One Laptop per Child

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"OLPC" redirects here. For other uses, see OLPC (disambiguation).
One Laptop per Child


Formation January 2005
Type Non-profit
Headquarters Cambridge, MA
Chairman Nicholas Negroponte
Key people Jim Gettys, Seymour Papert, Alan Kay
Website www.laptop.org

The One Laptop per Child association (OLPC) is an ICT4D non-profit organization, created by faculty members of the MIT Media Lab, set up to oversee The Children's Machine project and the construction of the XO-1 "$100 laptop". Both the project and the organization were announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2005. According to the home page of the project's wiki at laptop.org, "OLPC espouses five core principles: (1) child ownership; (2) low ages; (3) saturation; (4) connection; and (5) free and open source."[1] (This 5th core principle may now be contradicted as OLPC has struck a deal to provide the proprietary Windows XP operating system in addition to Sugar.[2]) One Laptop per child is a 501(c)(3) organization registered in Delaware, USA.

OLPC is funded by a number of sponsor organizations, including AMD, Brightstar Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, SES, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat.[3] Each company has donated two million dollars.[4] Intel was a member of the association for a brief period in 2007. It resigned its membership on 3 January 2008, citing disagreements with the organization's founder, Nicholas Negroponte.[5]

The organization is chaired by Nicholas Negroponte. Other principals of the company include Jim Gettys, Vice-President of Software Engineering.[6] Mary Lou Jepsen was CTO until her resignation at the end of 2007. Former MIT Media Lab director Walter Bender was President of OLPC Software and Content until his resignation in April of 2008.[7] Ivan Krstić (former OLPC Director of Security Architecture) resigned because, he says, learning wasn’t what the OLPC was about even for Nicholas Negroponte (see quote below)[8].

Contents

[edit] Mission

An OLPC class in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia .
An OLPC class in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia .

The goal of the foundation is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves. To that end, OLPC is designing a laptop, educational software, manufacturing base, and distribution system to provide children outside of the first-world with otherwise unavailable technological learning opportunities.

OLPC claims to espouse five core principles:[9]

  1. Child ownership
  2. Low ages. Both hardware and software are designed for elementary school children ages 6-12.
  3. Saturation
  4. Connection
  5. Free and open source (this mission is now contradicted as OLPC will be running Windows XP which is priced 3 US$ per Licence.)
“ It's an education project, not a laptop project. ”

—Nicholas Negroponte

Recently this stated ethos was contradicted by the comments of Ivan Krstić, who says:

"I quit when Nicholas told me — and not just me — that learning was never part of the mission. The mission was, in his (Negroponte's) mind, always getting as many laptops as possible out there; to say anything about learning would be presumptuous, and so he doesn’t want OLPC to have a software team, a hardware team, or a deployment team going forward." [10] [11] [12]

[edit] History

Children in a remote Cambodian school where a pilot laptop program has been in place since 2001.
Children in a remote Cambodian school where a pilot laptop program has been in place since 2001.

OLPC is based on constructionist learning theories pioneered by Seymour Papert, Alan Kay, and also on the principles expressed in Nicholas Negroponte’s book Being Digital.[13] These three individuals plus the several sponsor organizations are active participants in OLPC.

Many concepts preceding the OLPC project were discussed and explored at a number of conferences. The 2B1 Conference, held in 1997 at the Media Lab brought together educators from developing countries around the world to "break down world barriers of race, age, gender, language, class, economics and geography." The most immediate outcome of that conference was the establishment of the Nation1 project and the Junior Summit, held the following year, although many of the sessions at 2B1 helped inform OLPC.

The OLPC project gained much attention when Nicholas Negroponte and Kofi Annan unveiled a working prototype of the CM1 on November 16, 2005 at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, Tunisia. Negroponte showed two prototypes of the laptop at the second phase of the World Summit: a non working physical model and a tethered version using an external board and separate keyboard. The device shown was a rough prototype using a standard development board. Negroponte estimated that the screen alone required three more months of development. The first working prototype was demonstrated at the project's Country Task Force Meeting on May 23, 2006. The production version is expected to have a larger display screen in the same size package. The laptops were originally scheduled to be available by early 2007, but production actually began in November, 2007.

