Lisa,
I would agree with you, except for one thing: this isn't a $100 laptop.
It's a project requiring a minimum investment by a government in the
millions of dollars. For a third world nation, this is a case where the
sheer amount of the investment is overwhelming. It encourages the model
of "throwing technology at the problem" that has been at the basis for
so many unsuccessful community technology programs. I met with some
people at a local YMCA here in Chicago recently, and was told that they
had closed down their community technology initiatives because the
programs were so unsuccessful, despite enormous investments in
technology infrastructure. Despite the fact that he could name the
technology coordinator in charge of the unsuccessful project, the person
I was speaking with had no idea what community outreach work was done to
support the project, or what level of curriculum development was
planned. He was confused...we put this much money into all these nice
shiny new computers, he seemed to be saying, and nothing great really
happened as a result.
When the project is billed as a panacea for bridging the digital divide,
it is harmful. When the project requires a minimum investment so massive
that it directly undermines any efforts to provide infrastructure and
support services, it's just a quick way to waste money in a third world
economy. No one's saying hey, there's a minimum investment of a couple
of hundred million rupees, and then several times that much required in
infrastructure, support, teacher training, etc, but if we do all that,
we'll have a revolution in the Indian digital literacy situation. The
marketing hype is to take one small piece of that, require a massive
investment to *guarantee* the project's profitability, and then deploy
it; leaving the rest in the hands of local governments. These
governments, have been so encouraged to once again think of technology
as the answer instead of the one tool in a complete solution, are thus
put in a position to fail. And to fail expensively.
If Dell was shipping laptops in India for $100, this would be an
altogether different discussion. And I agree that the laptops currently
in the Indian market are extremely useful without an existing mesh
network. I just don't buy in to the hype of this particular project.
Dave.
-------------------
Dave A. Chakrabarti
Projects Coordinator
CTCNet Chicago
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(708) 919 1026
-------------------
Lisa Thurston wrote:
I hear the criticisms of the $100 laptop program and I agree these are
somewhat justified, but just couldn't let these two emails pass without
response!
Let's not forget that it's not like these laptops will be useless without
any wireless infrastructure -- or even without the Internet. I don't think
we should automatically assume wireless connectively is a strict
precondition of using the Negroponte laptops effectively. Having the laptop
in hand can also act as a motivator to provide more momentum to build the
necessary infrastructure to have wireless connectivity.
And let's face it -- many of us have wireless-enabled laptops but can't use
them everywhere. Particularly, if you live in Australia you are ready to
openly acknowlegde that there is simply never going to be wireless
connectivity across broad swathes of rural/remote land -- of the
802.111xvariety anyway. There is simply not the demand. There is not
even widespread
wireless meshing in the major cities yet -- this doesn't stop our laptops
still being mighty useful though.
I don't see this as a chicken before the egg scenario. Nor do I see how
Moore's law should apply just because the laptop is more advanced -- at
least initially -- than its surrounding infrastructure.
Regards
Lisa
That is what makes this whole thing so interesting for me. Normally we would
talk about the infrastructure first ... I am just being sarcastic of course.
As I recalled countries such as Brazil, China and Nigeria (I could be
wrong about the name of the countries) already put in order for 100millions
laptop. Delivery time as I understand is sometime before the end of this
year. Perhaps the chicken would come before the eggs?
Taran Rampersad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: It's all a very good idea if
there is an infrastructure for the wireless
to connect to. The money for those laptops could be spent on
infrastructure so that there is actually something to connect to,
instead of something that will be outdated in one evolution of Moore's
Law... 18 months.
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