I think it works like this:

You pay 200$ + tax and get one unit
Government of some lame country pays 100$ and gets one unit.

So in total you and lame gov pay 300$ to Mr Negroponte, so he's doing 0 profit. Since his project is probably paid mostly by charities and some UN development grants, it all kinda make sense.

I still think one can have more fun at a cheaper price with a dead pigeon, but hey, we're all different

I just found this thread and I already readed so much hilarious comments I can't help commenting them myself:

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There was a period in western history without computers and I doubt the 3rd world has already had a similar period. It's like NL skipping 70..80 years from 1900 on and immediately going to the digital age.. would it work??

Oh no! I'm brazilian, I have to throw away my computers right now, I'm skipping 70 years! (Well, on a second thought, it isn't a good idea).

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... western countries...

Well, last time I checked, Brazil still was a western country. It is located far more to the west than, let's say, Netherlands, for instance.

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I agree mostly with wolf_! We shouldn't impose our way of life to these countries! It just sounds good to have one computer for each child, but it isn't, at least in least developed conutries. There is one side effect on these project: Children from poor countries get addicted to the PC at an early age! So later, they will by PCs! And governments and some kind of humanitarian institutions should pay for that! It's an intelligent business strategie. Maybe it will have also some positive effects on the people there, but for the long term, it wil have positive effects on worldwide computer companies. Has someone thought on the adults of these countries? Maybe most of them can't cope with computers. They can't protect their children from internet material they condsider inapropriate! A better strategie for these countries would be to have a system independent form PC not one for each child, but one or few for each village. With some adults being trained to teach how to handle these computer to children.

No! It's ok to impose computers on us, please, do it ! And about getting addicted to PCs, unless you are saying PC as a general term, like personal computer, the OLPC isn't a machine like the computers we commonly refer as pc. Regarding controlling the use of the computers by children, I have to say two things: first, in the brazilian case, the first batch of 1.000.000 computers to be delivered here is going to be given to teachers only. [EDIT] And second, most "villages here already have at least one computer [/EDIT]

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The only computers I've seen in my school-years (not my-study years where I mainly used my own one) are MSX2 for geo-lessons (flying a chopper to given locations) and small PC's for LOGO, WP5.1, DBase4 and M$-DOS 5. Big swell! The Dos/WP lessons were given in the time of Windows and WP for Windows .. So, even when I *did have* a computer at my disposal at schools, nothing useful was done with them. So, I figure: those ppl in the 3rd world who aren't studying for a serious grade won't need a private computer..

The fact many of us haven't used computers at school doesn't keep us from giving this opportunity for them, now. And regarding the fact a computer can't be used for serious learning, the poor english knowledge I have is SOLELY related to computer use. The only regular english classes I had were the (useless) high school ones and one semester of instrumental english for data processing at university.
And in the case people who didn't used computers at school is unable to use them for anything serious, what do you do with your own computer? Don't you think that maybe, somewhere else, there is someone who wants do do the same thing (for instance, to chat in a retro computing website) and lacks the tools do do it. And I'm sure kids will find something to do with them if you give them one.

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Publishers print/write/make books, not Joe African. African publishers for sure will have computers for those jobs. I'm not talking about African industries here, but about normal/non-industrial ppl, and mainly was I talking about learning how to read/write, that has nothing to do with computers whatsoever. If we did rely on computers for reading/writing then we wouldn't be able how to read/write before the 80's!

Only publishers need computers to write? Think about projects like wikipedia, and this forum, perhaps. If you can't rely on computers at developing countries, tourists shall be warned to leave their computers at the airport. Or, maybe, a tourist has something more serious than "Joe African" to write. Maybe "Joe African", at South Africa, for instance, just want to do the same things as the man in the countries which formerly had colonies.

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They can definitely afford it, but there is no reason for them to buy it. This is not a prestigious item like Dell XPS or Sony PS3. And even though the price is low, you know that you are forced into donation, which is something people hate. And there are great much more powerful options readily available from Toshiba, HP, Dell and such for a bit more money. A generic modern cell phone is more powerful and functional then 100$ notebook (but it doesn't come with built-in crank-operated power generator). So, I don't think anyone will buy this item for actual computing. May be some obese antisocial nerds will get it to complete their collection of "unusual" computers. To me, 100$ notebook has a lot less appeal then OCM.

If you need a computer to be "fancy" to be suitable for you, you have a serious problem, man! Computers are not "prestigious", they are tools! And nobody will be forced into donation, the ones who doesn't want to donate, just don't buy it.
And maybe some obese antisocial nerd is the only ones which still find a eighties-made computer, with 3.57 mhz of raw computer power is still good for someting at the 21st century. What are you doing here if you don't think so? Don't you know that every computer ever made (including msx) can perform the tasks which it was designed for? If we could only run word processors at 3 ghz computers with 2 gb ram we would be having an useful computer only by now!

RealPeterJack: For Europeans the western countries are defined as NATO countries, as opposed to the WarsawPact countries (which was the communist block, with for example the USSR, Poland, the DDR). They where also called the western bloc and eastern bloc, hence the term "western countries". And then there are the 3rd world countries. It has nothing to de with the place on our globe...

