Intel chairman harshes on MIT's OLPC
posted Dec 9th 2005 2:00PM
Running the world's largest chip company we wouldn't think Craig Barrett (any relation to Syd?), chairman of Intel, would have the time or wherewithal, let alone the temerity, to publicly trash on the Negroponte / MIT Media Lab's philanthropic OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program, but apparently the competition to Intel's low-cost PC agenda got the best of him and he threw down today with: "Mr. Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop — I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget'," and that "It turns out what people are looking for is something that has the full functionality of a PC. [Something] reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown up PC… not dependent for hand cranks for power." We're not going to dwell on Barrett's argument that a device's speed and power source (and not its form-factor) determines what type of device it actually is, nor are we going to bother correcting his obvious misunderstanding of what the OLPC is actually capable of. But we think the real crux of Barrett's argument — that the world's poor want a full-featured PC — is ridiculously flawed. Why? Because the OLPC is intended for populaces so impoverished that the majority have probably never even used a full-featured PC before. But hey, we certainly do get a kick out of a multi-millionaire businessmen yammering on about what the world's poor really want from a computer while the competition is, um, hanging out with Kofi Annan and garnering UN support.
if he's sooooo against it then maybe he should come out with a cheap 100 laptop for poor countries. Or is he actually mad that he didn't come up with the idea and now he can't get richer.
I'm willing to bet that it's the latter.
I wonder if 15 years ago he considered a 386 a computer or a gadget.
wow, somehow I don't see the worlds poorest nations debating the merits of having the latest and greatest processor or having to turn a crank. I think he will regret, putting out a negative comment on such a global issue, that he seems to not understand.
No, what poor African children who have never used Microsoft Word before want, is to run Halo 3 off of Intel Centrino Pentium V/ Windows Vista machine, that of course, only he can sell.
He wins corporate dickhead of the month award.
Has anyojne considered that it's not cheap laptops that's going to help pull poor nations out of their ruts-- it's their political structures. A weak powered laptop is not going to do anything if the individual using it can't engage in the business and social processes that will bring their thinking from concept to tangible reality.
Harp all you want on this guy for his comments, but anyone who thinks throwing a product at a social ill-- however good that product is-- is very, very wrong. And in this case, dangerous, because misguided concepts can have lots of sway and money following them. The road to good intentions... is often followed by the road to "hm... why didn't that work...?"
You know, Ryan, I think this is one of the best pieces you've written on Engadget.
Umm, excuse me Mr. Barrent, but obviously you know NOTHING about 3rd word countries. They have no source of power, so ofcourse they can't just give then a n a/c adaptor, they only way they can get power would be solar(expensive) or usin a hand crank. Plus they dont care if it is the best thing in AMERICA, because they're not in America and have never seen these before, so it'll be like its the latest and greatest technology
Two things:
Barrett's running a corporation, so he has to say these kinds of things that don't make sense to engineer-type people. Non-engineer type people will hear a different message: buy our stuff, it's better than theirs. It's marketing baloney, and we know it.
Second: Rick, I think you're misunderstanding something fundamental about the $100 laptop. The fact of the matter is, there is a segment of the population with access to technology and information, and there is a (larger) segment without this access. The rift between the two will only continue to grow unless something is done about it, because technology's progress just isn't going to go away. We can pretend that this progress is somehow "bad" for us, but we shouldn't keep this away from others who could use it.
Negroponte, Alan Kay & Co. are doing something about the rift. This program is not meant to replace efforts to improve developing countries' political structures, it's meant to augment and aid that process. Without access to information, you can't very well do much, either.
Boris
Boris is right, Rick, the idea here is that knowledge is power and being able to access the internet, communicate with others and educate oneself will help facilitate thatsocial and political change that you are talking about. These aren't mere toys handed out to amuse the masses, they are tools of education.
And Barrett's riding on the coattails of the publicity that the $100 Laptop has generated. Free PR for him!
Boris
You're all wrong... this guy's got it right...
the rest of the world demands access to world of warcraft... you think they are going to be able to run it on an dinky olpc?
Wow, what an asshole.
The only thing holding up his smile in that pic are the hundred dollar bills shoved in his cheeks.
I think they should start with chairs, tables and schools first. 45% of African kids don't have those.
