Four million OLPCs ordered, NickNeg sez boo-ya

Argentina, Brazil, Nigera, Thailand, you've made Negroponte proud. In fact, the man who is right now lined up to supply your respective nations with a million OLPCs a piece (give or take a few thou), is, as we understand it, at this very moment spiking OLPCs like he's in the end zone. According to OLPC program director Khaled Hassounah, Nigeria ordered of a million units, and spoke of "similar commitments" by the other three nations, so take that, India. Unlike the educational puppetmasters in Africa and South America, you apparently must not know a good thing when you see one. That or maybe you're investing those millions into bettering social welfare programs and upgrading other, more life-essential facilities before outfitting kids with lappies. Whatever you're doing with those millions, though, you're not putting a smile on NickNeg's face, mkay?

[Thanks, David]

[Dean+ @ Aug 1st 2006 6:14AM]

I'm all for cheap laptops for third world countries, but India's got way too many starving kids to be spending that kinda cash right now.

100 million dollars towards feeding low caste children would be nice though.

[Concerned @ Aug 1st 2006 6:32AM]

The OLPC gives 1 mill kids the chance to learn how to code. The OLPC gives a country that cant even afford a decent phone line infrastructure a form of improved communication. These are not meager benefits. Kids grow up to be merchants, scientists, etc. You want them to be able to adopt and utilize technology to make things more efficient. You think some mom and pop store in Nigeria can afford a Microsoft Point of sale software? Hell no, but they can if some Nigerian writes some half assed code. Its half assed, but it will be cheap and it will be customized to their needs.

You can spend $200 million on farming hardware/software. You can spend $200 mill on roads or internet. Or you can spend it on your children.
1 million children with access to gc++.

If you had the chance to build one million coders and develop a competing firm for outsourced American codework, would you do it? You give it to 12 year olds and in 6 years,some of them will be able to code. Its a helluva lot better than spending money for a bridge in Alaska.
You dont want to forego the future just because your eye is to hard on the present. Sure, some parts of Nigeria are starving. But so are some parts of USA.

Duty of government
1. Maintain political stability (security, no rollercoaster prices on NEEDFUL goods such as food and energy, minimize the effects of national disasters, keep the government fair, address the concerns of minorities)

2. Futurity so that you can keep doing Premise #1(planning new infrastructure, military spending, building new roads, internet, communications, forecasting or limiting population growth, land acquisitions, funding into research centers/colleges to produce talent that will address what you will need in the future, such as medicine)

Don't let the media hooplah sway you. You may see computers as a luxury item but its really not. How much money do you think the Computer Revolution made for the American Economy? And the Software Era generates far more revenues than anything that has come before, (automobile, etc).

Come now.

[Richard @ Aug 1st 2006 7:06AM]

Sometimes I wish the writers for Engadget would spend a little less effort trying to by hipsters and actually pretend to be journalists.

[Sasha S. @ Aug 1st 2006 7:15AM]

Kudos to Concerned (post #2)!

I have followed many discussion on this subject and they could be boiled down to single question:

Can giving a laptop to a child in developing country make significant difference and what the effects could be?

The answer is: nobody knows for sure because it has never been done before.

I know that education (knowledge) is the single most life-changing thing you can give to any child and I know that computers (if properly applied) can be an tremendous instrument in delivering that knowledge and empowering people.

This project deserve a chance - if nothing else because the potential rewards could be immense. Nicholas Negroponte and his team deserve the chance. Sceptics and enthousiasts alike should always say: "We do not know how this project will pan out, but we believe .....

[Speed @ Aug 1st 2006 7:21AM]

This will become a story when money changes hands.

[John @ Aug 1st 2006 7:30AM]

Couldnt agree more with Richard.

Stop jumping on the latest bandwagon of "bash the olpc" and either
1) Present good story summaries free of hip-talking bias
2) Back up you off hand remarks with some sort of journalistic research
3) Give up your day jobs and go leave comments on slashdot for a living.

