Hello Sarah, Yes what you said is true. The point however is how you can improve on the current bad situation it already is. Let me give you a very simple contribution of a simple OLPC laptop or rather we should use the term ULPC - Ultra Low cost PC rather than One Laptop Per child (which I do agree with you would be silly and does not work ) Let us take the extreme example of a remote village without electricity and like you say does not even have a single toilet. Now, how can the government start to improve their current situations without huge investment of manpower (manual) and the likes for the whole country? With a single ULPC powered maybe by a low cost solar panel (since a single ULPC would not need so much electricity unlike the entire class with ULPC linked with satellite disc etc). If there is a simple dial up Internet connection available that would be great to provide instant update of contents. Let us say , this village does not even have that. What can a laptop do? Assuming one is able to provide the laptop, we can assume that software can be preinstalled into it. If software contents that have very small footprints that would be even better because much much more contents can be placed into the laptop in initial installation to be updated through say pendrives later. With a laptop (without projectors of course), at least a good number of people in that remote village shall be able to learning something. Get trained in the proper methods of agriculture for one, proper storage etc. A teacher shall be able to have access to right contents and be able to teach / pass on the knowledge to others like peer coaching even though that teacher does not have that skill initially. This may not be the ideal situation but I strongly believe the best solution under the circumstances of remoteness, poverty etc is the best solution. In fact I would say, the first laptop with its supporting equipments like solar power etc would be the first necessity for that village... not toilets nor how to irrigate their fields. Knowlege and able to reach out to the most remote is the first goal. The rest would take care if itself. That people in the village would start to learn how to read, how to irrigate their land etc not because some government teams came to teach them ...but from the little box you call a laptop. If there is a simple dial up connection available and contents have very small footprints , it can do wonders especially to the little children of that remote village. Alan www.paperlesshomework.com Oh, yeah! Just go spend a few days in an African village and then come back and tell me what it is you think you can sell there.
Composting toilets? (50% of Ghanaian villagers have NO toilets of any kind and use the bushes.) Solar lanterns? Some unknown majority of Ghanaian villagers use KEROSENE (a dangerous poison) to "light" their homes. Post-harvest processing equipment? A big part of every harvest rots in the marketplace because the village doesn't have canning or bottling or packaging equipment. Foot-operated irrigation equipment? 99% of African farms are watered only by rain, only in the rainy season. School uniforms and notebooks for all children, including girls? AT least 1/2 of African girls don't go to secondary school. I bet there are 100 other appropriate, low-cost products that villagers would buy before a laptop computer.... Sarah The narratives of the world are numberless. . . . there nowhere is nor has been a people without narrative.--Roland Barthes Sarah Blackmun-Eskow President, The Pangaea Network 290 North Fairview Avenue Goleta CA 93117 805-692-6998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.pangaeanetwork.org -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of arthur richards Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 5:14 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [email protected] Subject: [DDN] Fw: Re: PhD research on OLPC I think quite frankly in the developing world where I was brought up and come from an OLPC is not the first need, it is not the second, it is not the third, nor the fourth need nor the 10th most important need! Business people want to sell and still have their heads in the sand that a parent or government is going to squander $100 or $200 to buy a laptop when that parent does not earn that in one year! Wake up guys! Go to where you want to sell these things and come back. You might just change your mind. Arthur --- On Mon, 22/9/08, Joel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Joel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <[email protected]> Received: Monday, 22 September, 2008, 1:55 PM On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 5:09 AM, Cindy Lemcke-Hoong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > what is the different between telecenters and 'community computers'? If they are the same, for search purpose, perhaps we could keep to the same terms? > Cindy In the 3rd world countries, a PC is generally too expensive for individual ownership (hence the relevance of the OLPC). The cost is not just the purchase price of the HW, but must include the SW costs, and the user's time to learn and use the technology. It is simply that an OLPC is so "out-of-context" in the lives of the average citizen. It is our belief that this is because too little effort is placed in providing appropriate applications / solutions at the 3rd world point-of-view. The telecenter OTOH MUST contextualize at the community level. Can the same be said for the OLPC? J Galgana BayangPinoy Organization, Inc. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. Make the switch to the world's best email. Get Yahoo!7 Mail! http://au.yahoo.com/y7mail _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
