CES: OLPC in the Wild

January 10, 2007 by Dan in OnLocation,SoapBox with 2 Comments

Over in the AMD booth (and not in a starving improvised nation) the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) laptop was out and available for all to touch.

Although the press on the device has been impressive it is important to note that the OS was not finished, most of the applications didn’t work, most of the IO didn’t work and AMD said they have begun shipping a bunch of units. Hmmmmmmm.

When asked what poor nations needed more: Laptops or Food, there was no answer from AMD’s lead PR person. And for the question of why the US will not have access to the Laptop for our poor and needy families, no answers.

Overall opinion of the product: Excellent idea in a utopian world, poor execution.

Peter

No offense, but the topic is a bit more complicated than “laptops or food”. Additionally, In no way are the two mutually exclusive. Relief organizations and foreign Governments aren’t going to ‘forget’ about basic necessities of those nations, anymore than they do already, just because there’s a cheap laptop. The OLPC represents, potentially, just one more way to help these poorer countries (many of which have significan debt to the wealthier nations) ‘pull themselves up from their bootstraps’ as the American ideal suggests. Only time will tell whether this project delivers on its promises, but I for one am glad the attempt was made and hope its potential failure doesn’t stop others from actually trying to improve the quality of life and fight global inequity in the future. But I can see you’ve already made up your mind. Oh, well.
Habib

Hi

In response to olpc or food for poor nations – the answer lies in “fish or fishing rod” for the poor.

–habib

CES: OLPC in the Wild

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