NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Reality check for the $100 laptop - Comments

"Folk Computing" vs $100 computer

Rob Katz — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:34:13 -0500

Ramesh Jain writes eloquently about the differences between "folk computing" and making a low-cost computer for BOP markets:

"Developing computing approaches that will be less dependent on a specific language, ability of using keyboard, and on literacy level of users is essential to bringing benefits of computing to masses in Africa, India, China, and many other countries. And most approaches to bring $100 computer are focused on taking current computing and infrastructure and somehow reducing the price of the device. This assumption does not appear right. What is needed is to develop not only the device but complete infrastructure that will let so called bottom of pyramid people to benefit from it because that will be for them. For content it is easy to see that content for a group of people is best prepared by that same group. If we just provide a device the problem is not solved.

So it is nice to try to develop $100 folk computer but it will be better to develop folk computing.

The difficulty is that it is easy to develop a $100 computer. It is a product with well defined goal. Folk computing is an approach to computing that will be slow to evolve and will require persistent efforts by people from different backgrounds.

(Via Emergic)

Intel CEO Dismisses Laptop

Rob Katz — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 15:00:13 -0500

Intel CEO Craig Barrett, as reported by today:

"...[it has been] called a $100 laptop -- I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget'...It turns out what people are looking for is something is something that has the full functionality of a PC."

While Barrett bashes MIT's $100 laptop, he does not address the growing challenge of cellular telephony as it relates to serving the same markets as low-cost computers. Interesting to see the debate get to the CEO level, however.

Cell phones catch up with the volkscomputer

John Hewitt — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 00:27:42 -0500

It isn't strange that when academics from computer science and electrical engineering departments are decent enough to want to help solve problems in the developing world, they come up with plans to develop really cool little computers from scratch as a solution. "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail", as Abraham Maslow said. After giving credit where credit is due, one still must note (as many have), that exponentially increasing cellphone use, driven by market forces, not altruism, is what's getting to rural areas in force, and tendencies towards device convergence (your phone is a phone, a music device, a camera, and - wait for it - a computer, with wireless broadband coming down the road) mean that even when people in rural areas need more than telephony, they'll still most likely get it in the near future from that same little phone. Hundred-dollar computers? With competition and large enough audiences, telephone companies give stripped-down phones away in return for signing up for minimal service plans. Who will maintain computers, and train users in computer use, in remote areas? Cell phones are at least as rugged as most computers, and require next to no training to be used effectively. I know that cell phones aren't the solution to everything any more than computers are, but I can't avoid the feeling that pushing volkscomputers is quixotic. Check out articles like The real digital divide http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?Story_ID=3742817 , Cellphones Catapult Rural Africa to 21st Century http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/25/international/africa/25africa.html , They Can Hear You Now oll=la-headlines-technology...

More than just a cheap PC

John Paul — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 17:02:39 -0500

True, successful computer developments by their nature are technology-led. But OLPC isn't just developing a cheap pc - as you point out, Moore's Law will eventually take care of that anyway. OLPC's stated goal is to 'revolutionize how we educate the world's children' which is far more difficult than giving away millions of free laptops to children and hoping for the best. Although much of the responsibility for creating an enabling environment to maximize their use will fall on the governments who purchase the laptops, OLPC has a vested interest - one might even argue an obligation - in helping to ensure that the end results will be worth a developing country's use of scarce educational resources. That is the reason the device is being developed, and that is how it is being marketed and portrayed in the press. My hope is that, given its goals, resources, convening abilities, and ties to a world class educational institution, OLPC will take a more visibly proactive role in addressing some of these questions now being raised. That being said, I whole-heartedly agree that Dr. Negroponte and this initiative should be recognized for helping to bring affordable computers to the masses.

Re: John Paul's Reality Check on the $100 computer

_John Daly — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 12:21:19 -0500

All successful computer developments are "technology-led". The most widely used computer technology serving the needs of the poor in developing nations is the 86 series PC in its various generations, and it would be silly to tell Intel and IBM that they should not be technology-led. Moore's law continues to operate, and someone will eventually make a computer to sell for $100 or less for developing nations. (I would guess it won't be the MIT Media Lab. They are great at getting publicity, but their initiatives such as Media Lab Asia and the Global Center don't seem to have been very successful.) I suppose it will be a firm in Asia that finally taps the potentially huge market for a low price system for poor communities and people. I would point out that a distinguished educational innovator, Symore Papert, is a leader of the MIT group. I have more hope in his influencing the pedagogical community to develop improved ways to serve education with technology, than I do in Negroponte in leading the development of successful commercial hardware. That is not to under-estimate Dr. Negroponte. He too has a huge intellectual influence, and many techies will be stimulated by his work. I think it will be hard to pin down the specific influence, but I bet "the computer for every kid" is much closer today than this time last year because of his initiative. More on this topic in my blog: http://stconsultant.blogspot.com/2005/11/100-dollar-computer-for-developing.html

Reality check for the $100 laptop

John Paul — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 13:58:27 -0500

Among the never-ending stream of news stories hyping the One Laptop Per Child project, there finally seems to be a few that strike a healthy note of caution. Both Slate and CNN ran articles this week that ask some very legitimate questions:

- "If you're willing to assume that MIT can somehow keep the cost at or near the century mark, there's still the question of who will support the computers (and who will pay for that support)."

- "The fact that each laptop comes with a built-in WiFi card won't be of much use if there isn't a WiFi access point nearby."

- "Do they think these machines will last forever. What will happen when they break down?"