Hence no ROI .
"... --the group said that it would be working with Microsoft to make a Windows variety of its XO laptop, ..."
Anticipation is making me wait.
^o^
OLPC to laptop makers: Use our design
Summary
At the TED 2009 conference, Nicholas Negroponte says that OLPC's open-source hardware design will result 5 to 6 million new machines every month within three years.
Topics
The One Laptop per Child initiative seems to have found that imitation isn't simply a form of flattery, it's grounds for a new business model.
Speaking at the TED 2009 conference, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte said that the future of the initiative--which set out to put simple, durable, low-cost laptops in the hands of schoolchildren in developing nations--is to become, in essence, more commonplace, to "build something that everyone copies," according to Ethan Zuckerman, blogging from TED.
That copying has already begun, Negroponte said, pointing to the surging popularity in recent months of Netbooks--laptops built by a range of commercial PC makers with a focus on low cost and simplicity of design. "They didn't copy the right things from us, but they exist," Negroponte said, per Zuckerman. "We had to build the first laptop because no one else would do it."
In the early days of the OLPC, the group's design became famous as the "$100 laptop"--after the target price set for the device--but over time, the price crept up to nearly double that level; the $100 price tag would have to wait for economies of scale that proved elusive. Meanwhile, even before the advent of Netbooks, the price of higher-end laptops kept dropping.
Given the pressure from commercial markets--"It's sort of a tragedy"--Negroponte said that the OLPC would release and open-source its hardware design and invite others to copy it, according to Zuckerman. Within three years, Negroponte expects companies around the world to be cranking out some 5 million to 6 million such machines every month, compared with about a half-million OLPC machines now in use.
Last May, as the OLPC sought broader acceptance--and five months after Bill Gates told CNET News that the "OLPC hasn't done that well"--the group said that it would be working with Microsoft to make a Windows variety of its XO laptop, in addition to the original Linux model.
One month ago, amid harsh economic conditions, the OLPC announced that it would be cutting its workforce by 50 percent and cutting salaries for remaining employees. It also said it would hand off development of its Sugar operating system to the open-source community.
This article was originally posted on CNET News.com.
Talkback Most Recent of 20 Talkback(s)
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RE: Hey Open Source come back -- Use our design
" Bill Gates told CNET News that the " OLPC hasn't done that well " ..."
Hence no ROI .
"... --the group said that it would be working with Microsoft to make a Windows variety of its XO laptop, ..."
Anticipation is making me wait.
^o^
n0neXn0ne9th Feb 2009 -
A big thanks to all of the OLPC team!!
Thanks for getting it all started.
DonnieBoy9th Feb 2009 -
OLPC give it a rest
The thing is already obsolete, and it should be copied for years to come?
Here is a news flash: a computer isn't like a DVD player that you can crank out for 6-7 years because it essentially doesn't do anything new.
I think people expect a bit more from their computers, and pawning off this junk in 3rd world countries is criminal.
Food, sanitation, reading, writing, math, basic science... that's what the third world needs. Newton, Galileo, DaVinci sure didn't need any computers to accomplish a heck of a lot.
croberts9th Feb 2009 -
Damn true.
Anyways, its pretty easy to create a scammer foundation, just take some photos of a kid (usually a poor and black child), then put some page asking for money.
OLPC was a lousy experiment at expensive of third world country.
magallanes9th Feb 2009 -
At expensive of third world country?
Please explain how the third world suffered as a result of this experiment.
Michael Kelly9th Feb 2009 -
RE: At expensive of third world country?
"At expensive of third world country?"
At the expensive expense of third world country.
Read between the lines will ya.
^o^
n0neXn0ne9th Feb 2009 -
OK I'm reading between the lines
I still don't see how the third world is worse off than before.Michael Kelly9th Feb 2009 -
Hold your friendly fire ....
I was what I think, translating for the OP.
^o^
n0neXn0ne9th Feb 2009 -
Re: OK I'm reading between the lines
Must weigh in for Michael. I live in India. 25 years ago, when we were really third world, the government identified computing, telephony and later the Internet as tools of development. Over time, it changed the way people -- even poor people -- live and work, opened up new opportunities and increased efficiencies. In some states, peasants take their produce to market after checking the day's prices on the Net. Kids from small Indian towns, whom you would not consider well-educated, now threaten US jobs with excellent technical capabilities. The fact that India could transform itself from a third world country into a tiger economy without compromising democracy owes something to the IT revolution.
Now, I'm not supporting the OLPC per se. It's just a sexy but low-utility idea which could be easily flogged to funders and well-intentioned corporate backers. In my country, a multilingual cellphone with a cheap GPRS service would be far more useful for everyone, not only schoolkids, and could be marketed at about the same cost as the OLPC. But I wanted to point out that development is nuanced. It's not just about shovels and buckets, as one discussant pointed out.
Sorry for the long post, but it's a long story.
Pratik
pratik70811th Feb 2009 -
One Argument
Well if you consider charity as the limited resource it is you can see that a person which would have contributed money for food or shelter and instead contributed a OLPC then I think the child would be worse off.
mikefarinha9th Feb 2009 -
Because
Because it wasn't a free project but a pay for be a beta tester.
Anyways,many third world countries currently have access and are using the latest of technology, its way different to the viewpoint showed by NatGeo where there are a couple of kids that even knowns about electricity or fresh water or all goodness of the modern civilization.
Economically talking, in my country you can buy a second hand computer for less that $70, including a inexpensive 15" crt monitor, a pentium-3 with windows 98 or 2k, office (illegal copy) and such. Yes, is a old computer but is a true computer. OLPC in this aspect make a nonsense.
magallanes11th Feb 2009 -
So you expect them to compete in the world's economy
with 17th century technology? You do know Newton made his biggest discoveries while in quarantine from the great plague, right? What good is having 17th century technology when you've got a plague in your country?
I agree they need food, sanitation, reading, etc. but that's not all they need. They need modern tools for organization, communication, and calculation. What the OLPC is offering is not everything the third world needs, but it is one piece of what they need. If you're worried that the third world won't get the rest of the stuff they need, well then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!Michael Kelly9th Feb 2009 -
17th century technology
Thinking & math-/language-literacy are IMO more important than modern comm / comp tools. If the OLPC enables math/reading/writing then it will be a Good Thing. If not, then not. If you can't think then you're doomed to "keep banging the rocks together"
fjcaherfr9th Feb 2009 -
Well, yes,
and the OLPC project agrees with you, which is why it's meant to be an educational tool, not a businessman's laptop (hence "one per child," not "one for everybody."
The ability to distribute (not create, of course, but distribute) digital textbooks at no cost might be worth the cost of admission all by itself.
pgyw09a@...10th Feb 2009 -
You knowns..
OLPC is not a kindle and can't be used for such purpose because the quality of the screen.
magallanes11th Feb 2009
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