[kictanet] Lets all move to remote parts of Africa - The laptops are coming :)

Mon Nov 7 18:10:24 EAT 2011

Holy guacamole. More money than sense.

On 7 November 2011 17:51, Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/11/the-sods-must-be-crazy-olpc-to-drop-tablets-from-helicopters-to-isolated-villages.ars
>
> The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has devised a bizarre plan for
> deploying its new XO-3 tablet. The organization plans to drop the
> touchscreen computers from helicopters near remote villages in developing
> countries. The devices will then be abandoned and left for the villagers to
> find, distribute, support, and use on their own.
>
> OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte is optimistic that the portable
> devices—which will be stocked with electronic books—will empower children
> to learn to read without any external support or instruction. The strange
> scheme reflects the OLPC project’s roots in constructivist education
> theory, which emphasizes self-directed learning.
>
> The OLPC project was originally founded to produce low-cost
> education-focused laptops for children. The organization planned to sell
> the devices in bulk to governments in developing countries, which would
> then distribute them in classrooms. The plan was to leverage economy of
> scale in manufacturing to bring the costs down, making the laptop cheap
> enough that governments would be able to supply one to every child.
>
> Although the ambitious project sold several million laptops, it fell far
> short of its lofty goals and has been on life support for the past few
> years. In addition to fundamental logistical<http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/01/olpc-angering-donors-give-1-get-1-some-day-probably.ars>and technical failures, OLPC also suffered from internal
> friction<http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/04/negroponte-developers-at-odds-over-future-of-olpc-platform.ars>,
> ideological conflicts<http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/04/exodus-of-key-figures-from-olpc-a-troubling-sign-for-project.ars>,
> and poor management<http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/03/olpc-project-looks-for-new-leadership.ars>.
> OLPC was forced to downsize half its staff<http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/01/g1g1-failure-and-reduced-sponsorship-behind-the-olpc-layoffs.ars>and discontinue
> its software platform<http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/01/olpc-downsizes-half-of-its-staff-cuts-sugar-development.ars>in 2009 (a separate organization called Sugar Labs was founded to pick up
> where OLPC left off on the software) after its second give-one-get-one
> fundraiser fell through the floor.
>
> After the staff cuts, OLPC dropped its plan to produce a dual-touchscreen
> laptop and instead decided to focus on tablets. The organization showed off
> glossy concept art of an impossibly thin XO-3 tablet at the end of 2009.
> Last year, it announced a partnership<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/05/olpc-partners-with-marvell-gets-into-the-tablet-game.ars>with hardware component maker Marvell. OLPC pragmatically chose to adopt
> Marvell’s off-the-shelf reference design instead of trying to pursue the
> unrealistic form factor that was shown in the original XO-3 mockups.
>
> The tablets that Negroponte intends to fling from helicopters are based on
> that Marvell design, but with a few enhancements, such as solar powered
> batteries that will allow them to be used in regions without access to
> electricity. It’s not clear yet if the organization was able to
> successfully meet its target $75 production price.
>
> Negroponte described the helicopter drop plan at the Open Mobile Summit
> event in San Francisco. According to a PC Magazine report<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395763,00.asp#fbid=yj2DHk4jyPG>,
> he compared the project to the classic 1980 film, *The Gods Must Be Crazy*,
> which depicted how an isolated tribe in the Kalahari Desert might react to
> discovering a Coca-Cola bottle that fell from an airplane.
>
> “We’ll take tablets and drop them out of helicopters into villages that
> have no electricity and school, then go aback a year later and see if the
> kids can read,” Negroponte told The Register<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/02/negroponte_tablet_airdrops/>.
> He reportedly cited Professor Sugata Mitra’s Hole in the Wall<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiWEL>experiment as the basis for his belief that dropping the tablets will
> encourage self-directed literacy.
>
> Among the major challenges that the OLPC project was never able to fully
> overcome during its laptop days were supporting the hardware in the field
> and providing teachers with the proper training and educational material.
> In light of the cost and difficulty of tackling those issues, it’s not hard
> to see why the eccentric stealth drop approach looks appealing to
> Negroponte.
>
> The obvious downside, however, is the sheer improbability that a majority
> of the dropped devices will ever serve their intended function. It seems
> unlikely that Negroponte will find governments that are willing to fund
> such an odd boondoggle, though Marvell has provided some financial backing<http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/10/olpc-gets-56-million-from-marvell-to-build-android-tablet.ars>.
> Perhaps somebody needs to air drop Negroponte a healthy dose of common
> sense to go with his change-the-world ambitions.
>
>
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