Astounded in Arahuay
,----[ Quote ]
| I recently returned from a grueling three-week stay in Peru, where I worked
| with the serious Ministry of Education team entrusted with the country’s
| 260-thousand laptop OLPC implementation.
|
| [...]
|
| As there are few roads in and around Arahuay, the children don’t communicate
| much outside of school — with anyone. The teachers started independently
| pointing out to Mr. Navarro that this was changing once the laptops arrived:
| kids started talking to each other outside of school hours over the mesh, and
| working together more while in school. They started talking a lot more with
| each other in person, and conquered their previously paralyzing fear of
| strangers.
`----
http://radian.org/notebook/astounded-in-arahuay
I'm appending an example of Intel's disgusting abuse against this deployment in
Peru. In other countries, the monopolists from Intel were more successful.
Microsoft was part of this sabotage as well... and now it tries to hijack
OLPC, having mocked it endlessly, even recently (Gates).
Related:
Laptop-Project Founder Faults Intel
,----[ Quote ]
| Oscar Becerra Tresierra, general director for educational technology at
| Peru's Ministry of Education, says that after the country recently agreed to
| buy 272,500 OLPC laptops for primary-school students, an Intel sales
| ^^^^^^^^^^^
| representative tried "to scare us" by claiming the machines and their power
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| adapters didn't work. "I don't feel very happy about it," he said. "We
| wouldn't like the project to fail because somebody is spreading gossip about
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| the machines that doesn't turn out to be true."
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119948070480568405.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Peru signs up for 260,000 OLPC laptops
,----[ Quote ]
| The first countries to place mass orders for the rugged green-and-white
| laptops were Uruguay and Mongolia.
`----
http://www.news.com/Peru-signs-up-for-260%2C000-OLPC-laptops/2110-11746_3-6221061.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
In Peru, a Pint-Size Ticket to Learning
,----[ Quote ]
| But no competitor approaches the XO in innovation. It is hard drive-free,
| runs on the Linux operating system and stretches wireless networks
| with "mesh" technology that lets each computer in a village relay data to the
| others.
|
| [...]
|
| Negroponte said 150,000 more laptops will be shipped to such countries as
| Rwanda, Mongolia, Haiti and Afghanistan in early 2008 through "Give One, Get
| One," a U.S.-based promotion ending Dec. 31 in which participants buy a pair
| of laptops for $399 and donate one or both.
|
| The children of Arahuay prove One Laptop's transformative conceit: that you
| can revolutionize education and democratize the Internet by giving a simple,
| durable, power-stingy but feature-packed laptop to the world's poorest kids.
`----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/29/AR2007122900720.html
Lessons to Learn from the OLPC
,----[ Gist ]
| 1- Cheap is good
|
| 2- People don’t need a lot of power
|
| 3- Linux please
|
| 4- Flash storage is key
|
| 5- Make it efficient
|
| 6- Hand crank!
|
| 7- Don’t skimp on the features
|
| 8- Make it rugged
|
| 9- Make it look cool
|
| 10- It’s a tablet, too
`----
http://www.geek.com/lessons-to-learn-from-the-olpc/
One Laptop Per Child (New Version), Reviewed by 12-Year-Old
,----[ Quote ]
| For a regular laptop, this would be the paragraph about its problems, its
| deficiencies. But the thing is, there aren’t any problems with this computer!
| Congratulations, OLPC. You’ve done it. Or will you come out with yet better
| laptops? Is that even possible? We’ll have to see...
`----
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1206
On Education, Innovation, OLPC, And Open-Source
,----[ Quote ]
| While I used the machine for only a few minutes, I came away very impressed
| by it, in part because of my recent thinking about the growing importance of
| open-source to education, and the shared sense of adventure and hope that I
| found at the conference.
`----
http://daveshields.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/on-education-innovation-olpc-and-open-source/
Intel: doing the dirty on OLPC
,----[ Quote ]
| Intel’s agreement with the OLPC Foundation included a ‘non disparagement’
| clause, under which Intel and One Laptop promised not to criticize each
| other, according to Nicholas Negroponte in the latest article in the Wall
| Street Journal.
|
| Still Intel tactics have violated that repeatedly to kill OLPC efforts in
| Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, India, China and Intel is also still trying to pull
| those tactics in Mexico, Brazil.
| This is simply disgracefull of Intel, scandalous.
|
| But Negroponte has signed an agreement saying that he is not allowed to
| criticize Intel, so he is not allowed to talk about these shameless tactics
| even though Intel is the one violating the agreement.
|
| So only independant voices on the Internet can get those messages of truth
| out about Intels tactics.
|
| In Nigeria, Intel came and donated 3000 laptops to counter OLPC efforts, then
| sells 17 thousand Classmates to Nigeria at a loss.
|
| Then Microsoft corrupted Nigerian officials with 400 thousand dollars to
| install Windows XP on those instead of Mandriva Linux.
`----
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14124
Bill Gates: Cheap PCs won't help the poor
,----[ Quote ]
| Asked if he could start over and develop an operating system from scratch,
| what would he do?
|
| Nothing.
`----
http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/Bill-Gates-Cheap-PCs-won-t-help-the-poor/0,339028227,339286422,00.htm
Poor Kids' Laptop Cranks Up
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates earlier this year told the Microsoft
| Government Leaders Forum, "Geez, get a decent computer where you can
| actually read the text and you?re not sitting there cranking the thing
| while you're trying to type" (see Bill Gates Mocks $100 Laptop).
`----
http://www.redherring.com/article.aspx?a=17302
One Laptop Per Child - Production Delays Caused By Microsoft, Intel?
,----[ Quote ]
| I sincerely hope that no matter what the people who are running the
| OLPC project decide, that their project will continue and not get
| bogged down in a play of corporate greed and ambitions.
`----
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/2007/04/28/one-laptop-per-child-production-delays-caused-by-microsoft-intel/
Lessons from Africa: How to Kill Your Own FUD
,----[ Quote ]
| So, even as Microsoft claims superior quality over Linux, they act as if they
| don't even buy their own FUD. If they really believed that Windows was
| superior to Linux, they wouldn't have to bribe people with “marketing help”
| to get them to choose Windows.
`----
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-11-09-030-26-OP-MD-MS
[Mandriva CEO:] An open letter to Steve Ballmer
,----[ Quote ]
| Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done for these guys to change their
| mind like this? It’s pretty clear to me, and it will be clear to everyone.
| How do you call what you just did Steve, in the place where you live? In my
| place, they give it various names, I’m sure you know them.
|
| Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?
|
| Of course, I will keep fighting this one and the next one, and the next one.
| You have the money, the power, and maybe we have a different sense of ethics
| you and I, but I believe that hard work, good technology and ethics can win
| too.
`----
http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/10/31/an-open-letter-to-steve-ballmer/
Not Such a Harsh Toke, Actually
,----[ Quote ]
| This is socially, economically, politically and otherwise innovative. It is
| good for democracy too in some of the few remaining places that good thing is
| having trouble getting hold. We regard that thing too lightly, I fear.
|
| The Gates | Otellini axis directly hurts us deeply. To me, it is a
| particularly American shame.
`----
http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/11/not-such-a-hars.html
|
|
