Hi Taran,
I suppose by buying a US$100 laptop an illiterate becomes literate and
exploring the Internet fulfills the curriculum of all thirty plus students
in each class.!!
I am of course, not under- valuing the phenomenal wealth of knowledge
accessible by the same laptop but...
The whole concept of the Simputer is that it was developed within the
context of a 'developing' country and its design took account of the
inherent priorities and encouraging/utilizing local talent. We [including
the UN] should, I believe, be orienting all our energies -- and funds to
encouraging that area of development in developing countries.
The $100 laptop from MIT/Negroponte is no doubt fantastic but when will our
own inherent inventiveness be focused on?? This latter
[encouraging/enhancing our own talent and fusing it to our priorities] is a
crucial multiplier in development but still to be a focus by international
assistance programmes. It's far easier for our talent to migrate to where
it will be utilized than hope within the boundaries of our own circumstance.
The Simputer and the concept it represents struggles on.
Every good wish,
Errol Hewitt
At 10:28 18/11/2005 -0600, you wrote:
As I keep saying, it's not a $100 laptop. It's a $100 million laptop. As
far as this Negroponte issue - is it Negroponte's, or is it MIT Media
Labs? If it is a product of MIT Media labs, wouldn't it be more
appropriate to call it 'the MIT Media lab laptop which costs $100 US if
you order a million'?
I never even heard of Nicholas Negroponte before this laptop. Someone
must think he's awfully important. So I found his biography
(http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/nnbio.htm ) and then
the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Negroponte
And here's the Wikipedia link to the $100 laptop
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%24100_laptop ) which I haven't touched
and I am unlikely to touch because my thoughts on this would be
considered to be outside 'Neutral Point of View', or NPOV. I am glad
that it links to the Simputer, a real initiative which doesn't require
100 million. I suppose that the problem of the Simputer is that it
doesn't have the U.S. marketing machine behind it... and that may also
be it's greatest downfall, if people buy into the hype.
I've tried contacting his Negroponte-ness in the past when the
initiative was first unveiled (oddly, at the same time the U.S. media
was reporting the Simputer as a failure despite it's smaller successes).
Maybe he doesn't like me. :-) I don't mind him so much, I just don't
believe in what he is doing and I'm not buying the hype... and I'm not
even writing about him because even bad press feeds the marketing
machine. I'm not out to help 'the MIT Media lab laptop which costs $100
US if you order a million' even if it's bad press. It's a myopic
approach to a problem which many, MANY people who have their feet on the
ground disagree with, and ignoring those same people reinforces the same
divide that this laptop is supposed to solve.
If you bought over a million Simputers, the price would probably be
below a hundred dollars. Duh. Hype. Hype. Hype.
Andy Carvin wrote:
> Honestly, I think probably not. One thing Negroponte has been
> emphasizing is that they only want to work with national governments
> willing to purchase laptops in batches of one million or more. That's
> one of the ways they intend to keep costs down. I don't know if Italy
> is one of the initial countries signed up to partner with them. -andy
>
> epanto wrote:
>
>> Dear Andy,
>> We are a school network in Italy,www.dschola.it
>> <http://www.dschola.it>, and
>> we participate in an eu and latin american cofounded project, called
>> integra, www.integraproject.org <http://www.integraproject.org>
>> we are interested in collaborating with the $100 laptop project: we are
>> trying to get in touch with Mr Negroponte and its staff but we don't
>> succeed. Do you know if there are any interest from them in
>> collaboration
>> with schools?
>>
>> thank you
>>
>> all the best
>>
>> Eleonora Panto'
>>
>> eCommunities Area Manager
>> ______________________________________________
>> CSP - ICT Innovation
>> +390114815139 - +393486086090
>> email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> skype:epanto
>> web: www.dschola.it <http://www.dschola.it/>
>> _______________________________________________
>> DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list
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>
>
--
Taran Rampersad
Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad
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http://www.knowprose.com
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Coming on January 1st, 2006: http://www.OpenDepth.com
"Criticize by creating." Michelangelo
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