If there ever was proof that Nicholas Negroponte wants a laptop project, not an education project, its the slick XO-3 images that Yves Behar and Nicholas Negroponte strutted out in Andy Greenberg's fluff piece "The $75 Future Computer".
A waste of OLPC resources
How can One Laptop Per Child be an education project, when all we see from it is ever more fantastical laptop designs? We've been wow'ed with their XO-2 and now XO-3 vaporware for the past year while Negroponte crows that:
"We don't necessarily need to build it," Negroponte told Forbes. "We just need to threaten to build it."
But where is this same focus on education? Where is Negroponte proudly announcing new Constructionism advances? Or paradigm-shifting learning software? Or even invoking Seymour Papret's influence?
Gone is all that messy focus on children's learning. Its now all about hardware wet dreams of pixels and flat panels. And yet, even here, OLPC is more irrelevant every day, what with actual $100 laptops now for sale by others.
So excuse me if I get mad at the XO-3 hype. I'm angry at the energy devoted to fantasy XO hardware instead of OLPC educational reality. I miss the original OLPC Mission, where children, not computers, controlled our dreams.
I take a different perspective. Costs are a convenient excuse that some people still use to slow the introduction of computer use in many of our school districts. As an educator I have heard and experienced that since 1982.
XO-1 started a change in costs yet costs are still holding up real changes in many areas. OLPC also provided hardware for children where that excuse IS their reality. We still need their work and innovations in terms of costs.
Reform is VERY slow and I believe many of those who make decisions have still not come to grips with the effects that computers and the web are having on the society that they claim they are preparing children for in our schools.
The sense of a lack of control I think is one of the things at the root of their real concerns. This challenges a lot of past practices. I feel that we are also learning so much about learning and that of course is yet another challenge
Many still sadly conform to McLuhan's observation made in the late 60s:
"The children of technological man respond with untaught delight to the
poetry of trains, ships, planes, and to the beauty of machine products.
In the school room officialdom suppresses all their natural experience; children are divorced from their culture. They are not permitted to approach the traditional heritage of mankind through the door of technological awareness; this only possible door for them is slammed in their faces."
I see OLPC as helping to kick open the doors - while helping the developing world we benefit too. Their hidden curriculum is working IMHO!
I always have thought that OLPC is an education project, not a computer project, I guess what really matters is not the laptop, but that the tool should be adequate to garantee that more children in the world have the same opportunities in quantity and quality of access to knowledge society ... is really important the machine? I do not think that.
This is irresponsible. First off, this is and remains vaporware with a fictional price point, and will suffer the same fate as the now-scrapped XO-2, in a DukeNukem Forever-style race to keep up with technology.
Secondly, it begins to reek of the computer industry upgrade treadmill instead of a socially conscious product line focused on long-term platform stability and improvement. Is an iPhone-style tablet really innovative? Is it even remotely as rugged as the XO-1/1.5 model? A host of cracked and scratched iPhone screens would beg to differ.
This seems like a call for attention more than an innovative new path for OLPC.
Jon maybe you don't know, that Nicholas Negroponte was who predicted what will happen with CD-ROMs, web interfaces, service kiosks, the touchscreen interface of the iPhone and his own One Laptop per Child project...
Look this http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/nicholas_negroponte_in_1984_makes_5_predictions.html
Touchscreen (iPhone-style) was his innovation, the difference will be the cost... iPhone is not an educational project for the poorest children in the world
That reminds me - wasn't it Negroponte himself that talked about the XO eliminating the upgrade treadmill, cutting out the bloat, and keeping hardware constant to drive prices down?
Whatever happened to that prediction?
I think you skipped the 75% of the press release talking about XO 1.5 and XO 1.75 that cost $200 and $150 to be released in the next weeks and months and that ACTUALLY are all about lowering the cost of laptops.
Why don't you spend a minute complaining about Intel's strategy, Intel keeps adding bloated stuff to the Intel Atom line of Netbooks to desperately try to keep prices inflated about $350.