Some rich westerner with the 21st century equivalent of 'Let them eat cake' is plain insulting.
I understand your point and hope the rift closes, as well. But the rift is not going to be solved by a device such as this. What is the accessibility to this device? If it's readily accessible, then why has food not been? If food has not been, then what is preventing accessibility?
This laptop is only a tool. Power structures are maaintained by their openness and management of such tools. This laptop is a great idea...if.
If people can actually get their hands on it and use it in a real way. This is not the first tool that seems to be made available to the underprivileged in the last 100 years. Yet we all fall for the symbolism over substance of such an event/issue-- let's see where this actually goes.
Unfortunately, past behavior is the best measure of future behavior. What makes people think that just creating such a device means any meaningful change?
For God' sake, food actually does grow on trees and yet people starve.
While we're all at Rick's Place: the bottom line about this technology is fostering communication. Communication among kids. Sounds ridiculous but guess what: it works. Look at the first world's kids: they're re-inventing the friggin' planet. All they needed was some software, a computer, and access (the 'Net). There's no hope for the old guard because they're too corrupt.
I have to agree with #9 and #10, in my opinion giving people communication devices capable of mesh networking could have major effects on their political structure.
I also agree with #6, this is one of the best posts to engadget.
The $100 laptop is a flawed idea. Period. I live in a Third World country and manufacture and sell computers to the sub-$200 income segment a month. Point is, the true customer is not in Africa. It is in Rio de Janeiro, in Buenos Aires, in a province of Portugal, that is the real customer. Not some kid in Africa keeping out of hunger and disease -he barely makes it to eat, what use he has for a PC-.
Now, this customer wants a full featured laptop or desktop... and not only that: They want branded PCs. The rationale goes like this: There are knock-off Nokia phones made in Brazil, yet the market wants the full Nokia phone. Nokia made it, and still, despite no innovation and getting ass kicked by the press, still numero 1.
There are no-name chinesse PCs but they have heard of the cousing living in New York having a Dell. So they want a Dell.
Americans always believe that only Japan, Europe and the US crave brands. You are poor so you don't deserve quality. They don't realize that being poor does not mean being a fool.
I tell you now what the decent solution is: A machine running Windows 98 with Office 95 with a first Generation PIII processor and 512RAM and 40GB HD, priced with credit of 6-months at $25 a month. That would make it around $200, and it is possible. Lets call it the Aspirin PC, because you can sell any no-name Aspirin here, but if it is not from Bayer, no poor clement will buy it.
Or consider the following: Gutenberg made mass printing possible. The cost of manufacturing Bibles went down, and books became more accessible to those who previously didn't have access. They learned to read and write, and they didn't just read the Bible.
Is anyone here prepared to argue that this was not what people needed at the time? That it was just the political structures that needed fixing?
Boris
The OLPC foundation's only goal is to fight the digital divide, not the PC/Windows/Intel divide businesses and Robert (#17) are interested in solving. The goal is not to give people PCs, but access to a computer and the Internet to people who would not otherwise never afford it.
They are not going to be selling the $100 PCs, but donating them with the help of wealthy (American) donors, who will donate the the cost of the computer, so that it can be shipped to the target nation. OLPC is not trying to fill a "market", whether it's in Brazil or elsewhere, it simply is not a business at all, but a charity.
It's a sweet idea... if you can figure out how to keep these 3rd world tyrants from stealing them to enrich their own pockets like they do with everything else in their countries.
Invoking Kofi Annan's support (like thats a good thing) only serves to remind us of the corruption of the UN.
Barrett may have $100 bills shoved in his cheeks but at least its not blood money.
That's like me saying the redcross shouldn't give ration and canned food to the poverty stricken of the world because they want filet mignon and lobster damnit. I consider myself an ass but to bash them when the seem to have excellent intentions and are doing a good thing to help people out, what a dick.
Craig Barret drives a Ford GT.
So he'll give the muslims their own little prayer room, but god forbid someone give the children in developing countries a cheap easy way to enter the new millenium and MAYBE have a slight chance of getting an education. Easy to tell what side of the politcal divide this guy swings on. I bet he's butt buddies with Kerry too. Jerk.
