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Buy One Laptop Give One Away

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October 4, 2007
State of the Art
Laptop With a Mission Widens Its Audience
By DAVID POGUE
LINK Click the link to see a video of it in action.

In November, you’ll be able to buy a new laptop that’s spillproof, rainproof, dustproof and drop-proof. It’s fanless, it’s silent and it weighs 3.2 pounds. One battery charge will power six hours of heavy activity, or 24 hours of reading. The laptop has a built-in video camera, microphone, memory-card slot, graphics tablet, game-pad controllers and a screen that rotates into a tablet configuration.

And this laptop will cost $200.

The computer, if you hadn’t already guessed, is the fabled “$100 laptop” that’s been igniting hype and controversy for three years. It’s an effort by One Laptop Per Child (laptop.org) to develop a very low-cost, high-potential, extremely rugged computer for the two billion educationally underserved children in poor countries.

The concept: if a machine is designed smartly enough, without the bloat of standard laptops, and sold in large enough quantities, the price can be brought way, way down. Maybe not down to $100, as O.L.P.C. originally hoped, but low enough for developing countries to afford millions of them — one per child.

The laptop is now called the XO, because if you turn the logo 90 degrees, it looks like a child.

O.L.P.C. slightly turned its strategy when it decided to offer the machine for sale to the public in the industrialized world — for a period of two weeks, in November. The program is called “Give 1, Get 1,” and it works like this. You pay $400 (www.xogiving.org). One XO laptop (and a tax deduction) comes to you by Christmas, and a second is sent to a student in a poor country.

The group does worry that people might compare the XO with $1,000 Windows or Mac laptops. They might blog about their disappointment, thereby imperiling O.L.P.C.’s continuing talks with third world governments.

It’s easy to see how that might happen. There’s no CD/DVD drive at all, no hard drive and only a 7.5-inch screen. The Linux operating system doesn’t run Microsoft Office, Photoshop or any other standard Mac or Windows programs. The membrane-sealed, spillproof keyboard is too small for touch-typing by an adult.

And then there’s the look of this thing. It’s made of shiny green and white plastic, like a Fisher-Price toy, complete with a handle. With its two earlike antennas raised, it could be Shrek’s little robot friend.

And sure enough, the bloggers and the ignorant have already begun to spit on the XO laptop. “Dude, for $400, I can buy a real Windows laptop,” they say.

Clearly, the XO’s mission has sailed over these people’s heads like a 747.

The truth is, the XO laptop, now in final testing, is absolutely amazing, and in my limited tests, a total kid magnet. Both the hardware and the software exhibit breakthrough after breakthrough — some of them not available on any other laptop, for $400 or $4,000.

In the places where the XO will be used, power is often scarce. So the laptop uses a new battery chemistry, called lithium ferro-phosphate. It runs at one-tenth the temperature of a standard laptop battery, costs $10 to replace, and is good for 2,000 charges — versus 500 on a regular laptop battery.

The laptop consumes an average of 2 watts, compared with 60 or more on a typical business laptop. That’s one reason it gets such great battery life. A small yo-yo-like pull-cord charger is available (one minute of pulling provides 10 minutes of power); so is a $12 solar panel that, although only one foot square, provides enough power to recharge or power the machine.

Speaking of bright sunshine: the XO’s color screen is bright and, at 200 dots an inch, razor sharp (1,200 by 900 pixels). But it has a secret identity: in bright sun, you can turn off the backlight altogether. The resulting display, black on light gray, is so clear and readable, it’s almost like paper. Then, of course, the battery lasts even longer.

The XO offers both regular wireless Internet connections and something called mesh networking, which means that all the laptops see each other, instantly, without any setup — even when there’s no Internet connection.

With one press of a button, you see a map. Individual XO logos — color-coded to differentiate them — represent other laptops in the area; you connect with one click. (You never double-click in the XO’s visual, super-simple operating system. You either point with the mouse or click once.)

This feature has some astonishing utility. If only one laptop has an Internet connection, for example, the others can get online, too, thanks to the mesh network. And when O.L.P.C. releases software upgrades, one laptop can broadcast them to other nearby laptops.

Power users will snort at the specs of this machine. It has only one gigabyte of storage — all flash memory — with 20 percent of that occupied by the XO’s system software. And the processor is feeble by conventional standards. Starting up takes two minutes, and switching between programs is poky.

Once in a program, though, the speed is fine; it turns out that a light processor is plenty if the software is written compactly and smartly. (O.L.P.C. points out that despite gigantic leaps in processing power, today’s business laptops don’t feel any faster than they did a few years ago. The operating systems and programs have added so much bloat that they absorb the speed gains.)

The built-in programs are equally clever. There’s a word processor, Web browser, calculator, PDF textbook reader, some games (clones of Tetris and Connect 4), three music programs, a painting application, a chat program and so on. The camera module permits teachers, for the first time, to send messages home to illiterate parents.

There are also three programming environments of different degrees of sophistication. Incredibly, one keystroke reveals the underlying code of almost any XO program or any Web page. Students can not only study how their favorite programs have been written, but even experiment by making changes. (If they make a mess of things, they can restore the original.)