I've seen the XO-1.5, so I can believe it exists. But to an XO-1.75 or any price below $200? We've heard that before. I seem to recall a $100 price point that still isn't reached.
Governments are paying closer to $170 for the XO-1 now.
XO-1 could not lower its costs much because the components on the motherboard to work with the AMD Geode were very rare components, actually some of these components only the OLPC project was the one still needing those. So price cuts from Moore's law over the past 2 years on some of the XO-1 components have somewhat actually been countered by some other components like the actual AMD Geode processor and the old type of RAM and Flash memory which have not lowered in price and have actually even gotten more expensive.
That is why XO-1.5 is very important for OLPC, not just because it is more powerful, not just because 4GB storage is nice for storing more than just Sugar OS, it's most importantly because XO-1.5 can use all the most recent components that are very much being mass manufactured so the price of XO-1.5 should be halved every 18 months from now. That is unless VIA for some reason does not get enough industry support, though I doubt that. XO-1.5 will really help kick-start VIA as a X86 alternative for netbooks. Which is EXACTLY what OLPC is all about, fostering more and better competition in the industry.
Wait, you mean OLPC is all about fostering more and better competition in the laptop industry? I thought it was an education project, not a laptop project.
Your point just proves my argument - that OLPC (or at least Negroponte) is about hardware, not education.
Curriculums come after the laptop, not the other way around. Sure OLPC is a hardware project, with the goal to get it in all the Childrens hands as soon as possible, thus it is ultimately an education project.
It's absolutely not about hardware in the sense of making useless over-priced gadgets for rich people in rich countries (think: everything Apple does)
To reach the goal of the $50 laptop in 1 billion children's hands, they have got to force the industry to change.
@Charbax
No, Currucula don't come after the laptop. In a real educational project, they get developed at the same time, because that is what makes education possible. The effort at the moment is on simple mass distribution of laptops, with no interest in actual pilot programs, teacher training, long term sustainability. Getting is the hands of children is not enough to improve education. As any serious educator (and not technology enthusiast) will tell, expecting that a laptop by itself will save the world and automatically change the way education is done, shows pretty much a lack of clue how education actually works.
Besides, speaking in strict hardware terms: where is the $100 laptop promised years ago? Why do we keep hearing about a "revolutionary" laptop that will cost 200$?
OLPC has been doing pilot projects for decades. Enough with the pilot projects already. Those pilot projects only delay the revolution.
It's like demanding that they'd do pilot projects of using the book for education before Gutenberg went ahead and printed them all.
Denying that computers help in improving people's lives, improves education is just stupid at this point. Look further than your nose, and you will see clues everywhere in our society that computer and the Internet has and is improving everything.
Decades? OLPC wasn't even in operation 5 years ago. Let's not be ridiculous here. I am all for availability of cheap laptops, but I am not naive or disillusioned to think that that, by itself will change education.
As for the book example, the first books were available only to a limited minority of people, usually a number of literates surrounded by a vast percentage of illiterates. Dumping books on those would have made no effect in their education.
What really change education was the fact that a more widespread range of schools with teachers were to become available. See, the key is teachers, which apparently you have something against.
The real revolution was in giving the kid the ability to access education in a structured way. I will say it again: I have never seen a large scale project to succeed long term based on a simple delivery of a tool. To cut the chase, I ask for examples where such approach, pursued by OLPC actually made a serious difference on a large scale. Other than that it is simply drinking the kool-aid.
BTW, I am not the only person skeptical about it:
http://edutechdebate.org/one-laptop-per-child-impact/for-real-olpc-impact-we-need-infrastructure/
Jon maybe you don't know, that Nicholas Negroponte was who predicted what will happen with CD-ROMs, web interfaces, service kiosks, the touchscreen interface of the iPhone and his own One Laptop per Child project...