[KawF @ Aug 1st 2006 7:49AM]

Ever heard of that nice ol' saying: "Give a man a loaf of bread, and he has food for the day, teach him how to fish and he has food for a life-time". It applies here too.

The largest source of the problems facing the developing world today: not enough education.

Certainly they need all the support they can get in regards to food and shelter, if needed, but for how long exactly do you wish these people to have nothing more than that. Do you not want them to have a higher education? A cheap computer that requires no access to electricity, is readable and usable under all conditions, and can store thousands of books...

Books in printed form are EXPENSIVE. One single OLPC could store a vitual library of books. It could perhaps store the full edition of Wikipedia even. Just try to imagine how expensive that would be in printed form.

Now millions of kids will have access to a mobile library of information that they can use to get educated and become quite basically, the saviours of the next generation of kids.

I really don't like the distinction some make between: "Well it's either the OLPC or food!".

It is not that simple.

The target for the OLPC is not at all neccesarily countries where famine is the major issue. And even if countries that have problems with famine decide that they want their population to become educated as well, so they can solve the problem themselves, then why is that bad?

If you fear that these countries will have a sudden increase in starving children, then I seriously suggest that you emmediatley donate money to them and tell all your friends to do the same.

[Dermot @ Aug 1st 2006 8:57AM]

Stop comparing the OLPC to bridges or food. That was never the original analogy.

The real question is twofold:
- would the money be better spent on more teachers?
- is it really necessary that every child have a PC, or is it sufficient that 10 kids share a single, more robust PC.

[Richard @ Aug 1st 2006 8:58AM]

Yes, a high-ranking member of the Nigerian Government has asked OLPC to forward on their bank account information so that the money may be directly deposited to their account.

[abigsmurf @ Aug 1st 2006 9:22AM]

I really want one of these things if they sell them to consumers at $250 or under. However I suspect if they made them available in the UK they'd go for £300, at which point I'd rather get a top of the range PDA or spend 50quid more and get a powerful laptop.

[dhi @ Aug 1st 2006 9:26AM]

The OLPC is lame.

But since engadget is not offering an editorial on it and I differ in opinion from the other commenters I'll reference an article from The Economist that describes my opinion pretty well: -

from The Economist.

Look on the streets of almost any city in the world, however, and you will see people clutching tiny, pocket computers, better known as mobile phones. Already, even basic handsets have simple web-browsers, calculators and other computing functions. Mobile phones are cheaper, simpler and more reliable than PCs, and market forces—in particular, the combination of pre-paid billing plans and microcredit schemes—are already putting them into the hands of even the world's poorest people. Initiatives to spread PCs in the developing world, in contrast, rely on top-down funding from governments or aid agencies, rather than bottom-up adoption by consumers.

If the effort going into the OLPC was put into governments getting out of the way of telecom companies, getting rid of their monopolies and high tarrifs and in empowering local private enterprise to provide cell phone networks then we'd see much bigger bang for the buck being spent on the OLPC.

If ideas for peer to peer adhoc networks for mobile phones took off then even the telecom infrastructure would not be so necessary. Certainly the wireless aspect of the OLPC is easier in a mobile phone than in a PC.

Even in the West more people have phones than PCs. In poor countries you don't have to be literate to use a phone - you just talk - thus benefiing everyone not just those in school.

The OLPC is a lame idea. It'll get nowhere - a drop in the ocean compared to increasing mobile phone use.

The use of mobile phones is booming in Africa, where subscriber-growth rates exceeded 100% in some countries last year, according to Informa, a research group. Markets in the extreme north and south of the continent are the most mature, and growth rates are healthy in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Trailing the field are Eritrea and Ethiopia, where state telecoms monopolies prevail.

Graph Here

More of this please - not the OLPC - a waste of effort better spent elsewhere.

