Chris, Most developing countries blow away a multiple of that amount in corrupt practices.. In most developing countries that kind of money is stashed away in the bedrooms of a few chieftains.. Is that the issue?
The issue as I see is: Can we lower the cost of computing to a level where we can extend its frontiers.. let many more to benefit from it.. how to do it.. Simputer has sold less than 10,000 in 5 years and most of its is pushed on to the government.. ordinary people do not buy it, cannot buy it.. and if it were that good in reality as it sounds on power point presentation, won;t the world have lapped it up by now.. there are cheaper, better, more convenient options available or must be available to the people for them not to try simputer.. If there is one idea that is embraced with passion without facts backing it up, it is simputer.. a catchy name, a great idea, a good prototype but NOT product enought to be in the hands of its own target customers.. We may choose to be frivolous.. How would you like to be judged.. That is the basic question.. I am not speaking for or on behalf of Negroponte.. I do not need to.. But to trash an idea that has actually captured the imagination of those who can make it possible is destroying value.. If only for the fact that its been debated like no other in the past six months, Negroponte has created enough value for a life time of most people who are debating it.. Craig Smith and I tried talking about a $200 PC in 2002 and went to various IT ministers of various Asian countries but while we had sympathetic years we had little else.. Negroponte has shown he can do it.. Even if MIT media Lab could not create one, it may have fertilised the ground for the next generation of low cost computing.. Value is not created only by going from A to Z.. Its created at each stage and the concept and the prototype alone are worth a quarter of the value that may be generated as we go along.. Similarly, Simputer has done a great job of energizing the field, it also captured the imagination and though it is not really what market will accept as a product, its a great contribution.. Like something you romance with.. I do not wish to pass the virginity test of liking Simputer to get past the threshold of being acceptable to the club.. But we may need to change our glasses in light of what is in front, staring at us.. On 11/29/05, Chris Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear Mr. Jha, > > On Mon, 2005-11-28 at 20:33 -0500, Satish Jha wrote: > > Nicholas Negroponte has done it once again. He has capyured the > imagination > > of the world interested in bridging the digital divide by talking about > a > > laptop for $100 and creating a vision of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). > > Might you perhaps, one day, feel like answering Taran's questions about > the $100 laptop, rather than yet again telling us what a wonderful idea > it is without any factual backing whatsoever? > > > Interestingly while the organised world has responded positively to his > > strategy, the activists in the space see it is intrusive from someone > who > > does not listen to teh ground. > > Presumably you classify the Chilean government as a bunch of > disorganised activists: > > [http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2005-11-04-022-26-NW-HW-PB] > > > It has been called "top-down", elitist, > > redundant, another way of MIT usurping the people's movement by using > its > > branding power, a plain bad machine that does not meet the requirement > > If true, these are valid criticisms. I have seen no evidence that > persuades me that they are not. > > > Some say the funds may have been allocated for better purposes. > > Mae West once said "well, they would say that, wouldn't they?" But $100 > million is a huge chunk of most countries' educational budgets. It would > pay for the (re)training of 100,000 teachers in the poorest countries, > which would be much more likely to have a positive impact on education > than an infinite number of glorified green calculators. > > > Just the intensity of reaction is a amazing. Reminds me of the green > > revolution days when there were people who were busy leading it and a > bunch > > of critics who could see little right about it and now the critics have > > faded and all of us are reaping the benefits of having gon through it. > > Oh, and where is this green revolution now? Is our petroleum consumption > going down? Or energy use? Have we stopped cutting down the rainforests? > Are we not testing genetically modified plants in the wild? Have we > improved our environment in any way at all since we all started smoking > pot and making peace signs? > > The critics didn't fade. They got organised instead of getting stoned. > They got elected on promises of tax cuts and cutting red tape. And then > they silently squished the so-called "green revolution". Unfortunately. > > > In the case of $100 laptop the poor do not have to realy pay for it > > Of course not, these laptops will rain out of the sky, airdropped by the > US military in cluster bomb packets, and paid for by God himself (or > Bush, whoever is the richer). > > > Someone else is planninbg it for them, someone else is organising it > > That worked out really well for the Soviet Union, didn't it? > > > and its coming out of funds that have been generated for the project. > > I think that Negroponte would disagree. He was very clear at WSIS that > countries would have to stump up the $100 million for the programme > themselves. > > Cheers, Chris. > -- > (aidworld) chris wilson | chief engineer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in > the body of the message. > -- Satish Jha Special Adviser, Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICTs Principal Adviser, vMoksha Technologies Co-Chair, Economic Opportunities Commission, WITFOR Management Consultant - Technology Strategy, Management and Program/Project Management www.vmoksha.com; www.dpindia.org; www.aiti-kace.com.gh; www.witfor.org _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