Look this http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/nicholas_negroponte_in_1984_makes_5_predictions.html
Touchscreen (iPhone-style) was his innovation, the difference will be the cost... iPhone is not an educational project for the poorest children in the world
I agree with Wayan 110%.
The XO-1/1.5 is more than good enough already and there is plenty of viable competition in the market now. What we need is not newer, sexier hardware but to actually deploy the existing platform into as many little hands as possible and continue to add software and content for them to learn from.
OLPC is launching XO-1.5 next week, which is crucial to keep lowering the prices of X86 based XO laptops.
And XO-1.75 is the next one to come with beta development boards and beta units of this cheaper and lower power ARM Powered XO laptop probably to be ready within months.
The XO-3 is the vision or how to best use the Pixel Qi screen in a computer. Children learn the most while reading, watching videos and browsing the web. A 10" tablet could be great, especially if the screen is plastic, unbreakable, waterproof, super low power and super cheap.
What more do you want?
What more do I want? Just reality.
@Charbax.
quote:
"Children learn the most while reading, watching videos and browsing the web".
I would love to see any reference about this educational model. This is what OLPC claim to be the recipe saving education, but, as far as I know it's completely unproven and most importantly, doomed to fail in it's current implementations.
I'll said it again. Education is not only about making a tool available, but creating a working infrastructure that includes teachers, communities, parents at the local level. For anybody that has tried to develop curricula (and I had), that is not a minor undertaking. In fact it is a real hard thing to do, that makes laptop distribution (which is what OLPC does) almost a trivial endeavor.
We have to remove the formulation of school curricula from the grips of the teacher union and the like.
The curricula should be formulated by the best educators in the world, by a worldwide process to improve education for all. And not by a small group of uninspired egoists.
Without the book there was no enlightenment. Without the computer and the Internet, there can be no revolution in personalized education.
The curricula needs to be generated in a personalized fashion for each single kid.
May I ask who's actually doing that, effectively?
Which is why you don't see a lot of good, free curriculum.
There is good curriculum, it is old, but it is under copyright. I'm talking 1969 curriculum STILL under copyright. The author will die and the kids will continue to collect money. Which is why we have no innovation - our copyright law is outrageous.
Very good point! Why isn't OLPC throwing its support in the development of free curricula?
It is, sort of, by doing Sugar Labs. That said, OLPC's idea that discovery is all children need will NEVER bring good curriculum. At early ages, while kids are still learning to read and get a base of knowledge, direct instruction is absolutely required - for about 40-60% of kids.
Don't worry OLPC, some of us (OK, maybe one person) is working on comprehensive curriculum that will be effective and field tested ;)
I even have doubts as to upgrading the hardware to 1.5 (or 1.7) versions.
Although it is a natural progress, I see no strategies for phasing out older units.
I pointed this out numerous times but OLPC has to make it clear about at what point the software developers can make use of of hardware powers of these upgraded versions of XOs.
Tablet model is much more viable than vs 2.0's double screen model. However,
it seems like OLPC is behaving like a regular consumer electronic companies' in its product development. I am all for forward thinking and pushing the technologies. But is this really practical way of advancing the OLPC's agendas?
Is one generation of hardware supposed to be replaced this quickly?
Other than some hardware performance boost (vs 1.5 and 1.7), what I think is more of practical upgrade is maybe implementing touch screens. vs 2.0 and 3.0 designs seem more like it should have been in the design studies internally for now and wait for current gen's product cycle to mature a bit more before announcing the next gen's machine.
I dunno... I really really respect Dr. Negroponte for his vision and all the achievement he has made for OLPC organization. But I think they will benefit much more from having a different strategist or spokes person...
James C,
Don't forget that (to the best of my understanding) most of the XO-1.0 Sugar activities will not work on the XO-1.5 version of Sugar without serious hacking.
That maybe true.
Another fact is that even the new apps/activities have to be made to run on all versions (1.0, 1.5, 1.7). This will be true until the next generation of production model of XO is officially decided and introduced to the market.