BOOO this MAN
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Shame on him, if he has such a problem with the way it is going why doesn't Intel kick in $200B to bring down the cost of a more sophisticed device... Give a little back you prick!
I stop here because All I have left in the vocab on this subject is profanities
Regardless of anyone's opinions on the merit of the OLPC project (I happen to think it could help some areas quite a bit, and I've spent time off the beaten path in some very poor countries), I think most of us agree on one thing: Craig Barrett will regret making those statements. Even if he's 100% correct, it's just a bad idea for a wealthy powerful CEO to appear to be telling the poor how they should look at things.
Reminds me of George H. W. Bush's famous comment about understanding the pain of unemployment because he'd had to lay off people before. The public won't let Barrett off the hook for being insensitive any more than they let Bush explain what he really meant on that one.
Rick,
I initially had a skeptical reaction to the program - before I heard Alan Kay give a talk on it (just this Monday, as a matter of fact).
The issues that you and others raise are certainly legitimate, but Kay & Co have also thought of them. Would we expect any less from the creative minds at the Media Lab and from the man who envisioned this sort of device in the 1960's?
Kay & Co. are engineers with an enormous amount of ingenuity and are used to solving very difficult problems. I think the fact that they've chosen this particular problem to solve, rather than jumping on the ever-more-popular idea bandwagon that free markets will somehow take care of all of this, is laudable. I think this sort of idealism is almost dead.
Something tells me that we wouldn't be having this discussion if it were books that were being made accessible. Well, the $100 laptop is just that - it's a gazillion books, and interactive. Not "interactive" the way MS edu-tainment is labeled. "Interactive" in the sense that it's a full-fledged programming and learning environment based on SmallTalk, i.e. you really can do just about anything with it.
And it's durable, unlike clunky Win98/Pentium III boxes otherwise destined for the junk heap in the first world. Also read the FAQ on the Media Lab's $100 Laptop site for a good explanation of why the Win98/PIII box doesn't work for this. What do you do when that Win98/PIII fails? Call Dell support? The $100 Laptop is designed to be durable the way no desktop or laptop currently is.
I encourage each of you reading Engadget to inform yourself on this subject before forming an opinion based on short online articles. Knee-jerk reactions are easy to have on this topic. You are the type of person who should be supporting this effort, not opposing it.
Boris
Clicclics ad hominem: lame.
No one argues the laptops are bad. Just be reasonable about how you look at them. They're not enterting the world as a clean slate, but as one more "ray of hope." If they work to change anything, it will be despite those governments' best efforts.
Negropinte is a technologist and tech advocate. Not that I don't advocate technology - but people look at a problem and see it through their own prism. It's the "if you have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail" syndrome.
Poster #5 is correct - these people need political - and business and economic structures that work.
And the last thing they need is U.N. "support".
Freaking A, what is it with CEO's these days? Collectively, CEOs are the most powerful people in the world, and they are all so out of touch it's rediculous. Making fun of it for having a hand-crank? WTF would give it power without a crank in the middle of the african bush? And not being full featured? I know that if I have nothing, the only thing better is everything. Going from nothing to "a little bit" isn't an improvement at all...
But then, it's not just intel's CEO, what about the guy that runs Verizon? Saying people shouldn't expect reception in their homes? Why shouldn't they? And why don't you want them to have it, so they use YOUR network more (since people talk on the phone at home quite a bit). And then they go and cripple their phones, because they'd rather make a buck than give their customers what they paid for.
I'm fully convinced now that power doesn't corrupt people's morals, it just makes them so damn ignorant and stupid that they can't think properly. I'm really afraid of what will become of me if I ever become the CEO I'm planning on being...
-Taylor
Hi Mart,
Negroponte isn't the only person behind this. There are others, such as Alan Kay, with extensive experience in pedagogy working on this problem. Negroponte is the head of the Media Lab, not just the $100 Laptop Program.
Giving the disenfranchised access to information is the equivalent of arming the masses - change doesn't just come from the top.
I have the feeling that if you want to prevent a program from being supported in the US and elsewhere, you just have to associate it with the U.N. How sad, since there's really potentially to do good there, as well.
