Are you amazed at the meteoric rise of OLPC News as the independent source for news, information, and commentary of One Laptop Per Child? How its predicted key changes in the OLPC XO platform, received exclusive audio of key events, and become the key resource for discussion of Nicholas Negroponte's Children's Machine? Then meet the reasons why OLPC News is so informative and influential, its core: contributors and commenters.
First, the new contributors who initiate though-provoking dialog with their exploration of OLPC impacts by writing for OLPC News:
- Eduardo Villanueva Mansilla (eduardo at olpcnews dot com) is a Communications professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, specialized in digital and new media; he's been working with technology since 1991 as systems librarian at the same university, and his interest in IT stems from that experience.
Drawing on that experience and his publications about the Internet, technology, new media and the information society in Peru and Latin America, Eduardo writes for OLPC News, his own blog, and since the unveiling of the XO in Peru, the new Adversus OLPC.
- Christoph Derndorfer (christoph at olpcnews dot com) is currently working on his bachelor in computer science at the Vienna University of Technology. Most of his spare time goes towards EPIACENTER.com, a website dedicated to small and power-efficient computer systems, where he has served as the Assistant Manager since the site was launched in 2003.
His passion for computer technology, and his realization of technology's potential to change people's lives during a year spent in Peru, motivated Christoph to follow the OLPC initiative from the very beginning.
- Luis Ramirez (luis at olpcnews dot com) is Professor at the Institute of Public Affairs of the University of Chile, focusing on e-Inclusion and e-Development policies. He is currently the Director of Futuro Digital (Digital Future), a recently created research group on the impact of new technologies in social development and the head of a web community focused on digital divide.
Luis is a member of the committee in charge of the citizen-led campaign One Computer Per Child (Chile) and as such is one of the few people to have both a OLPC XO and a Classmate PC and blog about it. Better yet, he sees beyond the technology and examines the pedagogy of one to one computing.
- Lee Felsenstein (lee at olpcnews dot com) has been designing electronic circuits and products for 35 years, including some of the first and most influential personal computer designs.
Best known for designing the first portable computer (1981), Lee attempts to optimize the fit between the device and the user within society, applying concepts advanced by radical social thinkers like Ivan Illich ("convivality") and E.F. Schumacher ("intermediate technology").
In 2000 Lee developed the "Jhai PC" for rural Laos villages to access local and internet telecommunications. Called "the pedal-powered Internet" the design won Lee the prestigious Laureate of the Tech Museum of Innovation award. Lee is the co-founder of the Fonly Institute, a consulting product development company that specializes in systems usable in developing countries.
Combined, the contributors and commenters are the core of OLPC News, a core that would love to grow to you include you - the OLPC News readership. Don't be shy, speak your mind, in comments, as a contributor, or in confidence to me.
Were you, like me, surprised to be let off the list of contributors? Was I not 'though provoking' enough?
Such is life.
Robert,
I gave you a shout out (and a link!) in the last round of contributor additions: http://www.olpcnews.com/about_olpc_news/olpc_news_writers.html But just so you feel the love, I've added you to this one too.
"From Winter, who has an optimistic outlook on one to one computing "
I think this is a good characterisation of my views.
However, to add some detail, my optimism is based mostly on the (secure) communication functions build into the XO. I am much less optimistic when it comes down to just a computer in the classroom.
I might add that this optimism evaporates when I try to imagine how any such a vast project has to be implemented. So it is rather fortunate that the OLPC doesn't need me to get the XOs in working order to the children.
And, finally, I am thrilled to read the opinions of people who actually work with the target populations of children. Because I know I cannot even imagine how it is to work in a school in Brazil, Peru, Nepal, or Nigeria.
Winter
Is this becoming some sort of hedonistic show? People complaining tthey are not mentioned in the list of contributors? There are plenty of such folks evolving around OLPCnews, and honestly if granted to one, all should enjoy the same degree of visibility. But since the majority care more about education and less about personal glorification, I guess it's OK not to be mentioned.