I am actually not too against the idea of vamping up the hardware a bit since the performance on the vs 1.0 is very poor. But muddying up the market with all these different versions of hardware and announcing design concepts as it's a concrete product plan is not a responsible thing to do.
While keeping the old hardware is tempting, to ignore new advances that can make it cheaper to manufacture and fix the shortcomings of the previous model is kind of stupid.
Also if you look at the olpc's very successful role as an inspiration for other manufacturers to create more inexpensive computers, and to gauge the public's enthusiasm for different design concepts, then making new concept designs is vital.
I hardly doubt that was the calculated move on OLPC's part. I don't deny the "egg of Columbus" effect. But it did take Asus' capitalistic motivation to really kick start the whole netbook phenomenon.
Again, I don't deny the historical aspect of XO's influence. But it's a stretch to say that it was the OLPC's intention all along.
OLPC's intention by now would have been the $100 laptop for everyone and 140 million children with it.
Instead we have $200 laptops for poor people and 1.4 million mostly poor children with it, and $350 laptops for rich people.
It's a good start since laptops for rich and poor people were mostly $700 or more a little over 2 years ago.
OLPC still has some forcing of industry to do to get that price per laptop towards and below $100 for everyone in the coming couple of years.
If you think it takes capitalists to get the price of laptops to $100, if you think you can prove that there is still profit to be made for the consumer PC/Laptop industry when laptops are so cheap, then fine. I say the smaller and smaller profit margins makes this more of a non-profit kind of industry. Perhaps some money will still be made through ads for a very few advertisement companies like Google, yet still, the hardware will basically have to be sold at cost, nobody will be able to profit on hardware anymore in the usual capitalistic way.
I am pretty sure Intel, Microsoft, Apple, HP, Dell, Asus and others have some kind of interest in what the global margins for hardware might be, so I am pretty sure it should be obvious that if they did have a way to kind of delay the shrinking of prices per laptop, then they will try to delay it by whatever means. Cause they probably don't all feel too confident about being able to make that advertising money on laptops once hardware is sold at cost, by non-profits.
"So excuse me if I get mad at the XO-3 hype."
I don't know if everyone has noticed a pattern in Wayan's posts since this site started. He just hates everything that Negraponte or OLPC says or does.
I challenge anyone to show me a post where he unequivocally agrees with anything they have said or done. Perhaps there is one post somewhere, but I would bet $ there are no more than 3.
Michaelc,
You seem to confuse my distaste for Negroponte's overhype with my respect for OLPC achievement. I don't unequivocally agree with him, because I haven't found any of his statements to be unequivocal with.
They are often like his quote above - a grain of truth wrapped in a blanket of hubris. As such, I'll call him out on the b.s. every time.
But the fact that you are far far more often aggressively negative than respectful in your posts makes you come across as someone with an axe to grind. Unfortunately I think that might undermine your credibility in many readers eyes even if you have some well thought out criticisms.
For what it's worth, I have heard similar comments from Walter Bender, Ivan Krstic and Mary Lou Jepsen, and I don't think they come off as having an axe to grind so much as being fed up with the gap between vision and aim.
>>> But where is this same focus on education?
I mean, this is a rhetorical questions, but it has an appropriate answer: Sugarlabs
It is very easy to criticize, but do something to change the world is very complex, everyone wants to give her/his opinion but few dare to act, I love OLPC project and I think this page should help to improve the project, not to destroy it
I agree with the Wayan Vota. Unless OLPC has changed their focus and not mentioned it this is a waste of time, resources, and good will.
No government is going to invest millions of dollars in something that is going to break in a week and be replaced in a year. The XO-3 is just to flimsy to stand up to the conditions the XO was built for.