[Galley @ Aug 1st 2006 9:27AM]

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste" is the slogan for the United Negro College Fund. Not giving millions of children in third world countries a chance to show their true potential is a real tragedy. Improvement in the quality-of-life in these areas has got to start somewhere, so why shouldn't it be with the educational process?

[MTC @ Aug 1st 2006 9:30AM]

Nigeria's buying them? ergh.
They might as well change OLPC to 4O9LPC.

[dhi @ Aug 1st 2006 9:34AM]

The URLS in the last post were deleted - strange... here they are in plain text...

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7224042 - Economist Article quoting phones better than PCs

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_ID=5471737&subjectid=894408 - market penetration of mobile phones in Africa

http://www.economist.com/images/20060204/CIN253.gif - graph of African mobile phone penetration.

[xzavier @ Aug 1st 2006 9:36AM]

I just LOVE how some people think that technology can resolve issues that people, communities, states, governments, countries, or corporations simply don’t want to resolve or address, aka meaning humanity. If "We the People" really wanted to help out other countries ANYWHERE in the world we could do it at anytime. Look at the cost of the Iraq war.
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

Just remember everybody. A TOOL is ONLY good enough to the person that KNOWS how to use it!

Now if you’re thinking that when these kids get these laptops that they will have internet access... I don’t remember anybody saying O.L.P.C + internet access! Hey, how much do YOU pay for internet access, broadband or dialup? Let me guess you get free wireless... HA! How much do YOU pay for electricity? Where are these kids/parents going to go when there laptop crashes, or somebody drops and breaks something, how much will that cost? There can be some REAL projects going on here on planet Earth if WE really wanted it.

[Bill @ Aug 1st 2006 9:38AM]

I have a couple of questions about this OLPC thing. Does the OLPC come with someone to show the child how to do it or are we assuming they already know because they're...well...a child. Also, what if a child drops it or the bios battery goes bad or the child downloads a virus or so much spyware the OLPC slows to a crawl. Will there be any kind of support system in place? Any kind of "warranty" or is the kid and his future out of luck?

[O.I. @ Aug 1st 2006 9:39AM]

Believe it or not, not every child in Nigeria is waiting for their chance to scam you. Ignorant fool.

[Joe Anderson @ Aug 1st 2006 9:41AM]

Finally all those computerless rich Nigerian princes will have a way to contact me.

[wayan @ Aug 1st 2006 9:43AM]

If these countries are spending $150 million (last price quote was around $150/per) on equipment, how much are they spending on curriculum development that incorporates the OLPC's, on teacher training to understand how to constructively engage technology in the classroom, on technical training for maintenance and repair?

Or ask an IT purchasing manager which is the bulk of IT costs - the hardware or the training & support?

If they do it right, and that's a big "IF", this is going to be a $500 million investment per country, minimum, by the time all the numbers come in. $500 million that could go a long way on already proven, supported & taught technology. Or just better teacher training, considering that $500 million, even $150 million is more than some countries allocate for their entire Education Ministry.

[apple_box @ Aug 1st 2006 10:07AM]

I know about Mr. Gates anouncements about smart phones. Two things: Where do they plug it in? Can a kid learn to read via mobile screen? The real problem with the mobile solution is the money. Money would flow out of these countries with the mobile solution. The telecoms stand to make a profit beyond the wildest dreams of avarice. So is that really cheaper than OLPC? Is it better? OLPC is about potential, the mobile smart phone is about profit.

[dumbass @ Aug 1st 2006 10:20AM]

>Nigeria ordered of a million units, and spoke of "similar commitments" by the other three nations, so take that, India.<

what a nincoomp to post such a line .. without even being aware of the conditions in the countries you talk about ... money like 150 million is better spent training teachers, forming a new syllabi, bettering the infrastructure and getting some free/cheapass desktops to schools rather than getting some really expensive toys ! and it doesnt really stop at 150 million because there would be training costs, both for teacher and students, maintenance, etc ...

go get your economics & geography right before even thinking about such a post !!!

