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Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:20:52 +0800

One-laptop-per child (OLPC) -- is an old arguement for the past 2 years. I think it started in 2005 before the WISS meet. Anyway. The point is not about how cheap or how available a PC is to a population. There are a lot more need to have before a PC can become meaningful to any user. So all these ooh and aah about how China manufacturers can come up with cheap PC is a waste of time. OLPC is a concept from a country that promotes individualism i.e USA. Individualism is good if there is enough 'resources' to support the concepts. In this case would be money to pay for internet access (hence someone takes care of the network), training, money for software upgrades, support staff etc. etc. The necessary infrastructures to support digital access. Unfortunately the idea of OLPC is SUPPOSELY meant for the poorer and less-developed countries. Therefore, again, we attempt to apply First world concept to mend third world needs. (sorry to use the terms first and third world. It is not meant to be nasty, it is just terms that have been used for the longest time and easily understood by most people) The concept I think works best is Telecenters. It is especially for the poorer regions. Telecenter centralized resources. Any villages or small township can create telecenters in a library, schools, townhall etc. A place where there will be share resources such as buildings, telecom access, personels. There are others added benefits of a telecenters -- we tend to learn from each other, a telecenter provides such environment, socializations between people ... some of the ingredients that are missing from our busy world. Sorry that I am writting this in a rush. Sentences might not be coherent nor express my points fully. But I hope the high level ideas are captured.

guest

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:51:54 +0800

meh, get the USD$200 Asus eeePC instead.

Shanghaiist: China remains cautious about One Laptop Per Child

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