There’s real brilliance in this emphasis on understanding the computer itself. Many nations in XO’s market have few natural resources, and the global need for information workers grows with every passing day.

Most of the XO’s programs are shareable on the mesh network, which is another ingenious twist. Any time you’re word processing, making music, taking pictures, playing games or reading an e-book, you can click a Share button. Your document shows up next to your icon on the mesh-network map, so that other people can see what you’re doing, or work with you. Teachers can supervise your writing, buddies can collaborate on a document, friends can play you in Connect 4, or someone across the room can add a melody to your drum beat in the music program. You’ve never seen anything like it.

The pair of laptops I reviewed had incomplete power-management software, beta-stage software and occasional cosmetic glitches. But O.L.P.C. and its worldwide army of open-source (volunteer) programmers expect to polish things by the time the assembly line starts to roll in November.

No, the biggest obstacle to the XO’s success is not technology — it’s already a wonder — but fear. Overseas ministers of education fear that changing the status quo might risk their jobs. Big-name computer makers fear that the XO will steal away an overlooked two-billion-person market. Critics fear that the poorest countries need food, malaria protection and clean water far more than computers.

(The founder, Nicholas Negroponte’s, response: “Nobody I know would say, ‘By the way, let’s hold off on education.’ Education happens to be a solution to all of those same problems.”)

But the XO deserves to overcome those fears. Despite all the obstacles and doubters, O.L.P.C. has come up with a laptop that’s tough and simple enough for hot, humid, dusty locales; cool enough to keep young minds engaged, both at school and at home; and open, flexible and collaborative enough to support a million different teaching and learning styles.

It’s a technological breakthrough, for sure. Now let’s just hope it breaks through the human barriers.

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Originally Posted by Nicholas Negropronte

One Laptop Per Child Give Away

Introducing the XO laptop click to show

I'm a bit torn over this as I have seen some of the poverty in third world countries first hand. Parents and kids struggle over paying for a book for just a few cents can make the difference between being hungry and learning for the day. Another note is that one doesn't learn well when they are hungry.

I also have a bit of problem if the child cannot read, what good will this do for them? So the underserved nonreading child is already not able to utilize this system. In some of the schools that Skogafoss visited students shared textbooks. Shared. They didn't have one they could take home to continue to learn. Parents also sometimes don't foster learning since the immediate need is to collect money to get food and survive.

I will support this out of the gate, and then decide later how much more support I can provide since again, I think that the mission is noble, but if the kids cannot read to begin with what good is it?

What are your thoughts?

The computer can help the person learn to read, and for $200? I'll donate a few. If others also donate one or two, we can send a lot of free laptops over there for people in need. Admittedly, I think we should be getting these people clean drinking water and food first, or maybe helping them deal with warlord, but it's helping one of the many problems people face in third world countries, so I'm all for it.

My guess is the $200 is more than some of these families will make in a year.

As such I can see these being sold by said families, most likely for a few dollars to people looking to resell in cities for a profit.

Its a good idea, and who knows, maybe I'm wrong, but I'd be surprised if it makes any real difference.

Will...help me to understand you. 'Cause I ain't doin' so well on my own. You have a third world country. You have contaminated water and famine. Very little, or no, education. And you want to send 'em a few laptops...so they can learn to read? Hey, look...it's your $600, to donate as you see fit, but I would think that there are better uses for it.

Well, I guess little Umbungnu can check his myspace as dysentary and starvation sets in.

I already donate to other non-profits. As I said in my post, having laptops isn't the most pressing concern, as a matter of fact I named water and food as being more important, but the ability to read facilitates the ability to learn on one's own. Maybe, just maybe, they can find strength from the ability to connect to people and information, and maybe that can help to stabilize the region somewhat.

Honestly? I'd much rather donate for desalinization plants or for farming equipment, but there aren't always the right programs in place. I don't have time to tackle another non-profit, so I do what I can.

I'd prefer for my $200 to be used to something other than getting them a laptop, like something such as food, clothing, etc....And I have a feeling they probably would too.

Either way, I'd do it, if it becomes an option

-Will

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Originally Posted by Bill O'Rights

Well, I guess little Umbungnu can check his myspace as dysentary and starvation sets in.

IMO, the "little Umbungnu" was quite unnecessary. (Like calling an African-American child Shaniqua, when one doesn't know her name).
And while I understand the concerns of money that "food is more important", etc.. This program is designed for classroom environments. For example, a class of poor children would have a laptop per child, and the children would have to bring it with them every day, and they would learn together.
And honestly, it could really help the other problems of hunger disease (notably AIDS) because they'd be able to access an incredible amount of information from all-over the world.
Also, these computers allow for anyone to see how the coding works in programs, and have programming applications. It's not impossible that a lot of the software development and technical assistance industry might develop in Africa.
Nowadays a lot of that industry is in the Asian-Pacific region, which is partly English speaking.
Many African countries are French speaking, so in the long run, European tech industries could find labor there.
A lot of this may seem far-fetched, hypothetical. But while I doubt many charity programs, I think this one has true potential.