OLPC should be focusing on Staying with the XO-1 and maybe 1.5 for governments that want stronger hardware. They should be focusing on the software end of things. Make the existing XO models more open, More useful.
if OLPC orphans the XO-1 after selling millions of units based on an idea of education, personal potential and a futue. Their credibility will be permenantly damaged. Countries that invested in XO-1's will not be in a hurry to invest in XO-1.5, 1.7, 2.0, 3.0's. Thay have already laid out millions of dollars for hardware and more for trainig and infrastructure. For OLPC to turn their backs on these countries is uncontionable, and IMHO immoral.
Kids do not need the latest, whiz bang, coolest, thing to learn on. They need a stable, well documented (lets get some more info about rolling your own disto, the particulars of the chipsets, etc), open (lets make a deal with Marvel and opensource the WIFI chip in the XO), STABLE system to learn on. By "STABLE" I'm refering to the hardware not changing every other year. How are older syblings supposed to help the brothers/sisters if the hardware is totally different. How are developers supposed to improve the quality of their offering is they have to waste all their time porting it to new systems.
The XO-3 isn't inspiring. It's a cruel joke. and if it comes to pass it will make the original goals of the OLPC project a joke, and a sad, "could have been...", chapter in history.
Negroponte is just trying to keep this project alive, by any means.
The occasional sycophant/critic voice will not deter him.
The problem, as I see it, is that with ever new iteration of the XO hardware we see a redesign that makes it incompatible with the previous version. If OLPC is to have any lasting effect on transforming the education system what it needs to provide is stability.
If they want to improve the hardware and address shortcomings, fine. But they should do so with a clear and accessible upgrade path for the existing hardware.
Currently, it seems like anyone developing content for the XO is shooting at a moving target. What happens to all the kids with XO-1s when developers start writing code for the XO-1.5 instead?
Rather than designing a radically new XO, why not design a touch screen that is compatible with the current model? Otherwise, the kids will just get left in the technological dust all over again with each new XO platform.
This is basically Mary Lou Jepsen's vision. She has said in interviews that her goal is to make cheap computers available to the developing world. She also says that the present XO design could never be cheap enough, and so we need to go with a tablet that throws away most of a conventional laptop.
As I keep pointing out, once the designs are cheap enough then hundreds of millions of developing world parents will buy them on their own, stuffed with self-instructional software, and bypass the state-run education system. Would anyone care to argue that this is not going to happen?
What exactly to you imagine constitutes "cheap enough"?
s/to/do/
There is no single price point that is low enough, more of a continuum -- the lower the price, the more people can buy it. But my guess is that at $75 a large proportion of developing world parents could purchase one.
There is no single price point that is low enough, more of a continuum -- the lower the price, the more people can buy it. But my guess is that at $75 a large proportion of developing world parents could purchase one.
I think you are right on here. Moving parts like keyboards and hinges are the bane of products that are used in dirty or moist environments.
A sealed touchscreen based unit would have much less potential for failure, plus it would require less work for assembly as it would have fewer parts.
The fact that software will need to be updated to make it work on the new machines is not such a huge deal, it happens all the time in the real world.
Wow, I wonder how Jonathan Fildes at BBC could quote Walter de Brouwer of OLPC Europe saying this in OLPC unveils slimline tablet PC. I would be laughing too hard to type:
Mr Brouwer said that because of the pace of technological change and the ever decreasing prices of electronics he could imagine the design selling for "50, 60 or 70 euros".
He said governments could pay this back over a number of years, allowing pupils to have a laptop for less than one euro per month.
"This is very realistic," he said.
Current prices:
Pixel Qi screen: $20
ARM System-On-Chip full matchbox sized motherboard: $15
Batteries and plastics: $10
Total power consumption: below 1W
How is a $75 Tablet XO-3 in 2 years not realistic?
Wait - anyone notice that Negroponte came out with the XO-3 right after the Cherry Africa PC broke his $100 mark? I wonder if that's just coincidence?