[bamarama @ Aug 1st 2006 10:26AM]

People can bitch and moan about this project all they want (and I have a feeling most do because they're envious that it wasn't their idea), but it really will make a difference. The arguments about curriculums supporting the OLPC is largely irrelevant. Knowledge and power is in numbers. And that's what the networking possibilities of the OLPC provides: numbers. Think about how much of your knowledge comes from stuff you find out about through the internet from other people or from reading books. Hell, without the massive joint efforts going on through knowledge sharing over the net, yall wouldn't have modded Xbox's to cheat people with, yall wouldn't have the technology that makes this site and many others available, and yall wouldn't have this story to bitch over. So what if the OLPC's aren't used to give every kid the broadest education possible. That's a flawed system anyway. Broad educations produce politicians....because they suck at any one thing other than bullshitting. Say little Johnny Nigeria comes across an article about architecture at the age of 10. Fifteen years later he wows the world with a radically different approach to construction engineering with a home design that's a quarter of the cost and 4 times as reliable as current homes. His design provides affordable housing for 25% of the poverty class. That's millions of people he just provided shelter to, and if even one of those people is as smart and ambitious as he was, then the whole OLPC project was worth it. Cell phone screens are too small to do anything worthwhile. Otherwise Dell, Microsoft, Apple, Acer, etc. would be out of business. How bout you nay-sayers grow up, realize that you weren't smart or ambitious enough to come up with the idea, and go back to your Bitch and Moan forums.

[Aaron Smith @ Aug 1st 2006 11:06AM]

I hope these countries have an implementation plan for using and training students and teachers how to get the most out of this technology, and a plan for a support system for once the computers are out in the public.

[Rick @ Aug 1st 2006 11:43AM]

There are a lot of idiots bashing on the OLPC. Most likely they do not have the vision necessary to understand the potential impact of this project.

1. "Why spend $1million on laptops when it could be better spent on infrastructure, food, and sanitation?" YOu are making the assumption that buying these OLPCs and spending money on other things are mutually exclusive. Most likely they are not.

2. The impact of this project will not be known for at least 10-15 years when the kids receiving these OLPCs will enter the workforce. Look at India in the 1960s and 1970s: they invested in the IIT universities, and now Indians are a major globalised force in the world.

3. That Economist article quoted above is absolutely idiotic. They are comparing cell phones and computers? Gimme a break. The former will teach someone how to talk. The latter will help teach a kid how do software engineering, read more, and learn more. I doubt the writer of that article has even the slightest idea of what a computer is used for besides email and websurfing.

[TPW @ Aug 1st 2006 12:28PM]

I think it's ridiculous that people who would never consider trying to get an education using a cell phone (or making their kids attempt schoolwork with a cell phone) think that cell phones are good enough to help people in other countries better themselves. I love my PDA Phone, but I certainly wouldn't ask someone to write an essay or solve mathematical problems.

[Enrique @ Aug 1st 2006 1:05PM]

It is funny to see how people from a cozy lab in the States think they can solve the problems of the poor little people in far away countries...

Please, check that in Argentina the government had said that they wish to see the OLPC in a more advance state (not just a motherboard) before commiting such a large amount of money that, by the way, is not abundant...

Please fellow americans, try to be more humble before instead of convincing yourself that you have the solutions for the rest of the world.

[glacia00 @ Aug 1st 2006 1:58PM]

Perhaps it's been mentioned somewhere but I haven't seen anything written about the applications that it comes with. Some have mentioned kids becoming coders but does the machine come with any programing environments? Although passing on both WinCE, OSX and traditional storage was probably a good plan but not for the stated reasons but because it may make them less attractive to the black market.

I also haven't heard what the plans are on the ground. In many of the countries mentioned there is already a thriving computer market with a well entrenched infrastructure. Of course that market is computer scams. And in the current environment a child is more likely to end up using it in Phishing sweatshop than learning to code.