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Originally Posted by biznatch

IMO, the "little Umbungnu" was quite unnecessary.

Don't be so damn sensitive, and go rent About Schmidt. You think I make this crap up? ;)

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Originally Posted by biznatch

Again, I'll assert that most of these classrooms don't have even one textbook per child. The kids are going to have to take them home and bring them back? seriously? you don't think that someone will mug them for their laptop and try to resell it elsewhere?

edit: I need to doublecheck the countries wherein the program is happening. I know that Thailand is one of them, poor but does have better classroom potentials than the Philippines.

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Originally Posted by Bill O'Rights

Don't be so damn sensitive, and go rent About Schmidt. You think I make this crap up? ;)

Sorry, now I do remember that quote. :)

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, give him a laptop and he can google fishing and catch his own damn fish... Or something to that effect...

This is a most excellent machine. I just have to get one so that I can play with it. Actually I would like to get 3 to play with and to check out its fantastic mesh network. Hmm.... $1200 seems a bit high. Maybe I'll get just one.

has anyone gotten one yet?

I'm thinking of buying one but will wait until I get back from the holiday... there's only 1 more week to purchase the 2 for 1 deal

I was thinking about it.

But then I remembered I do don't give to charity.

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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq

has anyone gotten one yet?

I'm thinking of buying one but will wait until I get back from the holiday... there's only 1 more week to purchase the 2 for 1 deal

I don't actually own one, but I got a chance to play with a couple of the pre-production models. Some impressions:

o This is not a laptop. Well, it's not a laptop like what you'd expect to get picking one up from Walmart. The UI was developed entirely for the laptop, and is designed to be much simpler than the standard windows/mac/linux desktop look. Similarly, you won't be able to run/install 'off-the-shelf' software on the thing.

o The pre-production models I tried were very, very slow. The shipping models are supposed to be a good bit better, but they'll still be fairly slow, I suspect.

o These are not for what you might think of as 'third-world' countries, where people are struggling to eat. These are for children with food, clean water, housing, and schools. But in areas that are too poor to afford things like textbooks and computers. There's a whole continuum of poor people; this is targetted at a subset of them. You could certainly also donate to people who need food and clean water, but this is targetted at a different demographic entirely.

I think anyone who tries to sell this as a panacea to cure all the world's woes is either being wildly optimistic or has a vested interest. Still, I could see the program being highly valuable. Education provides the means to betterment, and effective education begins with effective tools. If a family is struggling to eat, giving them a laptop will not solve their problems. If a child needs an education to provide a better life for him and his, this could be the means.

I unfortunately cannot spare $400 for the program (and am not certain that they're available in Canada at any rate). If I had the disposable cash though, yeah I'd do it.

Wow, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are so many skeptics around here. Still, wow. I guess I might also find more negative things about it if my first or only exposure to the idea was Pogue's article. He's such a... pogue. (Word play!) It's kind of sad how this thread is yet another example of how some people like to come down on solutions for not being perfect but rarely, if ever, have any solutions of their own to offer up against the world's ills. But maybe I'm reading too much cynicism in the posts here. I just think that there are so many great ideas out there, so many ways to make change, and also so many ways in which people suffer on this planet that to rank one thing above another is less important than recognizing and showing support for the good ideas and taking part when you can. Particularly when it's made so easy. (1-click ordering... COME ON!)

Anyway, maybe it's just harder to hate on an idea when you actually see the person who thought of it talking passionately on the subject. Here's a little more background and why I was excited about it before it was easily accessible to millions of people:

Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child | Video on TED.com

Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, two years on | Video on TED.com

I remember watching these TED talks and thinking (a) I wish there was a way for people like me and my family to make more of this happen by sponsoring some of these laptops and (b) they sound so brilliant and unlike the stifling education kids in the U.S. currently get that I wish I could also buy them for the kids in my life. And then I stumble across the Amazon page as I am updating my wishlist for the holiday season this afternoon and I see that ALL MY WISHES HAVE COME TRUE.

When I first heard of this program a couple of years ago, the intention was to hook up these kids with kids throughout the world and to learn to encourage and satisfy their curiosity, so they could see there was more to life than they've ever been able to see.

Without knowing what's potentially out there for them, how's a child to find what to dream about?

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Originally Posted by Crack (Post 2322131)

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, give him a laptop and he can google fishing and catch his own damn fish... Or something to that effect...

Damn got beaten to the fishing reference. Well played though.

(gets onto soapbox)

Stop just giving directly to charity and make a permanent difference.
Create an investment account where you grow your financial house AND set aside a portion of the earnings to donate to charity. That way you can continually give without taking money of of your proverbial pocket each time, and you can keep collecting those receipts to offset your taxes.

I'm all for giving to charity - but why not create a sustainable permanent structure which beats the ol' car wash and bake sale methods.

(gets off soapbox)

P.S. If you're Canadian I've got a tax structure that can reduce your burden and donate to charity at the same time. It's definitely an aggressive strategy, but it's the foundation block that I used to build my first million.