[XCSSA] One Laptop Per Child (aka $100 laptop) Demo

[xcssa@xcssa.org]

On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 02:29:44 -0500, Jon-Pierre Gentil wrote:

>On Wednesday 26 July 2006 10:07 am, xcssa-admin@xcssa.org wrote:
>
>> Check it out:
>> 	http://tinyurl.com/okwkl
>>
>> More info:
>> http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2161048/nigeria-orders-olpc-laptops
>> http://www.siliconvalleysleuth.com/2006/06/post.html
>
>Sadly, governments of poor countries are rejecting these ideas as 
>fundamentally flawed, and in some points I agree with them.
>
>We don't even have 1 laptop per child in our own country.  Why are we trying 
>to sell it off as a good idea to third-world countries? 
Because the US and most western-style countries are dominated by the
Publishing Industry and a hidebound reactionary Educational Priesthood
that has a vested interest in keeping the current (and extremely
expensive) dead tree textbook system in place. They fight all forms of
open knowledge as if it were a deadly threat, and perhaps for them it is.

Additionally, developing nations do not need to follow the same slow,
winding paths as the so-called developed nations. It's OK to skip from
oxen to nuclear power in one generation. Similarly, village wifi and
satellite can replace the endless chain of costly telephone poles.


> They also cite that 
>they lack teachers and basic education materials as well, so having the 
>laptops would be effectively useless unless people also donated loads of 
>educational software in THEIR language for it.
Any government official saying that should immediately be given an award
-- the TNT award as seen in Spaced Invaders. What this translates to is
"My people are too stupid to understand computers, so give us money and
candy so we can sit by the road and watch the world pass by."

It only takes ONE person to translate existing software, or ONE person to
create new software, and then everyone can use it. It's a lot harder to
get mosquito nets to everyone to prevent malaria, but nobody claims that
can't be done. And this project isn't like trying to cross the Grand
Canyon in two jumps. Continuous improvement is the key - and very
possible.


>I still think it's a good idea, but I think it's ahead of it's time, and I 
>also think it needs to be implemented here too.
Of course it does, and if we ever get a government that wants an educated
populace, it will be. Just don't hold your breath.  --Don

-- 
Cry 'Yvahk' and let slip the GNUs of war!
  --Don 391925f6