Collaborating for Kids |
Friday Jul 27 2007
In 2005, Elizabeth had made an impossible promise that by the year 2030 all the world’s children would have their innate desire to learn nurtured and supported. Shortly after that, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Labs, announced the OLPC initiative to provide schoolchildren in the developing world with laptops. The aim of the project is to sell laptops to developing countries for $100/unit and distribute them to children so they can learn, communicate and collaborate with people around the world.
The laptops themselves, officially named XO, are an amazing example of what we can achieve when we put aside our differences and commit to a common vision of the future. In just two years, the OLPC has partnered with Google and 10 other companies to create a computer for children that will work indoors and outdoors with different sources of power. The combination of unique technologies behind the XO is impressive—from the hardware and software, modified keyboard and dual-mode screen display, to the extended wireless networking, innovative power supplies and video conferencing capability. Sofware developers are already developing applications that will work on both platforms. A philanthropic organization is finalizing orders and organizing the delivery of 5 million XOs, in lots of 250,000, at a unit cost of $176 to developing nations later this summer.
OLPC had initially chosen to go with a processor from one of Intel’s competitors. This spring, Intel attempted to undermine the project by announcing the introduction of competitive $200 units called the Eee PC and the Classmate PC. Earlier this month, Intel joined forces with OLPC, and now both the XO and the Classmate are being tested in schools around the world. Elizabeth tells me that when the XO was tried out in Brazil, the first thing kids did was go to Google and search for information and news about their country’s most famous soccer player. It seems that all we need to do is give children the tools and they will go ahead and do the rest of the learning themselves.
The XO and Classmate laptops, both in production, may herald the launch of a whole new niche in the computer industry. But I know the real value of this project will be seen when the children start using the laptops, begin to learn about different cultures and other people, and start connecting with individuals in the rest of the world. That is when the actions of all the people involved in making this ‘outside the box’ vision a reality will make a difference.
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