At the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced it would back the laptop. UNDP released a statement saying they would work with OLPC to deliver “technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries”.[14]

The project originally aimed for a price of 100 United States dollars. In May 2006, Negroponte told the Red Hat's annual user summit: “It is a floating price. We are a nonprofit organization. We have a target of $100 by 2008, but probably it will be $135, maybe $140. That is a start price, but what we have to do is with every release make it cheaper and cheaper— we are promising that the price will go down.”[15]

The OLPC project had stated that a consumer version of the XO laptop was not planned.[16] However, the project has established the xogiving.org website for outright donations and for a "Give 1 Get 1" offer valid from November 12, 2007 for two weeks, but this was extended through December 31, 2007.[17] The "Give 1 Get 1" offer's required donation of $399 has a tax-deductible portion of $200. The fair market value of the XO laptop is placed at $199 by the OLPC Foundation.

On April 22, 2008, Walter Bender, who was the former President of Software and Content for the OLPC project, stepped down from his post and left the company. Bender apparently has a disagreement with Nicholas Negroponte, the pioneer of the project itself, about the future of the OLPC and their future partnerships.[18] Nicholas Negroponte also showed some doubt about the selection of open source software for the project[19] and made suggestions supporting a move away from Linux and towards Windows XP which Microsoft was in the process of porting over to the XO hardware.[20] However, Windows XP is generally not seen to be a sustainable operating system.[21] However, Microsoft announced, on the 16 May 2008 that Windows XP would be available for the XO Laptops as an option, and possibly running as a dual boot alongside Linux.[22] Charles Kane became new president of the foundation.[23][24]

[edit] Technology

See also: OLPC XO-1, Sugar (GUI), and OLPC XS
The OLPC Active Antenna will help build the mesh network.
The OLPC Active Antenna will help build the mesh network.
OLPC XO-1 laptop.
OLPC XO-1 laptop.

The XO-1, previously known as the "$100 Laptop" or "Children's Machine", is an inexpensive laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world,[25] to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to "explore, experiment and express themselves" (constructionist learning).[26] The laptop is developed by the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) social welfare organization, and manufactured by the Taiwanese computer company, Quanta Computer.

The laptops can be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. Pricing is currently set to start at US$188 and the goal is to reach the $100 mark in 2008. Approximately 500 developer boards (Alpha-1) were distributed in mid-2006; 875 working prototypes (Beta 1) were delivered in late 2006; 2400 Beta-2 machines were distributed at the end of February 2007;[27] full-scale production started November 6, 2007.[28] Quanta Computer, the project's contract manufacturer, said in February 2007 that it had confirmed orders for one million units. They indicated they could ship 5 million to 10 million units this year because seven nations have committed to buy the XO-1 for their schoolchildren: Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uruguay.[29] Quanta plans to offer machines very similar to the XO machine on the open market.[30]

The rugged, low-power computers contain flash memory instead of a hard drive and use Linux as their operating system.[31] Mobile ad-hoc networking is used to allow many machines to share Internet access from one connection.

The OLPC project had stated that a consumer version of the XO laptop is not planned.[32] However, the project has established the laptopgiving.org website for outright donations and for a "Give 1 Get 1" offer valid (but only to the United States, its territories, and Canadian addresses) from November 12, 2007 until December 31, 2007.[17] Rumors about an XO containing a modified version of Windows XP circulated,[33][34], and it was revealed in May of 2008 that Windows XP will be available for an additional cost of 10 dollars each.[35] The OLPC projects employs information and communication technologies for International Development. This includes developing both hardware and software to suit special needs of the sustainable project like low-power consumption. The main piece of hardware is the laptop which should be deployed together with the school server to be able to access all the services.

Lee Felsenstein criticized the centralized, top-down, design and distribution of the OLPC, calling it "imperialistic”.[36]

[edit] Environmental issues

The project has received criticism due to concerns over environmental and health impacts of hazardous materials found in other computers.[37] The OLPC has asserted that it is aiming to use as many environmentally friendly materials as it can; that the laptop and all OLPC-supplied accessories will be fully compliant with the EU's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS); and that the laptop will use an order of magnitude less power than the typical consumer notebooks available as of 2007, minimizing the environmental burden of power generation.[38]

[edit] Classroom Reviews

Classrooms around the world are using the XO laptops. See a birds eye view from the classroom in these reviews.

[edit] New York

X's & O's for the OLPC XO - A View from the Classroom

[edit] Give One Get One program order fulfillment

The Give One Get One program, which was conducted by OLPC from 12 November 2007 through 31 December 2007, allowed North Americans to make a combined donation of USD$400 plus shipping to OLPC, for which they would receive an XO laptop of their own and have another sent on their behalf to a child in a developing country. Some 83,500 donors participated in the program. A significant minority (at least 10%)[39] of these had not received their "Get One" laptop a couple months after their donation because of order fulfillment and shipment issues within both OLPC and the outside contractors it had hired to manage those aspects of the program. This led many donors to question whether OLPC's management and staff were capable of successfully managing the much larger task of distribution of laptops to the developing world.[40]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Distribution model

Teacher showing children the OLPC XO-1 in Khairat, India.
Teacher showing children the OLPC XO-1 in Khairat, India.
Thailand pilot children doing field research in Ban Samkha.
Thailand pilot children doing field research in Ban Samkha.