I'm not sure anyone has thought about how to keep them from being sold. From my experience there (Yes I have been to Nigeria, Brazil and Thailand ) if you handed a kid a computer they would sell it fast and if you gave a teacher 20 of them they would sell them just as fast. In places where a kid could eat for a month from selling their $100 computer for $5 or a teacher could buy 2 years worth of teaching supplies by selling their 20 computers which do you think they will do?

Someone will acuse me of just putting down the project but there are a lot of unanswered questions And I doubt anyone is consulting people on the ground. And like here any question seems to be answered with angry insults.

[Juaquin @ Aug 1st 2006 2:20PM]

So do we still get the chance to buy one here?

Heck, our schools could use them too. My old high school was running mostly on thin clients connected to a server which was run down and couldn't handle the load.

[John @ Aug 1st 2006 2:31PM]

I know that this OLPC thing is serious business. Unfortunately, right about now, I'm having a hard time trying not to laugh at the picture.

"Mo' money?"
"Mo' problems!"

[Ian @ Aug 1st 2006 3:08PM]

Lol. In the 1950s the US tought it chould solve hunger in Africa by giving them tractors. Didn't work. This is the same thing. $250 a pop? You could fill a classroom with low end hardware running Linux with far more functionality than these doorstops for less per seat with money left over to train the teacher on how to integrate technology into the lesson plans.

It's funny how people who are not educators think they know how to teach and solve the worlds problems. Ohhhh! Just give them this magic box and all will be well. Never mind half their family is dead from AIDS, with the little girls all raped by men with AIDS because they think sex with a virgin will cure it, they have no food to eat and their teacher was abducted and killed by marxist gurillas for being an intelectual. Then they all die from malaria. The end.

Nope, that's all a thing of the past with the wind up toy PC.

People who say you can have it both ways: PCs AND fight disease and poverty just have no clue about the sums of money involved and the scope of the problem. They say it like "why just by a new video card when you can buy a new video card AND more memory!" People in the west, in the US and Europe just have NO CLUE about the level of abject poverty so many in the world live in. A wind up PC will not help. It is a matter of priorities.

Mark my words: it is only a matter of time before the news breaks a story about how some government minister in some impoverished nation took a bribe to get them to spend hundreds of million of dollars on these things rather than just build schools and pay teachers. You know, kids were able to learn before computers.

[Antonio @ Aug 1st 2006 5:31PM]

I´ve heard that 50% of the MIT students have an Asian origin and a 30% have a Latin American one, probably this project is just lead by an "american fellow", but I believe that is supported by a multicultural group.

This is not going to stop hunger in this countries, but the others "money waste" didn´t prove strong enough to rely on them. Worth the try.

[Andy @ Aug 1st 2006 6:47PM]

$150 million is alot of money; sure, maybe it could be spent on teachers, infrastructure, new books etc.

But would it -better- spent? I think not. This whole project is about giving kids a chance at something they've probably never even dreamt about.
Technology is not a cure to problems. This project is not trying to fix hunger, it's not trying to stop crime - it's giving kids a ladder to climb on. It's giving them a tool to use.
It is possible, even likely, that many kids who receive them won't know what to do with it - maybe they won't even know what it is at first; but neither did any of us when we first saw a computer. They are not stupid. Just because someone lives in a village/small house/cardboard box and doesn't have a car doesn't mean they don't think, doesn't mean they don't dream, doesn't mean they don't know anything about the rest of the world, doesn't mean they wouldn't leap for a better situation if they could.

The way some people talk it's like saying that people who have never been in a car couldn't learn how to drive - or telling them they should learn by playing with Matchbox cars first.

Not every kid with an OLPC is going to benefit from it. Not every kid with an OLPC is going to appreciate it. Not every kid with an OLPC is going to grow up to be "educated." But some will. And I would dare to say that those few are worth it.

