The State of The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

It’s been a while since we’ve heard what is happening inside the One Laptop Per Child project. Here we meet Chuck Kane, president of OLPC, and he tells us about why they went with Microsoft and gives us an update on the project. One thing we learn is that they are bringing back the “give one, get one” program that was very popular.

Tags: child, children, Chuck Kane, education, OLPC, one laptop per child

 

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Hey, why not record your own video response on Youtube - and insert the url here.
Posted by Gagner argent (not verified) on February 25, 2009 1:23 PM

One laptop by child is a very good idea ! Nowadays be able to use a computer is a necessity in every kinds of occupation you can have !

Posted by Damas (not verified) on February 19, 2009 1:59 AM

is it possible to make a comment plugin that can have in wordpress that instead of subscribing to a post comment it gives the option to post it to your twitter account. but not all comments just the ones you make on that blog. I have notice that not just a post has valid information but comments on a subject gives more to the post and it would make it easier to find post that relate to what you are looking for and the comments about what you are looking for.

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 3, 2008 6:51 PM

What about Canada?

Posted by Gregg Heifetz (not verified) on October 3, 2008 11:10 AM

at 3:40 Scoble asks him:

Scoble: "Why this device? Why not a netbook? Because I just saw a whole bunch of netbooks at the consumer electronics show in Berlin that cost about $400. Right, these are about $200?"

Kane: "These are about $200 right now, and the reason is that there's more to it than just a book. We typically will load a hundred books onto this computer, as part of the deployment, as we've done in Uruguay, Peru, and some other countries, in their native language. But the computer is much more than just a book. It's got all the capabilities of any computer you... in fact you're seeing a surge now in what's called nettops, computers that are low end laptops. And those computers are typically just internet enabled. These computers... remember we're not a computer company. We're an education company. And the idea of everything that is in and around this computer and what it enables, is education related, so we have a lot of education software that we build into the computer, that enables the child to advance its learning skills, his or her learning skills, etc."

--He thinks a netbook is an ebook. He thinks nettops are netbooks, and that they can only access the internet and do nothing else. From the interview, he seems to me to be some hired MBA that has no real intimate knowledge of the OLPC device, and just learned some generalities and platitudes to spout. Notice later in the interview when he does the classic 'put your hand on mouth' to feign interest in what Scoble is saying.

Later, at about 11:00 he talks about Negreponte's deal with Microsoft, in which the project jettisoned its previously stated principles to only use free software . It's so depressing to see what started as a worthy project just so completely lose its soul.