The laptops are sold to governments,[41] to be distributed through the ministries of education willing to adopt the policy of “one laptop per child”. The operating system and software is localized to the languages of the participating countries.

[edit] Currently participating countries

In October 2007, Uruguay placed an order for 100,000 laptops, making Uruguay the first country to purchase a full order of laptops. An additional 200,000 more laptops should be ordered by 2009 to cover all public school children between 6 and 12 years old.

The following countries are currently participating in the project, or are receiving laptops from the Give One Get One program.

[edit] Summary of laptop orders

Year Confirmed number (approximate) Date confirmed Purchaser
2007 100,000 October 2007 Uruguay[49]
15,000 November 14, 2007 USA, City of Birmingham (Ala)[46]
270,000 December 1, 2007 Peru[50]
50,000 December 1, 2007 Mexico, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim[51]
167,000 (half to be distributed to developing world) January 5, 2008 "Give One, Get One" program[50]
2008 65,000 May 29, 2008 Colombia
Total 667,000    

[edit] Interested countries

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, with a prototype.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, with a prototype.

In addition to the participating countries listed above, small-scale pilot projects took place or are currently taking place in the following countries (see Google map of OLPC pilot projets):[52]

[edit] Nigeria

Nigeria was the first country to announce an order for one million laptop computers, in July 2006.[53] Since then, Nigeria had an election, and the deal has not materialized.[54]

Lagos Analysis Corp., also called Lancor, a Lagos, Nigeria-based company, sued OLPC in the end of 2007 for $20 million, claiming that the computer's keyboard design was stolen from a Lancor patented device.[55] The amount of damages is based upon an order by the Nigerian government for one million of the laptops. Lancor decided that, since their keyboards retail for $19.95, the $20 million is the price for one million keyboards. Lancor obtained a temporary injunction against the Nigerian sale in December of 2007, and the country's government announced that it is now reviewing its order. OLPC responded by claiming that they had not sold any multi-lingual keyboards in the design claimed by Lancor,[56] and that Lancor had misrepresented and concealed material facts before the court.[57] These claims by the OLPC, in an attempt to dismiss the Nigerian lawsuit, were rejected by the Federal High Court. OLPC is now appealing the order of the court.

In 2007, XO laptops in Nigeria were reported to contain pornographic material belonging to children partaking in the OLPC Program. In response, OLPC made plans for adding content filters.[58] The OLPC foundation maintained the position that such issues were societal, not laptop related.[59] Similar responses have led some to suggest the OLPC takes an indifferent stance concerning this issue.[60] According to Wayan Vota of OLPC News, "The use of computers to look at porn is [a] social problem, not a hardware one, [...] Children have to be taught what's good and what's bad, based on the cultural context."[61]

[edit] Nepal

In Nepal, things are moving swiftly at the Bishwamitra and Bashuki pilots. Open Learning Exchange Nepal is the lead implementer for the OLPC pilots in Nepal, working together with Nepal's Department of Education.[62]

[edit] Thailand

Thailand under prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had committed to the project. After the 2006 coup d'état the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology said that the laptop will be evaluated with pilot projects before proceeding cautiously.[63]

[edit] Other interested countries

The following countries have shown interest in the past, but no concrete projects have resulted up to now:

[edit] India

India rejected the initiative, saying “it would be impossible to justify an expenditure of this scale on a debatable scheme when public funds continue to be in inadequate supply for well-established needs listed in different policy documents”.[64] The Ministry of Human Resource Development of India has stated plans to make laptops at $10 for schoolchildren. Two designs submitted to the ministry from a final year engineering student of Vellore Institute of Technology and a researcher from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore reportedly describe a laptop that could be produced for "$47 per laptop" for even small volumes.[65] No technical specifications or development timelines have been released.