Boris
They're a step in the right direction. I don't think anyone is suggesting that they are going to cure all that ails these poor countries. Economic investment won't happen without politcal stability, and how do we implement politcal stability? A properly informed and educated populace would definitely help. Access to information through a computer like this will definitely be beneficial. And if it is being brought about through philantropic means than how can you possibily argue against it? If you aren't paying for it at all what is the problem?
As for Barrett, why doesn't he put his money where his mouth is and start up his own program with "real" laptops.
Also remember - this laptop is designed for children. That's another reason it should be a laptop, not a desktop.
Boris
#5 Rick:
While it is true that giving the poor new PCs won't fix all the problems of their impoverished nations, I doubt that is a claim that MIT ever made. So you are wandering off on a tangent w/ a bullwhip in search of a horse to flog as far as I can tell. I think at the very least it will give them the ability to teach themselves how these things operate and maybe be able to actually make some $. Also, the most recent spect I've seen say that when they are in wi-fi range of each other they'll form a networking grid to allow some parrallel processing and whatnot. Sounds exciting to me!
#17 Robert is right - they don't want worthless dumbed down PC's. Here's a link to educate the rest of you showing ignorance.
http://michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=170
I'm gonna come to this Intel dude's defense on this one.
Engadget guys you say that this guy is "a multi-millionaire businessmen yammering on about what the worlds poor really want" while you fail to realize that Negroponte is going to make BILLIONS in revenue because his companies are the ones making these OLPCs. The OLPC is a noble idea from an un-noble guy. He doesn't give a crap about starving kids in Africa, he's just trying to make a buck off of a seemingly chivalrous con.
"Negroponte is going to make BILLIONS in revenue because his companies are the ones making these OLPCs. The OLPC is a noble idea from an un-noble guy. He doesn't give a crap about starving kids in Africa, he's just trying to make a buck off of a seemingly chivalrous con."
That is simply not true, I don't know where you got that. Negroponte and his associates won't be making these, they won't even be in the money loop. Sponsor money will go directly to the manufacturers and they were VERY clear about this - there is no collusion.
this gadget will be made in china for say about $20 a pop with no functionality and anything other use except to impress a child who has never seen a TV let alone a laptop computer -oh and of course the publicity stunt that usually comes with it... i am sure there are plenty of companies lined up to "finance" this project so the poor of the world get a tast of what PC looks like.
Hey C.M.,
who says Negroponte is the one behind this?
And Binford - that article is interesting, but not necessarily correct (who is ignorant now?).
We've been taught that Wintel is the best the world has to offer - the product of a superior system (our capitalist system), blah, blah, blah. It used to be that computer scientists understood this not to be the case. In recent years, I think the tide has shifted a little towards simple acceptance rather than trying to come up with something better.
The notion that just because a piece of computing hardware doesn' have the 2GB RAM required to run windows apps (I've got 2GB in mine, it's not enough for what I do with it) it's a "stump" rather than fully capable is ridiculous.
Linux & Co. were born and became popular because of a monopolistic situation. Competition within the system wasn't possible, so it had to come from outside.
Corporations have a vested interest in keeping you from switching platforms, be it you or children who currently don't have access. Why pretend that Barrett's motives are otherwise?
It's sad that so many equate computing with just one hardware or software vendor, but I suppose it's inevitable. It's up to the computing engineers to re-educate people and remind them that this isn't the case, and that no one owns knowledge.
Boris
This project will have the same net effect that Live Aid and all the other supposedly well-meaning but woolly-headed do-gooder efforts have had. You don't help these people by just throwing money, or computers at them. You help them by getting rid of their dictators, their corrupt-ocracies, and their thuggish tribal overlords. All of which, by the way, have been aided and abetted by efforts to throw money and aid at them in the past, many times under the "guidance" of the u.n.
Mart,
I'm not sure where you're coming from exactly or what is has to do with the subject. How does Live Aid relate to this, exactly? How is this throwing money at the issue? How are money and computers the same thing?
New idea: "Let's make books accessible to people who don't have them. Good or bad idea?"
Discuss!
Boris
This goes for #25 Boris. What makes you think there is no tech support in Third World Countries? So You are to tell everyone to assume that everyone in Third World Countries is just poor and uneducated people? Why then can a Mc Donald's work in a third world village? Who fixes its computers and equipment malfunctions? Have you heard of teachers having a technical degree? Of Disk Reformatting?