I have the Cherry right here. I filmed it, I actually made Cherry happen. The Cherry company saw my video last month and contacted the manufacturer to distribute it: http://armdevices.net/2009/11/12/80-android-laptop-menq-easypc-e790/
OLPC is making ARM Powered version of the XO in XO 1.75, what more do you want? Do you want OLPC to work faster on releasing XO 1.75? Yeah, I'd like that too. Watch my video coverage of CES from January 4th to 11th at my site, I am sure there will be ample amazing news on ARM Powered laptops shown there, ample to give us plenty of clues about the price and performance of the ARM Powered XO laptops to come.
I have full confidence we'll have hot ARM netbooks. No question there. But I do doubt OLPC will be producing anything more than small evolutions of the XO-1.
And this is how it should be.
The XO-1 is a great design, the 1.5 a good upgrade. Keep this progress coming, combine it with a systematic software upgrade path, and you have consistency that we can build pedagogy around.
Hot flat panels? That's for geeks, nt teachers.
Have you seen the Kindle? This thing is perfect for reading.
XO-3 is just like a 10" color Kindle tablet. Perfect for education. You could put some kind of stick in the ring thing as a stand to set it up on the table, and use a $3 wireless keyboard if you want the whole laptop experience when on a table.
Plastic unbreakable sunlight readable touch screens, that's something for Mary Lou Jepsen to solve in the next couple of years all the while her screen revolutionizes the whole laptop, tablet and e-reader industries.
XO-1 can not buy from JAPAN.
(and we can not join that "get one, give one")
I hope so that we will be able to buy "XO-3" from Japan.
and we can join to next "get one, give one".
Thank you.
"History" (just click on archives above) shows that Negroponte bashing/hardware issues are what excite the visitors of this site, specially when sprinkled with educational "arguments". Wayan knows that and is also the editor... So he is just doing his job and actually very well!
Now, till XO-59 appears let's straight up few things.
OLPC's XO-1.5 runs all the XO-1 software and more.
OLPC's XO-1 mostly thanks to S. Parish is likely to get a deployment strength Sugar update early 2010
Thanks to M.Stone, rainbow security is returning to Sugar 0.82 +
Deployments and their needs are slowly getting into focus at SugarLabs (mostly thanks to T. Vizoso)
Collaboration functionality is slowly returning to focus at SugarLabs and OLPC.
OLPC is in Africa trying to help content/curriculum development
So when pass the flamboyant headlines and the gadgetry hardware, an educational project is in development and is advancing. Is not really "selling" as NN's new quote but what the heck, is all part of the game...
I understand why Wayan and others are so disappointed about the focus on hardware rather than on education.
But the XO 3.0 is yet another important step forward. The simpler the machine, the cheaper and durable it is going to be. Purchase price and TCO remain very important for organisations, especially if it goes to thousands or millions.
My experience with 10 inch eReaders is that they are very vulnerable and protection covers are inadequate. As long as there is no plastic screen instead of glass, the design of the XO 2.0 gives greater protection than that of the XO 3.0. But to distribute a picture well over 2 screens is not so easy, I've seen several prototypes but not on the market.
The XO 1.5 is a major step forward after 2 years and desperately needed. The community of the XO 1.0 is large enough for the software development and they could pay SugarLabs for this. The Open Community has also a responsibility here, don't forget that OLPC is still a very small team, not like an Intel or Microsoft.
We disagree with many things of OLPC, that's a different view on how to do it, but still we can reinforce each other anyway. Lets solve the bugs in the XO 1.5, import the Sugar activities and discover the opportunities of Gnome for secondary and higher education. Still there is no alternative for developing countries with the same perfect features!
One Laptop Per Child.
How many times have I heard that phrase over the last four or more years. Its all about the children. Its about education provided by technology. Its about using technology in the classroom to provide an adventure in learning because this will foster kids needs to explore learning.
Now what we've seen is a device with the potential to provide all of that and it has been shipped to many countries already where the above statements of educational adventure are happening right now. Adults on the ground in the schools have reported of their achievements with kids.
