OLPC News and some comments about OLPC
Several places around the Internet have published information about MIT’s OLPC project, including ourselves, but OLPC News earns the big prize.
The last two articles I’ve read are very interesting.
One is about the real price of the laptops for the target countries. The statement that “one image worth more than thousand words” is true, at least seeing this chart from Statastic, comparing the relative value of 100.00 USD for some countries. It is not only that the parents could sell the OLPC for feeding their families, but the potential danger for kids in case thieves decided to make a “business” from stealing and selling the OLPCs.
The other article is about the criticism against OLPC by Sonia Arrison. I won’t reproduce the analysis done in OLPC News, but to talk about the IT solutions for developing-countries scenarios.
The OLPC team members have spent a lot of time designing a device suitable for the target locations. Despite the innovations,there are many open questions for scaling to million units. The needs in Africa communities could differ from Latin America ones. All of the them are poor communities, but have their specificities that should be considered individually. It’s not only about using “Linux” or “Windows”, but about the development of applications that respond to the real (educational) needs, considering all the socio-cultural and political dimensions of the projects. Mass-giving laptops, with similar operating systems and applications could not fulfill the educational requirements imposed by different realities.
A colleague from Carleton University, who is not only an excellent professor but a successful IT consultant, told me that the first step he does in every IT project is to involve the users since the very beginning. In Agile Programming, the software-engineering methodology, the customers are considered part of the development team during the whole production process. Perhaps would be good to import other similar examples in order to bridge the digital divide successfully.
By the way Sonia Arrison mentioned an issue that is a challenge for projects in rural communities:
“Of course, a $100 open source laptop, like any other computer, will still require tech support for software and hardware issues, and it’s unlikely that OLPC backers will be equipping village elders in Africa with the operating manuals and training needed to fix computer bugs. As a recent demonstration revealed, there may be lots of bugs that need fixing.”
It’s a must to develop new business models to address these problems, not just new software or computers. Reproducing the known schemes for IT support will drive the projects for the path of failure. We are facing a huge task, but computers won’t be only for entertainment anymore.
Open Village initiative is still in its infancy, but is our purpose to address all theses challenges and needs with a broad-participatory model.
August 14, 2006 at 4:04 am
“the first step he does in every IT project is to involve the users since the very beginning.”
And this is one of my great annoyances with the OLPC project – I don’t see much end user imput into the design process. Where are the developing world kids they say this is designed for? I only see Nicolas meeting with Presidents and Ministers, not prototypes in villiages. Oh, wait, maybe that’s what Thailand’s kids are for: http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/thailand/thailand_testing_530.html
Too bad they have to give up books for the laptops.
August 15, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Yes Wayan,
I think is a problem not only for OLPC but the majority of initiatives tackling the digital divide. Nevertheless, is the only way to avoid wasting money that could be more effective for other purposes: drugs, scholar material, food, etc. Let see how things go in Thainland.