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RealPeterJack: For Europeans the western countries are defined as NATO countries, as opposed to the WarsawPact countries (which was the communist block, with for example the USSR, Poland, the DDR). They where also called the western bloc and eastern bloc, hence the term "western countries". And then there are the 3rd world countries. It has nothing to de with the place on our globe...

Yeah, I understand, but you should agree it is a very weird way to look at the world (placing Australia at west and South America at east). If you are thinking in military terms (nato), it would be more precise to say the good and the bad guys.

Just to summarize: ppl get the wrong idea of my original post, some while back in this thread.

One doesn't need a computer of any kind (expensive or cheap) to learn to read/write, to learn maths, to learn history, geography, biology, English, French, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, sociology, cooking, sports, drawing, carpenting and another bunch o' typical high-school courses. We didn't need them for centuries, and in the end I don't think we did a bad job on our educational history.

^ No computer required when for the same money other things should be bought or secured/repaired first, one can perfectly learn from books.


One "needs" (makes life soooo much easier) a computer when doing super-high-grade studies like where you need to calculate incredibly large math models or simulations (aerodynamics, advanced math, physics, chemistry, advanced biology, space-related studies, weather-analysis etc.), and to a lesser extend for any study in which you are required to make proper texts/schemes/reports etc.

^ No problems using a computer here

To get back on the first point: I wouldn't even mind when computers take a minor or NO role even here in the western society. Often enough kids are given time on a computer these days to do their stuff, while 20 years earlier a teacher would just tell a good story and teach things the proper classic way. I truly believe that the older system just worked better. While I'm not entirely sure, but when you just read Dutch forums, the amount of structural errors is staggering, and I'm not talking keyboard typos, but fundamental mistakes! Therefor it's my point that these cheap computers are certainly not required for highschool purposes, in which books and teachers should play the main role. Handing out these computers for just the typical ppl doing highschool or even elementary boarding school, is a waste of efforts which should be saved for ppl going to university. This all has nothing to do with racism or colonialism or whatever (never think such of me!) but just with belief in a certain educational system. And again: everywhere on the world -including here in the west- where a computer takes over the role of teacher/books in a way that is not essential, we have a wrong situation -imho-.

Wolf, I do agree with most of your opinions. A computer is a tool. Not a solution by itself.

I don´t think that children should have calculators. They should use abaccuses (just like in Japan). It´s even faster.

But I do think that computers are useful in other situations: programs that test math skills with animations and sound could be great for incentive. Multimedia applications are much more interesting than simple Geography or History books. Audiovisual methods are much more effective for language learning than simple books.

And besides, a laptop is great for democratic information. A book is expensive? Yes, it is. But connecting to the Internet and reading for a long time (although boring) is better than having no information. Recently I read that many poor people in my country (Brazil) have or struggle to buy computers. Why? Because information is quite cheap with them.

Yes, I agree with leandro (although I understand your point, wolf_). After an initial investment, such computers offer a wide range of free solutions, both educational and entertainment-related. You must consider the fact computers have a great appeal to children, and are great tools for self-teaching. Of course, nobody is going to improve his readink skills just by using computers (brazilian chat rooms are a living proof of that), but they play an essential role on allowing a children (or even grown-ups) to have access to knowledge that, otherwise, would not be available. Of course you can use internet for many bad or useless things, but as a communication tool, it's benefits cannot be neglected.

Despite this fact, computers are spread everywhere, regardless the fact we like it or not. As being a relatively new technology, its potential is awesome. We have many applications related to computer use, such as streaming video, or data compressing, that can be made with specialized hardware, becoming independent of computers. But all these specialized tools lack the flexibility and, perhaps, the research possibilities of pcs (in a general term, not related to ibm-pc). Of course, I don't expect everyone start developing compression algorithms or so, but by being users of experimental technologies people are giving unprecedental amounts of feedback for developers, for instance. And research is the ultimate goal of mankind, as without it we would be sitting in a cave, eating raw insects because we didn't developed fire nor hunting, and so on. Pcs (computers available to general public) are key to help many research initiatives, so any initiatives to help them to become widespread are most welcome!

The same as in Europe, Japan or US

Sexual contents access permission issues existing in internet, why will be different in Nigeria?

Nigeria seems to be a very different on some things Wiki Article .Check this link.I think the ethics on sex are much different than in europe and america.And of course i think a lot of children when surfing the internet alone would do the same (i am talking about children without parental control or without control from the teachers at their schools)

Best regards

It seems the XO is back in the spotlight. here is a BBC article from today....Interesting read, I think.

And here

I think I like this device very much. Cool layout, cool software. No moving parts, so completely silent.

Also, its software approach is attractive. No focus on large software studios. They just hope enthusiastic groups of developers will create themselves. Also, there's a great focus on developing tools, such as music and drawing programs. There is even a special key on the machine to have a quick look at the code of the running program....

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There is even a special key on the machine to have a quick look at the code of the running program....

[F4]

Another year , and no more units in Brazil.
Maybe there should be what? like one unit ... The one that was a gift for the "President" ...

Where are the million units !?
Or the 10 million computers ...