May 26, 2006
Further Pimping the OLPC Project
The $100 Laptop project demoed some final-ish models this week. I've mentioned this project, and it's potential, before. Sell cheap laptops to poor schoolkids in developing countries, kill the digital divide. Very interesting, very cool.
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November 11, 2005
"We Purchase, They Benefit": Ah, The Irony of Philanthropic Consumerism
Just in case everybody out there failed to realize from my previous post how awesomely great of an idea the One Laptop Per Child project is, I'm bringing it up again.
You just give a kid a computer and expect them to learn? Yes, you do. When the computer is always available and forever patient, curiosity and socialization take over and do what a normal classroom can never achieve: self-motivated learning. The Hole in the Wall puts a computer into a hole in the wall of a poor third-world city. Their findings are startling and fascinating.
I've signed up to pay $300 for the $100 laptop (mentioned earlier here) that MIT is producing for the developing world. We only need ~99,000 more people to sign up to reach our self-determined tipping point. One sweet piece of kit for me, one for the kids, and $100 for the administrative overhead that changing the world requires.
Posted by Noel at 05:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2005
My Kind of 3rd World Aid
The MIT Media Lab blows a lot of hot air, but occasionally gets into something interesting. Negroponte et al have designs for a $100 laptop to give to 15 million poor kids. Before you poo-poo it, think: the network is the computer. With built-in next-gen wi-fi, ad-hoc networking ability, and internet connection sharing, these laptops will wire together and together march onto the internet.
We're networking 15 million kids across the globe together.
The poor are defined as those who lack resources. Hey Brazillian street kid: here's 15,000,000 resources. Hey Honduran farmer kid: here's a thingy that can be the Farmer's Almanac, 21-century style. Hey Congolese orphan kid: here's a way to inform the planet about your situation and story, something that hasn’t been heard in over a hundred years.
This is The Young Ladies Illustrated Primer in real life.
$100 laptops + Social web + 15 million fresh faces? Technology that brings freedom. That's what I'm talking about.
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