[Edu-sig] OLPC G1G1 sales start today

[Paul D. Fernhout]

Andrew Harrington wrote:
> I understood the time limitt had something to do with restrictions on
> nonprofit status, though I am sorry I forget where I heard it -- maybe
> laptop.org before the sale started.  

I heard the same thing, but it does not make much sense to me, as there are
a lot of educational non-profits which have sales as part of their missions.
I would expect OLPC sales would be clearly income related to their exempt
purpose? OLPC News was set up by someone in part out of a feeling some of
these decisions were less transparent than they should be.

> I certainly agree that I would
> want to at least make sure a friend of my kid in the same neighborhood
> was doing the same thing, or buy double myself.

One thing about this is that I wonder if a typical spread-out car-requiring
US neighborhood, unlike a clustered rural village, will have the density to
make the mesh network useful?

I'm getting two from a developer point of view, but then I've long been
interested in and worked on educational software (going back more than 25
years). So for me, it's mostly an R&D investment, a learning opportunity,
and also something charitable. I have fairly low expectations for it other
than perhaps to use to deploy my own Python-ic creations, and my family has
other laptops and desktops to use for production work or web surfing. I'll
be very happy if the music software really does network well.

For a more typical home user, especially one who does not already know and
like GNU/Linux, I'm not sure if it would meet expectations in the developing
world as other than either as special purpose device (like used as an ebook
reader or robot controller) or alternatively, for a family who buys several,
as a family activity to use some of the built in "connectivist" software
(either what is there now or what might be speculatively available in the
future). Again from the review by an eight year old:
  http://www.laptopmag.com/Review/My-8-Year-Old-Reviews-the-OLPC-XO.htm
"When given the choice between the XO and his current PC, Nicholas naturally
chose the latter. When asked whether he would rather use the XO or his
Leapster handheld learning system, he chose the Leapster. But when given the
choice between the XO and nothing, he was okay with the XO. And since that's
the choice facing the potential recipients of the XO, that may be enough of
a victory."

So, I've actually somewhat discouraged someone I know who wants it just as a
good laptop present for their kid. If the recipient is not into the "giving"
part, or the "developing" part, or the "learning its quirky OS" part, I
think a kid would be disappointed, as in the above review. If they are into
giving, developing in Python, or learning GNU/Linux, then by all means, it
may be a great educational experience to be part of a movement, and to have
a portable platform one can write Python software for. I'm tempted to just
velcro one to the wall and use it to track the local weather -- although
I've seen cheaper dedicated computing devices one might use for that.

Still, it does not, to me, seem to have the ease-of-use of an "appliance",
like these attempts:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat
given that I assume any purchaser will need to upgrade the software as it is
just the first big public release. Maybe in a few years a system like this
might ship with good enough software you could expect not to have to upgrade
it or add to it regularly.

Still, I might be wrong, and it might be good enough out of the box, I'll
see; I've only worked with limited emulated development versions of it.
Obviously, it is the aim of the OLPC project and Sugar to deliver exactly
that ease of use and automatic migration and installation of applications. I
think we are still waiting for the verdict on that (currently reviews seem
mixed and the software seems still in flux).

I'm also still not sure what I make of the legal liability of running a mesh
network node if yours is the link that is readily identifiable and connected
directly to the internet. Hopefully you can secure it with a pass phrase?
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Mesh_Security

On a tangent, while  one can disagree with the distribution plans for
developing nations, the idea behind selling a million at once was to
saturate an entire area with them to promote a wi-fi mesh across a big area,
as well as to make theft less likely.

Personally, as one person on OLPC News suggested though,
"10 Reasons Why Negroponte Should Change OLPC Distribution"
http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/negroponte_change_olpc_distribution_.html
this idea might work better in a city -- where a progressive mayor might
order a few thousands to blanket the city area.

As is said at that link: "Contrary to state and federal governments, in the
municipal scale, one enthusiast can make a project happen. City mayors are
usually eager to find projects that can put their own city on the map, even
if that means doing things nobody has ever done before. Also, a thousand
children and his families can represent five thousand voters, and that does
make a difference in the next elections, specially if you promise to expand
this one-school project to others when your term is ending. A couple
thousand dollars is the just the scale they can afford: around the cost of a
bridge, a new road or reforming a school. "

I thought that was a really good idea -- focusing on developing cities not
developing nations. But then I've long been a Jane Jacobs fan. :-)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs

--Paul Fernhout