If you are making the point that INtel is being ruthless and predatory and using their cash to slow down OLPC: shame on them.

I think you are missing the point in my argument - which has been constant for the longest time - there is a lot more which needs to be taken care of before these devices make sense to the kids.

You allege that I am contrarian for the sake of being one - good. Except that it has been my consistent view that OLPC (regardless of the flavor being promoted) doesn’t take into the ground realities of the countries these devices are supposed to go.

Pablo earlier mentioned, that in Uruguay these laptops are having a positive impact. I have not been to Uruguay so can’t speak for that country. If it is working and increasing school attendance and other aspects of child development, that is fantastic news.

In other parts of the world where I have gone (or am from) the schools (or lack there of) and other issues that come first.

Om, I’ve been reading your work for a long time and I’ve come to the conclusion that you’re a contrarian to a fault and don’t think deeply enough about the issues on occasion before reaching an opinion.

In the 60 Minutes report, Barrett said, “It will take the whole industry to do this.” I don’t doubt that’s the case, and I presume OLPC agrees. But Intel’s well known and infamous business practices can only lead one to conclude that the rest of that sentence would read “…as long as they get in line behind Intel.”

I suspect that Nicholas and OLPC welcome fair and open competition. But if Nicholas’ allegations of predatory practices like dumping are true, then that’s not what’s happening here at all. That amounts to making procurement officials in developing nations an offer they can’t refuse.

What we have here is an infinitely powerful monopoly metaphorically threatening to break the kneecaps of a non-profit if it doesn’t “get in line.” And if it won’t get in line, they’ll simply overwhelm OLPC with resources, relationships and FUD (a la the Nigeria documents).

It’s easy for the discussion to degenerate into AMD v Intel – but that’s frankly a cop-out.

People need to understand that this is not about AMD v Intel. This is actually about Intel v everyone else. Time and again our industry has seen that Intel engages in business practices that enrich itself while virtually wiping out the profits of its customers – the OEMs. And the harm inflicted goes on from there.

Without shame, Intel views poor children of the world as a market opportunity, and they seem to have no problem steamrolling a non-profit like OLPC through anti-competitive business practices set in motion with the single purpose of monopolizing another market.

If this approach feels familiar, that’s because it is. It is exactly how Intel came to monopolize the mainstream PC industry worldwide.

By the way, want to see how ruthless and shameless Intel is in their treatment of the non-profit OLPC? Google “one laptop per child” and/or “nicholas negroponte” and see whose sponsored link appears at the top of your search.

Second is why don’t they try this out in Mississippi or help poor kids right here in America first? (This of course gets rid of all the drinking water type of issues for starters)

I´m participating on the OLPC trials here in Uruguay, and at the begining had much of the same concerns you have, will this really make any difference for these kids?

Now, a couple of weeks after the first notebooks were deployed in a semi-rural public school in Uruguay I can tell you:
“It does make a difference!!”, a couple of examples:

• No kids missed classes these two weeks

• They even went to school during the weekend (because there was connectivity there)

• They learn by themselves how to use the computer and internet, faster than their teachers. And surprisingly for me, even the teachers are happy with that.

• They get interested in learning english (they realize that there is a lot more material in english than spanish)

Looking to the future:

• I guess you can not imagine this, but these kids will feel confortable in front of a computer when they get to work, today many kids of these cities get to working age without having touched a computer, and this is today a big handicap.

Do you really believe that is not worth spending USD 130 per kid to give these kids an equal opportunity in the digital world?

best regards

– pablo

Negroponte has to reach a certain number to start the production (Not reached yet).

The manouvering of Intel and Microsoft is aiming at that. Then when the laptop project fails, the price will go up and the third world children will still using Windows.

1) It’s sort of funny that Nick Neg is upset about Intel stepping on their toes. If he were really altruistic, he’d welcome Intel on board and the competition between AMD and Intel should drop his price for the CPU.

2) What’s the implementation plan? Are they going to drop these off and say “have at it?” Is there educational software available for these things?

3) What about connecting to the internet?

4) Who’s going to support these things? Does Billy from Tanzania get shafted when his breaks and he can’t do his assignments?

I can’t blame Intel. They’re looking at the OLPC countries and thinking, hell, we need to get them hooked on the Intel bandwagon.

The OLPC project is ambitious, but seriously lacking in long term planning. In places where the education system is in shambles with unqualified teachers and lacking infrastructure (electronic AND city).

The OLPC is pretty cool from a technological standpoint. But from an educational and implementation standpoint, this is going to go over like a and hurt the economies of a few countries.

I was in Jamaica, a relatively wealthy country in the developing world, teaching for two years. The vast majority of communities have access to food, clean drinking water, and health care. On the other hand, the education system is struggling, especially when it comes to educating young boys. I taught computer classes to children and community members throughout my time there. I can attest first hand to the impact that these machines can have on someone who is not interested in learning in a conventional manner. Jamaican children would greatly benefit from OLPC. Typically a school with 100 children has 3 or 4 old and decrepit machines that break down on a regular basis. Each country (and even regions within a country) needs to be seen as a separate entity when discussing the need for these machines.

They are, however, being crybabies :-)

I remember that mobile phones were a luxury in early nineties, but now they are so ubiquitous that even a person earning ~$100/month in India can derive value from that. I believe that a ~$100 laptop would be easily affordable by a significant number of students in a country like India, especially in urban areas. If the government chips in, this would become even more affordable.

I believe that if more students have access to knowledge and knowledge tools, it would allow them to move up the value chain and the benefits of the resulting improvements in the economy would reach all segments of the population. This will increase the resources available to the government to make improvements in the infrastructure. There are no easy solutions, but this sounds like a plausible outcome and a sustainable way of improving the lives of majority of the population in the third world countries.

I used to be a cynic and believed that the only way to improve is bottom-up. But looking at the progress that India has made in last 5-6 years, I have started believing in the trickle down theory.

well u may c it as a nation stealing ur jobs.. those hi-tech professional.. those call center guys..

but reality little harder here.. ppl are getting killed for the govt. acquire land to give to big companies to build their offices..

There is one bright side IT .. there is also a dark side of it Farmers committing suicide .. becoz their crops failed …

there are still part of country lyk north-east of India which don’t even have access to pure drinking water..

they want food not laptop..

this is the story of India which is shining .. think abut the other nations lyk those of Africa ..

P.S. i’m very bad with writing English.. :D .. plz forgive me for that in my comment

Better to put vaccines in their little bodies than a computer screen in their faces (thank you Gates foundation)…

Better to put food in their mouths than computers in their hands…

The OLPC has a 433mhz AMD Geode processor, which has equal performance per mhz to the Intel Celeron Mobile.

Also the Classmate can run Windows XP , which is considered a big plus as the Sugar OS doesn’t have support for as many applications that students might want to install.

This is like the old debate about why we should spend money on space travel when there are people starving in this world. Well, we should do that because if nobody looks and strives forward, the world will surely slip backwards.