[edit] Argentina

Originally, the Argentinian government was promised the OLPC laptops for less than 100 USD with no strings attached. As the final prototypes ended up costing almost twice as much and requires the government to commit to the OLPC program for 10 years, it attracted criticism.[66] The funding from this project is expected to come from the Inter-American Development Bank (I.A.D.B.), leading to more controversy.[67]

[edit] Peru

First results are mostly positive after evaluation of pilot phase in Peru which was 8 months long. The children learned quickly how to use the laptops, started to communicate more among themselves and turned to be more pleasant to each other. The parents agreed the units help their children to receive more education. However, the pilot revealed the children miss a built-in English learning software and a dictionary.[68] There are no reports as to actual scholastic gains.

[edit] Uruguay

First real (non-pilot) deployment of the OLPC technology happened in Uruguay in December 2007.[69]

[edit] Other viewpoints

UN conference in Tunisia

At the UN conference in Tunisia, several African officials, most notably Marthe Dansokho of Cameroon and Mohammed Diop of Mali, voiced suspicions towards the motives of the OLPC project and claimed that the project was using an overly American mindset that presented solutions not applicable to specifically African problems. Dansokho said the project demonstrated misplaced priorities, stating that clean water and schools were more important for African women, who, he stated, would not have time to use the computers to research new crops to grow. Diop specifically attacked the project as an attempt to exploit the governments of poor nations by making them pay for hundreds of millions of machines.[70]

John Wood

John Wood, founder of Room to Read, emphasizes affordability and scalability over high-tech solutions. While in favor of the One Laptop per Child initiative for providing education to children in the developing world at a cheaper rate, he has pointed out that a $2,000 library can serve 400 children, costing just $5 a child to bring access to a wide range of books in the local languages (such as Khmer or Nepali) and English; also, a $10,000 school can serve 400–500 children ($20–$25 a child). According to Wood, these are more appropriate solutions for education in the dense forests of Vietnam or rural Cambodia.[71]

[edit] Future

On May 20, 2008 OLPC unveiled its plans for the 2nd generation XO. The XO-2 (or XOXO) is targeted for 2010 at the cost of $75. [72] [73] [74]

[edit] Photo gallery

These captions visualize the run of OLPC Thailand pilot (Ban Samkha).

The XO band.

First encounter with the laptops.

Packing the laptop into bag.

Field research.

Parents are intrigued by the machine, especially with the video camera.

