Give The World A Laptop
The fight between Intel and Nicolas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child is heating up. If you haven’t heard, OLPC has designed a very basic laptop that costs only $100: the proverbial $100 laptop. The idea is that by making laptops cheap and simple, you can open up lots of places in the world to computer and internet technology, which, as we know, makes everything better. Intel thinks the $100 laptop is a stupid way to give technology to the developing world. They’ve designed a less basic $400 dollar laptop (the $400 laptop doesn’t have quite the same ring). Because clearly, if you have no laptop, and your thinking about getting one, why wouldn’t you just spring for the $400 one.
DISCUSSION: 14 Comments
I think everyone having a machine is nice but no one seems to be discussing what we and or kids will be doing with them. I love the idea of third world nations connecting and that being the first step, when it comes to developed nations, what kinds of tools are they providing kids with? Kids need to be more than just connected, they need to know how ideas are created and how to gain visibility to your ideas. Do not get me wrong, I want everyone to have a machine…I just think we need to also begin discussing the road map of where we ultimately are looking to go as that can help shape todays conversations.
Is there WiFi in the rainforest of Belize?
Why are we funding programs that send laptops to other countries when our own children need them.
Is this about a company complaining because they would rather sell the $400.00 laptop instead of the $100.00 laptop??? If Intel is donating them anyways then let them use the $400.00 one. But i do agree maybe we should look in before out!!!!!!!!
It’s two different companies. One (OLPC) has a $100 laptop. Intel wants to sell their $400 laptop instead. Huh.By all means, lets make money from people who don’t have it. Welcome to the American Corporate mind-set.I’m all for providing access to information and skills to kids in other countries. I think it would be better to do that after we provide the same to kids right here in the US, though.
i’m sure the child assembling these would appreciate one for herself.
I’m involved with starting a charter school and our finances are extremely tight. What a blessing it would be to be able to give our children the opportunity to have one comuputer for each of them. As it is, we are hoping to be able to afford one computer per classroom and until we get on our feet we will not have any kind of computer lab. If we are talking about this program for underdeveloped countries, how about giving remote rural America a piece of the pie?
why is it some of you expect something for nothing, get a job!
Netbooks are coming down in price. For $300 you can get one running XP on an Atom processor, with 1GB of RAM, and a 120GB harddisk — and the price is coming down. The $100 laptop is not so far fetched. The XO is a bit specialized with the mesh networking, the more climate-proof- kid-proof design and its low power consumption. Some of these design issues may not apply to kids in the US, but maybe OLPC will someday target the XO for domestic distribution as well (in addition to the holiday sales event they have held for the past two years.
Sure a 100 dollar laptop is available now and they sell in the US, the 100 dollar laptop is being designed for villages without 120 volt power, dust, limited experience with a computer and it must be tough. I always thought that supplementing the price of these laptops would be the best way to get them into the hands of those that can benefit from them.
Seriously, you guys are a bunch of uninformed knuckleheads. Before you go spouting off about extracting money from developing countries, and the availability of electricity, how about finding out about the programs the article was written about. The OLPC program GIVES AWAY one laptop to the developing world for every one purchased in the developed world. The machines cost $200, not $100. $100 was the ideal which was not achieved. If you buy one for your child, you pay $400, which purchases two. One is donated on your behalf to a child in a developing country.The OLPC is capable of running on solar, by human power via a hand crank, or electricity, and uses very little power. The machine will work if wet and is impact resistant. Don’t think of it as those fragile things we are required to pay thousands for, this is built for kids, with usage in mind. The software bundle and wireless technology is truly revolutionary. If one kid has wireless, or wired internet within miles, the OLPC allows that kid to share with others withing range. There are many other innovations that make this a truly unique machine and program. How about using the computer to research and learn something rather than spewing garbage to the world.
why bother the dictators have the children killed or worse
My son has been saving for a laptop for over a year. We are poor. The computer we use was given by a friend who moved, and cannot hook up to a printer. Half of the assignments he was given in 8th grade we went to the library. I pay rent, food, just can’t pay for everything! Why do other kids get one around the world, when our kids right here in the USA don’t? Like my son – he’ll be in high school next year, and we’ll be visiting the library for their computer and printer. He’s got $100 saved, that seems to be a drop in the bucket for a laptop. He earned that by working for it over a year – he get’s A’s, offered to go to extra programs because of his academic achievements and I can’t afford that either!! Why can’t he have a damn laptop too!
Cecilia you still don’t get it, do you? People BUY these laptops and donate them to third world countries. Compared to the kids there, your son is probably living a great life – they don’t have libraries to go to and use the internet…