[san @ Aug 1st 2006 10:36PM]

"That or maybe you're investing those millions into bettering social welfare programs and upgrading other, more life-essential facilities before outfitting kids with lappies."

Yes, exactly. Kids in developing nations can publish blogs with regular updates like, "My name is Bakari and tomorrow I will die of pertussis." Access Flickr accounts and publish photos captioned, "This is Enrique being stomped by the government soldiers because he wished to eat one meal this week."

Sure there's value in letting the greater wide world know in a very real way that these things are going on, but I think most of us know that Enrique is often stomped and Bakari is very ill with a disease that is today unheard of in the first world. And we're either trying to do something about it or we're not. But spending money -- whether it be local revenue or aid money -- on laptops? The crowd that believes computer technology is the golden road never ceases to amaze me. It's letting your field get away with you.

[KawF @ Aug 2nd 2006 1:48AM]

These young children would disagree:
http://myolympus.org/files/0843/Schole-lesson-2_P2160063.jpg

These too:
http://studyabroad.roguecc.edu/studyabroad/africa/film/school3.jpg

Now, you people that claim that all the people of developing nations are starving and dying all over the place, sod off or find "waldo" in those pictures.

Bloody know-nothing jack-asses that assume too much. I love you guys. It would surprise me if you could even point out on a map the countries which actually have commited to buying these OLPC's. Did you even read the article?

Why do you INSIST on these people not getting a better education. Is it so hard to understand that perhaps it's not as easy as "well, just plug that old computer into the electrical socket in the wall and hook that shit up to the internet". There is no such thing in many places. Yet they still need a good education so they can make that happen. You people are "putting the cart in front of the horse". You live in your little damn dreamworld where all you know comes from watching TV.

Be a part of reality, and stop assuming that every developing nation is run by a dictator.

How the hell do you expect people to know about disseases if they don't learn about them.

STOP ASSUMING.

And last but most important, read the frigging article: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7131519895.html .

[san @ Aug 2nd 2006 11:21AM]

Really, KawF, all of the countries buying these PCs have large, poor rural populations that are underserved by lots of things, especially medicine and often nutrition. You don't have to be Sudan to need basic services more than you need PCs. You don't need the Internet to receive treatment for disease. You need medical personnel and equipment, and drugs like antibiotics. And the notion that you need a computer to receive a good education is ridiculous. Lots of things are technology. Books are technology. Pencils are technology. It's a matter of picking the best technology for the job. Spending lots of money on *high* technology looks good but it seldom on its own resolves the issues it's intended to fix.

[Alexandre Barbosa @ Aug 2nd 2006 2:12PM]

Dear fellas, reporting from Brazil.

Talked to Negroponte and Brazillian representatives. The news was misquoted. Neither ARgentina or Thailand had signed official agreements yet. In the link above you can check out the story (portuguese, sorry), but feel this is enough to clear things out.

[I,Robot @ Aug 2nd 2006 8:39PM]

@ Richard -- # 3 comment: You wrote --

"Sometimes I wish the writers for Engadget would spend a little less effort trying to by hipsters and actually pretend to be journalists."

What the hell is that suppose to mean???

1.) That you’re old and have no sense of humor?
2.) That any subject outside of “tech in the United State” is a waste of your time and you don’t want to hear about it? -- Making you a complete racist and a giant douche-bag!
3.) You’re just some sad “fanboy” that just likes to bitch about “everything”, because you’re jealous of the job that the engadget boys do.

I’m going to go with no. 2, then no. 3. The guys at engadget ARE JOURNALIST – they didn’t just change their approach to writing, just because YOU showed up. There are OTHER PEOPLE that live outside the United States – I know that’s hard for you to believe, but it’s true. So stop being a d_ck, and making the rest of us look bad.

(The same goes for you too, John – Grow-up!)

[Ed C. @ Sep 26th 2006 2:17AM]

this is a test of the emergency broadcast system