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<TITLE>Re: [iDC] One Laptop Per Child - MIT/Negroponte Initiative</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Hi all,<BR>
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The OLPC program is widely discussed elsewhere, of course, but there were some particularly interesting conversations about it a while back on the association of internet researchers’ list, of which may interest members of this list as well:<BR>
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<a href="http://listserv.aoir.org/pipermail/air-l-aoir.org/2006-June/thread.html#9969">http://listserv.aoir.org/pipermail/air-l-aoir.org/2006-June/thread.html#9969</a><BR>
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I was also reminded that a while back there was also this nice blog entry from Jorge Aranda, who understands and supports the project but makes some interesting critiques of the way the design is shaped by the values of the producers, possibly more than it serves the needs of the users:<BR>
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“</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Verdana, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:13.0px'>There is a common criticism thrown to the OLPC: You want to give laptops to kids that really need food or shelter. As the OLPC wiki responds, this criticism reflects an ignorance of the conditions of many developing countries, which have enough food and shelter, but not enough learning opportunities. Unfortunately, the software developers with the OLPC seem to have made an assumption as mistaken as that of the project’s critics: that what children in developing countries need is what our geeky selves would want if we were kids again. Instead of striving to design the best educational tool possible (and, remember, the best textbook substitute), they want to design a kid-hacker’s dream: Browseable and modifiable code (one should be able to see the code that runs any part of any application easily), private access (your laptop is your temple), extensibility. The software design seems to come from the geek in us, not from the pedagogue in us”<BR>
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Link: <http://catenary.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/a-friendly-criticism-of-the-one-laptop-per-child-project/ > Or: <a href="http://preview.tinyurl.com/2mvsz7"><http://preview.tinyurl.com/2mvsz7></a><BR>
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</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>I am particularly struck by the prioritisation of openness and ‘hackability’ over the kinds of ‘transparent’ usability (which isn’t transparency at all, of course) that we users of windows and mac operating systems have become acculturated to. We’re all waiting to see how it will turn out, I suppose.<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Verdana, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:13.0px'><BR>
Best<BR>
Jean<BR>
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-- <BR>
Dr. Jean Burgess<BR>
Postdoctoral Research Fellow<BR>
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (cci)<BR>
Queensland University of Technology<BR>
<BR>
Blogs:<BR>
<a href="http://creativitymachine.net">http://creativitymachine.net</a><BR>
<a href="http://propagatingmedia.com">http://propagatingmedia.com</a><BR>
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<HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="3" WIDTH="95%"><B>From: </B>R Labossiere <admin@klooj.net><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:13:07 -0400<BR>
<B>To: </B><idc@mailman.thing.net><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>[iDC] One Laptop Per Child - MIT/Negroponte Initiative<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="Arial">Thanks for letting us know about this Paul. It's is a very interesting initiative. I've signed up for notification of the release. My 10 year old is very interested. I'm very interested. Both of us curious about the laptop itself, how it teaches and what. It's definitely a sweet looking instrument.<BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"> <BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">So I am on board... but that said, here on the list I can say that I am not without skepticism... is this not another Western populist effort to "help" the "rest of the world," where "help assumes a priviledge which most of us don't actually share, and "rest of the world" assumes that we can short cut past government and institutions and "people to people" create a revolution... how is that supposed to work when we can't even get George Bush out of the White House? <BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"> <BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">I admit I'm confused. What happened to the the days when "red" meant a different kind of government and not a campaign where you are supposed to buy your way to social justice?<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">- just asking<BR>
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----- Original Message ----- <BR>
</FONT></SPAN><BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"> <BR>
<B>From:</B> Paul D. Miller <a href="mailto:anansi1@earthlink.net"><mailto:anansi1@earthlink.net></a> <BR>
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<B>To:</B> idc@mailman.thing.net <BR>
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<B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 10, 2007 7:21 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Subject:</B> [iDC] One Laptop Per Child - MIT/Negroponte Initiative<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Lucida Grande, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/One_Laptop_per_Child">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/One_Laptop_per_Child</a><BR>
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As a method of provoking some kind of discourse around - gasp - digital media in a multi-cultural digital arts context, I wanted to post this to the list. Several artists, composers, writers, code script folks, and many other creatives participated in the project.<BR>
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The One Laptop Per Child is a global initiative to foster education in digital media throughout "under-developed" countries.<BR>
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Bundled into the software for the One Laptop Per Child project, there will be a couple of compilations of electronic music to get the kids into the idea of contemporary composition and digital literacy. I donated beats, scratches, and various midi components for the project, as did several other electronic and digital media artists from a wide variety of cultures (and ethnic groups). The software is all open source, and the templates and core kernels are in Linux. The tracks are all remixable and come in separate components.<BR>
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The software for the project was compiled with Jamendo:<BR>
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Jamendo: <a href="http://www.jamendo.com/fr/artist/Beatpick/">http://www.jamendo.com/fr/artist/Beatpick/</a><BR>
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The laptops will be released in November. Please check out the material! Debate/discussion is welcome!<BR>
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in peace,<BR>
<BR>
Paul aka Dj Spooky<BR>
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