Students showing an XO to a local monk.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Related projects
Similar projects
Popular culture
  • The Diamond Age a Science Fiction story about an educational and interactive electronic book getting into the hands of underprivileged children around the world, instead of the rich minority for whom it was intended.
  • The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest a direct-to-video comedy film (similar to Accepted) about a group at a technical institute attempting to design a Laptop costing $99.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The OLPC Wiki, laptop.org
  2. ^ ""OLPC Adds Windows XP To XO Laptop"". 
  3. ^ Gardiner, Bryan. "Intel Joins OLPC Initiative", PC Magazine, 2007-07-13. Retrieved on 2007-07-14. 
  4. ^ "Taiwan's Quanta to make 100-US-dollar laptops for poor kids". Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
  5. ^ Intel Resigns From Board Of One Laptop Per Child. Retrieved on 2008-01-03.
  6. ^ OLPC Principals and Staff List Retrieved February 13, 2006
  7. ^ [Community-news] where is Walter?
  8. ^ [on Ivan Krstić's blog
  9. ^ Core principles - OLPC. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
  10. ^ Putting the XP into the OLPC | Hardware 2.0 | ZDNet.com
  11. ^ ivan krstić · code culture » Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi
  12. ^ XP on XO: Negroponte has lost his bearings | ZDNet Government | ZDNet.com
  13. ^ Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. ISBN 0-679-43919-6. 
  14. ^ U.N. Lends Backing to the $100 Laptop. Associated Press (January 26, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-01-27.
  15. ^ Donoghue, Andrew. "$100 laptop 'will boost desktop Linux'", CNET News.com, 2006-06-02. Retrieved on 2006-08-19. 
  16. ^ One Laptop per Child Has No Plans to Commercialize XO Computer. Business Wire. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
  17. ^ a b One Laptop Per Child -- XO Giving. OLPC project (2007-09-23).
  18. ^ Top OLPC Executive Resigns After Restructuring
  19. ^ Report: OLPC may eventually switch from Linux to Windows XP
  20. ^ "Wow, Nicholas Negroponte is Further Gone Than I Thought"
  21. ^ OLPC News: Who Actually Needs Windows XP on the XO Laptop?
  22. ^ BBC NEWS | Technology | '$100 laptop' embraces Windows XP
  23. ^ Technology Review: $100 Laptop Program's New President
  24. ^ OLPC's New President & Negroponte: Its a Laptop Project Now by Wayan Vota
  25. ^ "BBC NEWS - Technology - Portables to power PC industry". Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 
  26. ^ One Laptop per Child. Vision: Children in the developing world are inadequately educated. Retrieved on 2008-01-25.
  27. ^ For $150, Third-World Laptop Stirs Big Debate. The New York Times, 30 November 2006.
  28. ^ Jan Melin (November 7, 2007). 100-dollarsdatorn masstillverkas. NYTeknik. Retrieved on December 24, 2007.
  29. ^ IDG News Service (December 15, 2007), One million OLPC laptop orders confirmed. Itworld.com. Retrieved on December 24, 2007.
  30. ^ OLPC manufacturer to sell $200 laptop. Arstechnica. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
  31. ^ OLPC's Software. The OLPC Wiki. One Laptop per Child. Retrieved on 2007-12-24.
  32. ^ One Laptop per Child has no plans to commercialize XO Computer. Business Wire. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
  33. ^ Microsoft to test out Windows XP on OLPC XO. Engadget (2007-12-06). Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
  34. ^ Report: OLPC may eventually switch from Linux to Windows XP. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
  35. ^ Fildes, Jonathan (Thursday, 15 May 2008). '$100 laptop' embraces Windows XP (web). Microsoft has joined forces with the developers of the "$100 laptop" to make Windows available on the machines.. BBC News. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
  36. ^ Problems with the $100 laptop by Lee Felsenstein
  37. ^ How Much E-Waste Per Child?, WorldChanging, December 19, 2005
  38. ^ OLPC Frequently Asked Questions, OLPC Wiki, accessed April 25, 2006
  39. ^ "OLPC Laptop News 2008-01-19"
  40. ^ "How Laptop Delivery Breaks" OLPC Wiki 19 January 2008
  41. ^ Official OLPC FAQ - OLPC. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
  42. ^ (Community-news) OLPC News 2007-11-03 OLPC, November 3, 2007
  43. ^ Linux Today Notes From a Senior Editor: A Close Look at the OLPC
  44. ^ OLPC in Colombia [1]
  45. ^ OLPC Wiki, OLPC Peru/Arahuay
  46. ^ a b Birmingham to buy 15K laptops from OLPC - Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
  47. ^ ivan krstić · code culture » First OLPC deployment: now it’s real. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
  48. ^ OLPC Wiki, Laptop News 2008-01-19, "3. Ulaan Baatar"
  49. ^ OLPC Wiki, Country News, consulted on January 23, 2008
  50. ^ a b "Intel Quits Effort to Get Computers to Children - New York Times". Retrieved on 2008-01-24. 
  51. ^ "Peru, Mexico billionaire agree to buy $188 laptops" Betanews, December 3, 2007
  52. ^ OLPC Wiki - Pilot schools
  53. ^ Nigeria orders 1 million $100 laptops. The Inquirer (July 26, 2006).
  54. ^ “A Little Laptop With Big Ambitions: How a Computer for the Poor Got Stomped by Tech Giants” Wall Street Journal, November 24, 2007; Page A1
  55. ^ "Lawsuit over keyboard design."
  56. ^ "Discussion of the Lancor lawsuit at groklaw.net"
  57. ^ "Discusion of the OLPCs first legal response to the Lancor lawsuit at groklaw.net"
  58. ^ "LinuxInsider on OLPC"
  59. ^ "Ask OLPC a Question about Social Issues"
  60. ^ "성인물을 막는 방법은?"
  61. ^ "LinuxInsider on OLPC"
  62. ^ Details of OLPC Launch, Nepal
  63. ^ Rural Thai students to get R700 laptops, 25 December 2006
  64. ^ HRD rubbishes MIT's laptop scheme for kids. The Times of India (July 3, 2006).
  65. ^ The Times of India: HRD hopes to make $10 laptops a reality
  66. ^ The plan for cheap PCs for kids turned into a business = TMCnet (January 6, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
  67. ^ "Argentinean Debt Financing an OLPC Implementation Miracle".
  68. ^ ivan krstić · code culture » Astounded in Arahuay
  69. ^ ivan krstić · code culture » First OLPC deployment: now it’s real
  70. ^ “The $100 laptop — is it a wind-up?” CNN, December 1, 2005. Accessed December 1, 2005.
  71. ^ Software 2006 conference, Scaling Organizations Panel (32:40)
  72. ^ First Look: OLPC XO-2
  73. ^ Technorati: Discussion about “OLPC 2.0 is All Touchscreen”
  74. ^ OLPC News: XOXO: OLPC announces details about the XO-2, G1G1 comeback in summer

[edit] External links