I am talking about the right market: The poor know they are poor, crappy products... to ratify that, well you are poor.
And yes, I am telling you that if that PC is broken, there will be a tech center to fix it, same as now with a TV, Cell Phone or a Stereo system. Too Complicated? Last time I heard, Sony has a Service Center per 15minute radio in ALL Third World Countries.
I tell you this: If the rigth segment is identified, and I mean not kids in Africa, rather, School Kids in Anytown South America, Eastern Europe, the Balcans, THAT is the market you want. And they don't want a piece of garbage with a swivel for electricity (Major consumption of Electricity in Latin Countries is Air Conditioners).
I believe you can have me read all the tech specs from your little gizmo, but oh! I believe that a totally depreciated technology sold at its residual price plus a decent margin will cut the cake.
Last but not least, all you slayers of Intel's Barrett, He personally scheduled a meeting here (this Third World Country) to discuss the potential of such a PC for about $200. Thanks bro! You are served.
Robert
The only thing the kids in poor contries could do with a laptop or computer is sell it and buy food with the money.
It's sad but true. This money could be best invested in trying to get the kids basically educated, they assume these kids know how to read and sometimes they don't even know what are those extrange things we call letters.
The problem: Teach poor kids how to read/write makes no money (even the under $100 money)
"The only thing the kids in poor contries could do with a laptop or computer is sell it and buy food with the money."
Well, that would be teaching valuable business skills then :)
Who'd you sell these to, if everyone had one, btw?
"careful with that axe, eugene" errrmm...Craig.
This entire argument is moot. The OLPC is a project to design a cheap laptop that could be easily mass produced. If a government, which is who will be buying these, does not have the money or justifiable reason to purchase them then no one is losing anything and there has still been an admirable attempt to help plus advances in the technological world. Negroponte and his team are no more forcing these governments to purchase millions of their laptops than any other computer manufacturer is, they are just making them available. The difference, though, is that the MIT team isn't going to be turning a profit on the OLPCs; this is truly altruism at its finest. I would be foolish to say that I know more about this than its detractors but I can not see any harm in what Negroponte and his team are doing.
"Robert: Point is, the true customer is not in Africa. It is in Rio de Janeiro, in Buenos Aires, in a province of Portugal, that is the real customer. Not some kid in Africa keeping out of hunger and disease -he barely makes it to eat, what use he has for a PC."
http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20051201A2006.html
"...aimed at carrying out the OLPCs goal of providing computer access to children in seven developing countries China, India, Egypt, Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand, and Argentina."
Robert,
no, I'm not "served", because this doesn't have to do with me, it has to do with the idea of a $100 laptop. Leave out the ad hominems - I
don't do it to you, so don't do it to me.
As far as the $200 (is that the hardware cost, or does that include software licenses?) pc goes - that's good to hear. But it isn't portable and the software on it isn't free of cost or of IP rights. When the
hardware breaks, it will cost to fix it. And it costs twice as much as the $100 laptop. Why not try harder?
I think tech support in the third world is just about as bad as it is here, if not worse. If an engineer wants to set a goal of creating a low-maintenance laptop, then good for him. We all know we can do better than what we
have. Some people are not content with "good enough", they try to make things better.
I'm not claiming to know more about the situation in third-world countries, but I have seen the software that runs on the $100 laptop, and it is an admirable engineering feat to do what these guys have done. If I had had access to this sort of technology as a child, it would have made a difference.
I see your point that people in the 3rd world will want what the first world has (Windows, MS Office), etc., but I'm not prepared to dismiss
these ideas because of it.
No one is forcing people to buy this stuff, as Hunter says.
Boris
People tend to be content with what they have, but if it weren't for the engineers working on problems today, we wouldn't have anything to work on tomorrow.
Boris
wow, at least people care enough to sit on their asses and spout endless opinions about these developing nations and their well being.
there is no magical one step solution. throwing out a dictator costs a lot of money, war isn't cheep even if it is one of usa's major industries =)
give a man a fish, he eats one night, teach a man to fish, he eats the rest of his life.
but why does everyone see this effort as giving the man a fish? computers are tools, and as far as i can tell this 100$ crank-top is going to be able to do a hell of a lot.
how do i know this? because of the amazing things i see people doing on retro hardware that is much less powerful. oscilliscope on gameboy classic. music production software on atari st. putting together presentations with hypercard on a macintosh se. seriously!
