The One Laptop Per Child project’s onsite supervisor, Mark Foster, reported from Shanghai on Sunday that the first 10 prototypes of the Linux-powered OLPC XO-1 are up and running. This marks a key milestone toward an upcoming build of 900 units.
The One Laptop Per Child project’s onsite supervisor, Mark Foster, reported from Shanghai on Sunday that the first 10 prototypes of the Linux-powered OLPC XO-1 are up and running. This marks a key milestone toward an upcoming build of 900 units.
I can respect the concept behind OLPC, and the goal of reaching places that don’t have electricity, but isn’t providing mobile self-powered laptops to places with no electricity (let alone Internet infrastructure) for $100 a little much to bite off?
If these people are that bad off, shouldn’t the focus be on getting them electricity and water rather than getting them profiles on myspace?
Either way, how many locations remote enough not to have electricity have an abundance of WiFi hotspots?
Maybe the initial focus could be building these machines without the cost-adding battery and hand crank (a standard laptop battery alone costs more than this laptop).
Take for example the PSOne game system with the snap on LCD here: http://www.amazon.com/Ps-One-LCD-Screen-Combo/dp/B00005QI2R/
To me, something like that would make a better model to base a low cost PC on than a laptop.
In areas like that, these could be a huge resource for the schools. The laptops could be loaded with all the books in pdf form. How easy would it be to put more books on these things that most third world children would normally see in their entire child hood. This project could go a long way toward providing education in third world countries, wifi or not. And if that school does have wifi, you automatically create a center of learning for the entire region. The use of these is only limited by our meager imagination.
but isn’t providing mobile self-powered laptops to places with no electricity (let alone Internet infrastructure) for $100 a little much to bite off?
No because those laptops have mobile parts that cause hardware failure such as harddrive, cable to name a few. OLPC is a rugged machine designed to substain harsh environment and has one of the lowest power consumption of electricity.
If these people are that bad off, shouldn’t the focus be on getting them electricity and water rather than getting them profiles on myspace?
OLPC does not target those people who require essential needs like water.
Either way, how many locations remote enough not to have electricity have an abundance of WiFi hotspots?
Check out this press to understand how network works on OLPC: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2164876/olpc-receives-free-satell…
Maybe the initial focus could be building these machines without the cost-adding battery and hand crank (a standard laptop battery alone costs more than this laptop).
Take a look to the spec:
* Pack type: 5 Cells, 6V series configuration
* Fully-enclosed “hard” case; user removable
* Capacity: 22.8 Watt-hours
* Cell type: NiMH
* Pack protection: Integrated pack-type identification
* Integrated thermal sensor
* Integrated polyfuse current limiter
* Cycle life: Minimum 2,000 charge/discharge cycles (to 50% capacity of new, IIRC).
* Power Management will be critical
Take for example the PSOne game system with the snap on LCD here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home
Edited 2006-11-14 22:42
If these people are that bad off, shouldn’t the focus be on getting them electricity and water rather than getting them profiles on myspace?
To quote a book[1] I’m reading atm.
How will the emergence of a substantial sector of nonmarket, commons-based production in the information economy affect questions of distribution and human well-being?
The pessimistic answer is, very little.
Hunger, disease, and deeply rooted racial, ethnic, or class stratification will not be solved by a more decentralized, nonproprietary information production system.
Without clean water, basic literacy, moderately well-functioning governments, and universal practical adoption of the commitment to treat all human beings as fundamentally deserving of equal regard, the fancy Internet-based society will have little effect on the billions living in poverty or deprivation, either in the rich world, or, more urgently and deeply, in poor and middle-income economies.
There is enough truth in this pessimistic answer to require us to tread lightly in embracing the belief that the shift to a networked information economy can indeed have meaningful effects in the domain of justice and human development.
Despite the caution required in overstating the role that the networked information economy can play in solving issues of justice, it is important to recognize that information, knowledge, and culture are core inputs into human welfare.
Agricultural knowledge and biological innovation are central to food security.
Medical innovation and access to its fruits are central to living a long and healthy life.
Literacy and education are central to individual growth, to democratic self-governance, and to economic capabilities.
Economic growth itself is critically dependent on innovation and information.
For all these reasons, information policy has become a critical element of development policy and the question of how societies attain and distribute human welfare and well-being.
Access to knowledge has become central to human development.
The emergence of the networked information economy offers definable opportunities for improvement in the normative domain of justice, as it does for freedom, by comparison to what was achievable in the industrial information economy. [2]
[1] http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php/Main_Page
[2] http://www.congo-education.net/wealth-of-networks/ch-09.htm
I really hope this device furfills the vision .
IMO the software will play a huge part in its effectivness .
If it is not fun to use then it is of no use IMO .
Well .. from what I have found on the OLPC wiki on software – I just havent yet gotten the feeling of wanting to instantly play .
I have yet not seen any kind of desktop environment screenshot which suits the OLPC goal .
IMO interfaces from mobile devices like these small handheld computers seem to be kind of suitable as they are very graphical based & therefore more fun to use & intuitive .
I like the hardware – but a low foot print version of fedora is not the answer.
I hope the “Sugar” interface will do the job & the apps will be fun
Well .. from what I have found on the OLPC wiki on software – I just havent yet gotten the feeling of wanting to instantly play .
Here is a screenshot from QEMU image interface:
http://www.fedoraforum.org/gallery/file_4gallery/1/3/2/8/olpc-deskt…
Top left screen:
– Virtual mode mode, group mode, individual mode and recent ccess
Top right:
– Shutdown button, wireless status and window switcher
Bottom left:
– Etoys: educational programming language that is part of the Squeak Smalltalk language.
– Chat: a simple chat interface
– Browser: gecko based using xulrunner
http://www.fedoraforum.org/gallery/file_4gallery/1/3/2/8/olpc-brows…
– Memory games
– Penguin TV: to view multimedia
– Abiword: http://www.fedoraforum.org/gallery/file_4gallery/1/3/2/8/olpc-abiwo…
– Tam-Tam: a music synthesis tool http://www.fedoraforum.org/gallery/file_4gallery/1/3/2/8/olpc-tamta…
To view what plugins will be included, visit http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Software_components#Applications_.28and_p…
Remember the interface is the alpha version meaning it is not the final built which dates on 20061114.
I like the hardware – but a low foot print version of fedora is not the answer.
Too early to jump on that conclusion especially when none of current posters have tried OLPC OX-1 yet. To get an idea, use QEMU image with kqemu accelerator. Unnecessary part from Fedora kernel and other stuffs were removed leaving the image size to only 123MBytes.
http://olpc.download.redhat.com/olpc/streams/development/
Edit: added link for build images
Edited 2006-11-15 08:27