Nice timing on the post. I’ve also been thinking about OLPC lately, but more in terms of the ‘battle of the paradigms’ between them and Intel, and (for a change) not so much about the role that mobiles can (and will) play. Mobile phones are quite some way off getting even close to threatening the PC environment. Of course, that will change.
If you’re interested in my thoughts on the Intel/OLPC saga, then I wrote about it recently:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/05/05/Intel-OLPC-affordable-laptop-bout-only-hurts-users_1.html
Ken
]]>Smartphones are a nice option, but developing a self-sustaining infrastructure would be beneficial.
Ian had mentioned monetizing their skills, linux skills will go a long way!!! The backbone nfrastructure of most computer systems (trading firms, manfacturing plants, telephone systems, ATMS, Point of Sale Systems etc) is one place skills can be monetized.
Smartphones are a platform for the near term, but we can’t avoid it, with the dropping cost of computer manfacture, $50 dollar laptops in the next decade might not be uncommon!!
]]>The difference between a subsidized consumer product and an open source hackable tool (a platform) is huge, but — as with a robust smartphone — it’s not either/or: we should have both ends of the spectrum, each with hundreds of competitors, and everything in between!
The OLPC is a mess. … But it’s a major rethinking of the interface and hardware of computers in the developing world. You gotta love that. I can’t wait to see V2 and V3 and all of its competitors, especially when they start to be designed by the people who use them …
The OLPC is dead! Long live the OLPC!
]]>I can see your argument that the computer was never designed to offer email/browser access – although to me that would be its most useful function. However, I can’t really see the benefit of having a large number of “geeks” playing with the insides of cheap computers when they will have no way of then monetising those skills as adults.
Personally, I think a rugged smartphone with a separate decent screen and keyboard would be the ideal solution. People are buying phones because they want and increasingly need them – and then later bolting on a sensible keypad and screen which then relies on the existing smartphone for its CPU would be cheap and not really need any government subsidies.
You can use the phone as a normal phone for voice calls – then access emails and a basic web browser via the secondary accessories.
At least the CPU component has built in cellular access and could be subsidized by the network operators – which is to my mind the core failure of the OLPC.
The Linux fans can soothe themselves with knowledge that Linux works on some smartphones as well 😉
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