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Posted: November 29
(Rome) I never expected that getting involved with the One Laptop Per Child folks would lead to more email from friends and family. Last week my nephew, Bret Tobey, sent an email to myself and other family members strongly endorsing the “Buy one, give one” promotion that OLPC is doing. Bret knows a thing or two about the world of computing since he works for the world’s largest manufacturer of locks and serves as their U.S. expert on digital security. Before I came to Rome over seven years ago, Bret gave me a quick primer on different levels of authentication for web sites and VPN’s (Virtual Private Networks, for those of you who don’t have a computer tutor in your own family) among other things. I am just now starting to implement some of the things he told me about. So the point is, Bret knows a lot and he knew it way before I became so involved in information technology.
It gave me great delight to respond to Bret’s email with a short one of my own suggesting that he check out my web site and see whom I introduced to religious order leaders in Rome—none other than Nicholas Negroponte, the OLPC founder. And I agree with Bret that the project is amazing.
Earlier this week two friends sent me an article from page one of the Wall Street Times titled “A Little Laptop with Big Ambitions” (that’s a good headline), but then the subhead was, “How a Computer for the Poor Got Stomped by Tech Giants.” The two writers know a lot about the OLPC project and the counter-project that Microsoft and Intel have launched but they missed a few key points. No matter how inexpensive a laptop Intel can make, it runs Windows, which is not a plus from the point of view of the developing world. Windows means licensing fees which already pose a problem to even well-funded schools like the Jesuit high school in Jakarta, Indonesia which abandoned Microsoft because it could not afford to pay for the software. Plus, Windows means that you need lots of tech support; I know because I supervise the close to 200 Windows computers we run in the Curia, and you cannot manage them without a very capable technician. If anything, Windows is getting worse; one of authoritative computer publications ranked the new Vista operating system as one of the worst products in history. Here is the URL for the article on CNET: http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49293700-10,00.htm”
The XO Laptop, which is the formal title of Negroponte’s machine, by contrast runs a Linux system and follows an Open Source philosophy. No wonder Microsoft does not want it to succeed. Plus the XO draws only 2 watts of power, one tenth of a normal laptop; this becomes very important if you really want to target children in rural areas of the developing world who don’t have ready access to grid power. I was amazed when I held the power cord to plug the XO into a wall socket; it was so light. Very different from the normal “brick” that you need to carry with a conventional laptop. Plus, the XO has great wireless capability and takes advantage of wireless mesh networking so children can share a signal from one user to another without any wiring or complicated equipment needed.
There are lots of other features I could talk about, and I must admit that I have not used the XO laptop that I have because the keyboard is small for my fingers. But that is exactly the point. Negroponte did not design this machine for me, but for children. The keyboard does fit their fingers, and the software fits their way of learning. OLPC aims to help children between 6 and 12 learn to think. That is an ambition that is worth fight for.
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