"Second, we will get the fat out of the systems. Today's laptops have become obese." (from http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html) ... this is a problem with computers today. hardware AND software bloat. i had nothing but a 300MHz laptop until last year. i produced my last album entirely on that machine (using audiomulch, audacity, lsdj, and renoise). My room mate upgraded from a 400MHz desktop a few months before me. We watched DivX videos on that thing in linux (dropping some frames, sure).
instead of obsessing over how "bad" some specs are, look at the technology and imagine everything it COULD do!
Starpause,
exactly. Especially the fish part. And I'm not sitting, I'm standing.
Hunter,
also. Except the fish part.
Remember: this isn't about building a better Windows box. Just because you can't imagine it working, doesn't mean it isn't possible. They know it. Do you?
Boris
While I remain skeptical as per my previous comments, I hope this project does help people in the third world. Before these laptops even get to those kids though, these OLPC people need to deal with the aforementioned governments and corrupt-ocracies. This may involve brokering handouts from the likes of the UN - and that money not only comes from our governments, or rather - you and me - but will be subject to the same laundering that has gone on for decades when "aid" has been pouring into Africa. $2.3 trillion in the last 50 years, to be more precise. Read this:
http://instapundit.com/archives/024122.php
I would think that $100 worth of food, water and medication is a better expenditure than laptops. Does Somlia need starving kids making myspace profiles?
This is being discussed over at Slashdot. Some good points are being made.
Boris
Also read the FAQ from the $100 Laptop site to help answer a lot of questions or criticisms that keep getting reposted here:
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html
Boris
Anthony,
making myspace profiles is what people in the West do because they've forgotten what is possible.
Giving others technology will allow them to contribute to its development, making more possible.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Boris
Look at what we are doing on here people - we are discussing an issue from across the globe, most of us connected to electricity mains and the internet.
Even though I am not a millionaire myself, the internet connected and PC savvy world is the elite of the digital divide.
I am reading a lot in the comments about the computers being pathetically underpowered, that money would be better spent on food, that we should be spending our money on regime change rather than Third World education. All that is a distraction to the point of the OPLC though.
Imagine yourself living on less than a dollar or two a day, which is the 'accepted' idea of poverty. Imagine you aren't in a hot warzone such as Sudan, or a drought situation such as Niger. You generally have enough to eat, but you aren't rich, you have spotty connections with the phone, the electricity, you may go to a communal hall to watch TV. Just imagine.
Then imagine that you have been given a hand crank powered portable computer, the $100 cost either covered by your government or some philanthropic organisation. You can't put new programmes on it, but it connects you with the internet and other people outside your village or city.
I don't know about the rest of the people reading this messageboard, but I do remember how excited I was seeing Donkey Kong for the first time, or the Atari 2600, or heck, even a Commodore 64 :)
Then, when you are connected to the internet and other people, you go into chatrooms or messageboards and start debating whether the government was better buying laptops or food, and maybe see a conversation from 'First World' people where they agree with a person trashing the idea of cheap computers for the world's poor. Or more to the point, cheaper computers perhaps.
I remember seeing reports saying that education, especially female education, is the best way to bring people out of poverty. Surely $100 worth of freeware laptop is better than $100 of weapons or landmines.
Just my two cents worth.
Look at what we are doing on here people - we are discussing an issue from across the globe, most of us connected to electricity mains and the internet.
Even though I am not a millionaire myself, the internet connected and PC savvy world is the elite of the digital divide.
I am reading a lot in the comments about the computers being pathetically underpowered, that money would be better spent on food, that we should be spending our money on regime change rather than Third World education. All that is a distraction to the point of the OPLC though.
Imagine yourself living on less than a dollar or two a day, which is the 'accepted' idea of poverty. Imagine you aren't in a hot warzone such as Sudan, or a drought situation such as Niger. You generally have enough to eat, but you aren't rich, you have spotty connections with the phone, the electricity, you may go to a communal hall to watch TV. Just imagine.