What has tainted the experiment is the ass-backward thinking of the people making decisions. Negroponte found it hard to sell his concept to Governments because many wanted Microsoft in the boxes. After all, 95% of the World use Microsoft on their laptops and desktops so how would kids benefit from learning to use something different.
The Governments that did adopt the XO were in countries where Microsoft were not dominant and Open Source Linux distributions were disproportionate in their popularity. They could see the advantages of allowing education to follow the Free and Open Source path.
The difficulty lies in the marketing strategy. Do you keep building the same product that was designed four years ago? Will the volume of sales bring the price lower? Would the XO-1 have reached the $100 price point?
I fail to see the advantage of the XO-2 or even the XO-3 for the kids education. Keyboard skills are an important lesson to learn which can only be through a tactile keyboard, not a touch screen. Why would kids want multi-touch? It might be cool for the gadget freaks. All those IPod owing, music store downloading, app purchasers might like it but its my experience that touch screen is a dead end technology. Fun but of no practical use.
The $99 computer is here already in the form of a laptop style PDA using an VIA VT8500 processor, 128MB ram and 2GB flash. Yes it runs WinCE 6 and has trouble with Flash support making it hard to use on sites like Youtube but some people have found ways to overcome this.
This discussion on Ubuntuforums is worth a read. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1349626
This laptop at $99 would make an excellent educational device and may be even cheaper in large quantity so why cant OLPC produce something simple, reliable, useful and ignore the complaints from the IPod owners that want multi-touch.
I am not so sure that keyboard skills are going to be vital in a few years considering how well dragon dictate works on an iphone.
VOTA is wrong. Of course they can be build for even less than $75
Perhaps we need to take a closer look into VOTA's background for commercial motivations for his outrageous distracting, divisive claims wrapped in nauseating rhetoric that he "cares" so much for the children.
We can all smell a rat, rats like the notorious longtime wolf in sheeps garb, and not so covert EUGENICIST, Bill Gates IV of micro$oft, and his joined at the hip huckster and cutthroat Andy "getem" Grove.
Come on people, XO must be 100% open source, nonWINTEL, remember, the likes of Gates and Grove come from EUGENICIST & EXPLOITATIVE backgrounds whose fortunes helped create the problem we are trying to solve, and they want to profit off it, they may have no shame, but do you have sense enough to close the door on these vampires ?
They must be bankrupted then shamed & shunned for the monsters they are, not given an opportunity to launder their licentious lechery against humanity.
http://teaminfinity.com/COMMUNIQUE_12545.shtml
http://TeamInfinity.com/LINKS.html
I really shouldn't reply to this. The obvious flame bait is obvious.
But what exactly are you claiming to be a doctor of?
In the first third of your rant you make accusations against Wayan, but in the next two thirds, instead of backing up your accusations, you go off on some diatribe against Bill Gates.
Wayan Vota != Bill Gates.
I have seen them both in person and I can assure you they are very separate individuals.
IMHO, The failure to involve educationists in this project from the beginning (unless you count Seymour Papert) on a 1:1 ratio with computer scientists is precisely the reason that this is not an education project.
Children teach themselves, without exception.
We heal and teach ourselves, in spite of doctors and "educationalists".
USA is a text book example, despite inadvertently giving us the wonderfully liberating, field-leveling, expert obsoleting, evil elite frustrating Internet, USA has the biggest education and medical budgets in the world, the most medicated and "educated" people in the world, and somehow the sickest and dumbest. Imagine that. Need we say more ? Gatto understands this.
It goes without saying that OLPC is crucial to assist children to teach themselves, with the guidance of their own parents.
Bravo to Nicolas Negroponte for OLPC and thanks to VOTA for providing this forum.
OLPC is key to enabling the masses to free themselves from the grip of the slavers worldwide, hence the need to keep the likes of the Gates and Grove out of the picture.