<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Would those modifications help children? Are aftermarket modifications a reality? $20 is awfully expensive for schools that lack desks and families in slums who make $1 a day and use microfinancing and savings schemes because they make too little money to be within the reach of banking. New microphones made of... what? Are we imagining Arduino closet industries and not auto-rickshaw drivers or housepainters or scrap metal haulers? A nice idea, but there are many more pressing needs first. </div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Why is it that I hear very, very little about OLPC in developing contexts and far more about it as a fetish object for geeks?Look at Flickr -- do a search on OLPC or "One Laptop Per Child" -- you might see a photo of Negroponte's slide of an arid Ugandan landscape but you probably won't see OLPC in its intended setting. Instead, you'll see it at SIGGRAPH, in Silicon Valley conference rooms, and its leaf green detailing. For example: <font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#2a00f6" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #2a00f6"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/believekevin/311542909/"><u>http://www.flickr.com/photos/believekevin/311542909/</u></a></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">I'd like to be convinced otherwise, but I have extreme doubts about this initiative. I'm more convinced about more comprehensive educational systems that offer curriculum and teaching assistance and the proliferation of the mobile phone in emerging markets. When there's no safe water, when there's no communication infrastructure, when you can't count on the quality of education in school (consider the level of non-literacy despite school attendance in urban Indian slums, and then consider that schools in rural areas are much worse) -- is a laptop with Google access via wireless the solution? </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Again, please convince me otherwise but it looks like an emerging market Pixelvision: ultimately a groovy object for filmmakers and artists and less known for kids...</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div></div><div> Best,</div><div>Molly</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div>On Oct 20, 2007, at 10:41 PM, Andreas Schiffler wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:lizlosh@uci.edu">lizlosh@uci.edu</a> wrote:</div> <blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">But I saw the actual machines at SIGGRAPH and used them, and so I will not</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">be getting one of their laptops for my 11-year-old this Christmas season.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></p> </blockquote><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I don't buy Liz's "small keyboard" argument.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Regardless of that the design intention was, the device will be used for many things and by many people simply because it is a cheap and open/hackable computing device that will be widely available in regions where things like this come at a premium. So as for the keyboard issue:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- There are 8 Million blackberry users hacking away on a 5x5cm (2x2") keyboard (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry#Keyboard">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry#Keyboard</a>). They seem to 'not-mind' the size and these adults get real work done with the tiny buttons (and when the network is down, the US government stops functioning).</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- Also keep in mind that the 'mobile terminal' market pushes smaller 'keyboards' in the Billions. (<a href="http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS5566717572.html">http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS5566717572.html</a>) and since these devices are the communication and transaction equipment of choice in many countries, people should feel right at home with the OLPC's luxurious (compared to a phone) keyboard size.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- As a blog commentator pointed out, there are USB options for keyboard expansion. May I suggest a particular kind: "Flexible Fullsize USB Keyboard" is waterproof, washable and rugged, yet still relatively cheap (available for $20 at TigerDirect ... hence available for a few $ a piece when purchased in lots of 1K directly from the Chinese manufacturer). I am sure if the OLPC market gets going in places like solutions like these will become available as well. I guess one could see this as an "upgrade" plot by the manufacturer, but ...</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- If the keyboard sucks, people will be inventive. I guess that is part of the idea behind this thing. Maybe the microphone could be tapped and voice recognition can be made to work by users in Egypt using only the puny 433Mhz of CPU power available. Or people will switch to touch pad mode (aren't the iphones and ipods teaching our thumbs just now) rendering the CapsLock ... oops, that's gone on the OLPC ... mode of ASCII data entry as obsolete as programming C/C++ is painful on a German keyboard (it's that { key that's killing them). So just maybe the ingenuity of some kids in Peru will deliver something useful that we have yet to find on our multi GHz MacBooks and Vaio's.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I am on the OLPC pre-order list and will stay on it, if only to sponsor one 'digital rabbit' for someone else. But western buyers have to be realistic about the digital divide such a low powered computing device opens up for us: I doubt my son (7y) old will make much use of it, because he's already much too used to the hectic I/O demands of games like 'Supreme Commander' (the DVD that came free with my latest video card upgrade). But who knows, maybe the 'kiddie' color will attract my daughter (4y) which does seem to have a genetic attraction to certain RGB values ... and just maybe she'll become a hacker chick (and not a princess or ballerina) because of the OLPC.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">So the key point I was trying to make is that the device doesn't have to be perfect for people to take advantage of it. And shortcoming may actually advance the state-of-the-art, especially since the device is designed to be open: to quote from the kernel developers "Nicholas Negroponte's one absolute demand is to get rid of Caps Lock," Gettys says. And, Bender says, "There's one new key they get that's the important one and that's the View Source key." It is that "Design for Hackability" aspect of the OLPC that allows for 'redefinition' beyond customization (<a href="http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org/research_design/papers/panel_hackability_DIS2004.pdf">http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org/research_design/papers/panel_hackability_DIS2004.pdf</a>) which is really the strength of the device and its open source software 'matrix'.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--AS</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br><span><aschiffler.vcf></span>_______________________________________________</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity (distributedcreativity.org)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:iDC@mailman.thing.net">iDC@mailman.thing.net</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc">https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">List Archive:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/">http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">iDC Photo Stream:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">RSS feed:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc">http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">iDC Chat on Facebook:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Share relevant URLs on Del.icio.us by adding the tag iDCref</div> </blockquote></div><br></body></html>