The $100 laptop: a TechSoup interview

Hi Sasha,

It would be interesting (very expensive, but interesting). One of the major criticisms of this proposal by the international community relates to this very point - We all know the USA has the highest number of impoverished children of any western country, yet the US itself is not considering the idea even though it originates from within the US.

So we must ask - What is it about this proposal that educators and legislators don't like? Why should any other country consider the proposal when America itself clearly considers the concept innapropriate as an aid to youth development and education?

Don

Hi, Don,

Interesting point, and persuasive, though I haven't heard the other side.

One thought: the fact that US legislators don't support it might have very little to say about its validity. To say nothing of your faith in their intelligence and integrity, US legislators have intentionally shifted a lot of the burden for social welfare into the arena of NGO's and out the the area of the government. As that isn't the case in other countries, they might be more in the position to take up a good offer... if indeed this is one.

Best wishes,

Hi Sasha,

Very good points (and happy 2007!!) - In my experience legislators the world over do have one trait in common; they will voice opinion on something they believe even if they have shifted accountabilities for the concept or mission to other sectors of society (NGO's etc.).

It would seem that none of the actors in US society (Govt, Education etc.) are broadly supporting this proposal - all we have is one vocal group led by a somewhat celebrity figure from a single school (MIT) loudly promoting the need for all the countries of this earth to spend billions of dollars with his little group on 'Laptop' computers that aren't quite Laptops at all; more expensive toys with little in the way of educational backing.

Add to this an evangelism by promotors that refuses any critique or criticism, and what we have is something more than a little scary... To quote Nicholas Negroponte when asked for a response to critics of the OLPC project:

"I don’t respond to such criticism. Because criticising this project is like criticising the church, or the Red Cross".

Not sure how to take that comment... but I do know one thing, this is not a person I would wish to do business with!

Cheers, Don

If anyone is interested in reading a story about how a group of students have successfully brought computer labs to Jamaican schools, check out TechSoup's article Teens Work to End Digital Divide in Jamaican Schools.

I thought the words of the program's founder, Anders Jones, were particularly relevant to this discussion:

"I think the fact that we were 13 years old, and that we did think that we could do this, and that we were going to try before we said it wasn't going to work is part of the reason why it has worked so well."

Thanks for the article about the teens and the Jamaican schools.Wonderful! In reference to the $100 Laptops, I just can't believe that there are still "experts" out there who believe that any "development" project aimed at rural and non-industrial populations will work if it's dropped from above, as opposed to offered in response to grassroots requests, with buy-in at the local level. I would like to see a model where any NGO working at a grassroots level in any participating country could apply to a central NGO administering the project. Government involvement guarantees that awards will go to schools based on politicians' needs for prestige or influence, with no assessment of the readiness of a community or school. Laptops won't end up in the black market if community leaders have determined that their communities will benefit more from having the laptops used by their children (and the community). Will distant government ministers come around to show isolated communities the possible communities? No, but NGOs already working in those communities will, and one village will convince another village. Anyway, it is fascinating to follow the discussion. Many of us in small rural NGOs in the U.S. have worked hard over the last 10 years to get computers--and now high speed internet--into our schools and communities. We don't necessarily need a laptop for every child, when we have reasonable alternatives. Also, in our country, many low-income families understand they can make a choice between investing in a PlayStation 3 or a laptop--and we are a society that lets them make that choice. I know very well that we have many families who do suffer from extreme poverty, but except for certain immigrants or refugees,it's almost never a lack of access to education or technology that keeps a family that impoverished--for them it's substance abuse or mental illness, neither of which will be changed by a laptop. So, for Americans, if you're concerned about our children, go see what your local school or youth center needs.
Margaret Jensen

It does read like an excellent innitiative, and Margaret IMO you have expressed the concern of many people in your observation: "there are still experts out there who believe that any development project aimed at rural and non-industrial populations will work if it's dropped from above, as opposed to offered in response to grassroots requests, with buy-in at the local level".

We went through all of this in rural and remote community's during the mid to late 90's with local ISP and Telecentre innitiatives to provide computing resources (including donated computers) to large numbers of people - A great many were 'top-down' innitiatives and as many failed with costly and socially damaging results... the few surviving today almost exclusively commenced life as local projects, locally innitiated, managed and driven albeit with support provided on request from local NPO's and Governments.

I would go further and suggest that not only do solutions need to be requested by local interests, they also need to be innitiated by local interests to avoid falling trap to external interests and priorities (outside marketing hype based on outside agendas). The best help any external NPO can give to an impoverished community is to support the self-identified needs of the community... The last thing any impoverished community needs is a missionary or "holier than thou" approach where people are told what they need from someone with a different agenda and zero local life-skills.

Despite popularist opinion, and what IMO are ridiculous drop-lines like: "people don't know what they are missing unless we tell them..." the truth is... people do know what they need - it's just that too often they (we) lack the resources to attain basic needs. This is when external NPO's and Govt's can provide help.

Cheers, Don

Apparently, the new laptop will boast some high-security features. This Wired article offers some additional details on the specs.

It's all still vaporware at this point, but the article states that the laptops go into production at the end of 2007.

TechSoup blog has an update on the $100 laptop project. The $100 laptop has been a huge hit among rural librarians and children alike and the technology for the laptop continues to improve.

What do you think about the $100 laptop and its potential to help developing countries, as well as rural communities?

--Megan

Interesting concept. It's hard to believe you can profitably make a laptop with software for $100 that is worth a darn. For kids too? It better be durable.

Several of you bring up excellent points on the viability of a program if it isn't driven by a grass roots movement.

If the point is politician publicity, it will fail miserably.

At the rate of technology change, it will also be a program that may become quickly outdated without proper vision. Worth keeping an eye on for sure.

The blog may have some outdated info and photo. It seems that the latest design has dropped the hand crank. "The yellow crank, while cute, in the end proved impractical; it migrated to the AC adapter as it also morphed into one or more other types of human-power devices."

You're correct, Jesse, the blog had a picture of the hand crank version of the laptop that the MaintainIT Project has, but it is not the current model, as the blog mentions.

The NY Times has a recent article which has an interesting take on the $100 laptop project.

--Megan