Could there be a special fund so that the poorest countries are not left out?
Answer: The countries that are marked green in the deployment map are the "pilot" countries. Those are the countries in which the deployment will begin, which will be the first phase of the project lasting 12-18 months.
During the first phase of the project we need to make sure that we can:
- Achieve Scale: we need to build a large enough number of laptops to be able to bring the price down.
- Reduce complexity: there is alot of complexity in the first phase that stems from the fact that there are many cutting edge technology being developed and implemented for the first time (for example the display, networking, human-rechargeable computers) and the scale of deployment.
Once the first phase is over, the door will be open for all countries to participate. And at that stage, different funding strategies could be explored to allow the poorer countries to provide those laptops to their children, ranging from international grants to buy-a-child-a-laptop kind programs.