Then imagine that you have been given a hand crank powered portable computer, the $100 cost either covered by your government or some philanthropic organisation. You can't put new programmes on it, but it connects you with the internet and other people outside your village or city.
I don't know about the rest of the people reading this messageboard, but I do remember how excited I was seeing Donkey Kong for the first time, or the Atari 2600, or heck, even a Commodore 64 :)
Then, when you are connected to the internet and other people, you go into chatrooms or messageboards and start debating whether the government was better buying laptops or food, and maybe see a conversation from 'First World' people where they agree with a person trashing the idea of cheap computers for the world's poor. Or more to the point, cheaper computers perhaps.
I remember seeing reports saying that education, especially female education, is the best way to bring people out of poverty. Surely $100 worth of freeware laptop is better than $100 of weapons or landmines.
Just my two cents worth.
He is just mad because they want to use an AMD processor and an "Intel crap inside".
I agree with the sentiment that many Thirld World Countries need a stable political and economical community. I don't know if cheap computers will help this.
I'm one of the people behind a major business website. Practically all logins to our site from Nigeria and C?d'Ivoire are 419 scammers. It is sad that the brightest minds of that region are criminals who don't try to advance their community.
I'm a firm believer that knowledge is power so I'm all for every 3rd world kid getting their own $100 laptop. There's the potential in there to educate the masses on how to empower themselves to change things for the better. Unfortunately, the "education" they receive will probably end up being politically and religiously motivated so kids will end up "studying" the local tyrant's "sacred text" more than they will, say, science and true history.
I think that if Negroponte actually pulls this off, we might be worrying less about third world tyrants and more about third world evil geniuses =)
-Riskable
http://riskable.com
Boris, I was not slamming on you. I was referring to 'serving' the customer.
Now, going back to the $100 laptop I will rest my case on letting my opinion known as this: The true market for this PC is a Normal PC... Not a 'I would like to become a PC when I grow up'. And yes, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, the Balcans, Eastern Europe, Portugal - there is a market for the $200 PC be it a laptop from year 2000. I do not agree with IP costs... ? What are those?
It is important for everyone to know that the true potential, the wealth at the bottom of the economic pyramid, lies in giving access to something that usually was reserved for a certain group of people, but creatively, was able to go severely mainstream, in this case poor people. If your PC dies, bring it to school. If you have a concern, contact any of your teachers or visit your nearest TV repair shop.
Now, you can have that MIT $100 PC go there, but then, the customer will see you are patronizing his pooredom. Worst, they don't care about computing. The MIT segmentation is plainly wrong. Telling this other customer: 'you know we did have to come up with something different for you because we could not master it ourselves to bring you this item that you have seen others in higher income households.
I created a Credit System that allows you to pay for a PC -an HP and Dell, desktop or laptop- for less than the cost of a Pre-Paid Cell Phone Card. I had made in excess of 4 million in our first month, and we do it here in a Third World Country. I have told these customer, look I can give you a clone Xtratech PC or this Fortress PC from China. 99% of the time i get the same answer: Give me a PC with a known brand. Give me power.
Have you heard of empowerment. Have you not thougth that you will empower this children if you are able to go there and give them what they have in their minds a PC really is.
I do not discredit this MIT guys. But I am telling you, that image of that gizmo is insulting the segment.
Roberto
I can not see a negative to what MIT is doing. Beyond opening a free portal to information that has the potential to better a persons life or even save it in some instances - they are introducing a communication platform as well. Should this laptop save one life simply through a vector of communication the effort is justified. What are grinning CEO is missing is that this device could potentially increase the demand for his products. Intel should put a fistfull of cash toward this and then work on a product for those who advance beyond it.
Honestly, I like the idea, and I don't know why some of you seem to think it's going to kill us all to try it. Don't pretend we haven't been throwing food at them for years already.
When I was a $6/hr temp, I happily used an XT, then my mother's old 386 when 100MHz 486s were the thing. I could go out and pay cash now for something a lot better than the 1.6GHz Dell I got on eBay, but it does what I need. Yes, I do have a TabletPC, but it's not top of the line.
Bottom line: if you don't like it, don't donate, but step back and let people who want to make a difference try something that hasn't been tried before. If it fails, we've learned something. If it succeeds, you and the rich Intel guy have.