One Laptop Per Child News

Resumen en español al final del artículo

This weekend the fine folks from the OLPC community in New Delhi are organizing a 2-day conference and hack session:

Kartik Kumar Perisetla, one of OLPC Hack '13 New Delhi's organizers, sent over this event introduction:

For the first time in India, passionate developers and volunteers are coming together in the capital to be part of an educational reform that is changing the world at rapid rate. Yes, its One Laptop per Child. Since long individual volunteers are working on Sugar Desktop Environment on independent things and contributing, but now the time has arrived to come together and collaborate to amplify the effort to see impact. A two day long hackathon has been organized in New Delhi to bring together developers, volunteers and budding contributors who want to join the mainstream body impacting education of millions of children across the globe in the open source era.

OLPC/Sugar experts and volunteers will be taking sessions, discussing about how it all started, what they do, what is XO, how deployment works and how its actually bringing the change in the world. Most fascinating part of event is the deep dive on why it all started and how can each of the invitee can participate and encourage others to join this wonderful cause.

A key attraction is the overnight hackathon where experts will mentor participants on how to write activities, how sugar works and how they can contribute in this project. Developers are also encouraged to develop an activity as part of overnight hackathon to ensure they got the crux of it and to get their creative ideas on board that will benefit OLPC. So far amazing response has been observed for the event. We believe that Hack '13, New Delhi event should bring much larger participation from india in OLPC.

Unfortunately I won't be able to join the fun in-person but I will likely appear as a virtual participant during a panel discussion.

Another possibility for remote participation is a Google Hangout On Air session which will be hosted by the Unleash Kids Campaign. It will take place on Saturday, June 8 between 7:30am - 8:30am EDT (that's 1:30PM for people like me here in Central Europe and 5PM local time in New Delhi). Add Unleash Kids to your circles on Google+ to see the Hangout On Air or visit the Unleash Kids YouTube Channel.

Be there (at least virtually;-), or be square.

Resumen en español: Este fin de semana la buena gente de la comunidad de OLPC en Nueva Delhi están organizando una conferencia y una sesión de hacking de 2 días: OLPC Hack '13 New Delhi. Lamentablemente no voy a ser capaz de estar allí en persona, pero probablemente voy a aparecer como un participante virtual durante un panel de discusión.

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Three weeks ago I mentioned that OLPC Association has been remarkably quiet about the Android-based Walmart XO Tablet which it had introduced at CES 2013 in early January. Since then things have progressed a little bit with the Web site receiving a bit of a facelift.

Then yesterday Engadget posted an article and video (embedded below) about the XO Tablet. The 8-minute video provides a good introduction to the device and software so I recommend watching it.

In terms of availability it is said that mass production of the XO Tablet recently started and that it will be sold on walmart.com starting on June 1. A month later it should also become available in a limited number of physical stores. Again no information on pricing was revealed.

Now given OLPC Association's track record and the previously discussed March launch date going by without as much as a sound I remain skeptical (hence the supposedly in the title) until I actually see it on walmart.com myself.

Beyond that I'm generally still not sure what to make of the XO Tablet. Strategically it very clearly is a move to capitalize on the OLPC brand. It's also obvious that despite its planned use in Uruguay the XO Tablet is a run-of-the-mill Android device that has little to do with the broader vision and work that OLPC has done in the past 8 years. Yes, there's the dreamy software interface, some content partnerships, and cute green protective cover. But it's still a commercial and US-centric product that will compete with a hundred other tablets for virtual and physical shelf-space rather than even trying to make a meaningful impact on children's education.

Or I am missing a big piece of the picture? What reasons do you see for why anyone would buy an XO Tablet rather than a low-cost tablet by the likes of established consumer brands such as Acer, Archos, Amazon, Asus, Google or Samsung?

Resumen en español: En este video de Engadget se presente el XO Tablet y esta mencionado que llegara a walmart.com el primero de Junio. Pero aparte de esto la verdad es que yo todavía no estoy seguro de qué hacer con la XO Tablet. ¿Quizas me estoy perdiendo una gran parte de la imagen? ¿Qué razones le ve a por qué alguien iba a comprar una XO Tablet en lugar de una tablet de bajo costo de una de las marcas de consumo establecidos como Acer, Archos, Amazon, Asus, Google y Samsung?

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Ever since it introduced the Android-based Walmart XO Tablet at CES 2013 in early January OLPC Association has been remarkably quiet about it. The official Web site at xo-learning.org still looks like it was put together in a rush on a Friday evening, the blog on the site hasn't seen any updates since late January, and the anticipated launch-month of March went by without a single word from OLPC Association. Only the @xolearning Twitter account has regularly tweeted but it's been fairly generic chatter. This lack of updates, combined with OLPC's history of launching products which much fanfare only to quietly cancel them later (XO-2, XO 3.0) has led to some people wondering whether this was yet another vaporware announcement.

However according to an article on a Uruguayan Web site from last week Plan Ceibal recently decided to purchase 10,000 XO Tablets. According to the piece these tablets are part of an evaluation to decide whether Uruguay's 5- and 6-year-olds (which means pre-school and grade 1 pupils respectively) will receive a tablet, an XO or a hybrid (which sounds like the XO-4 Touch) in the future. Given that 47,000 pupils start primary school each year coming out on top of the evaluation could be quite a win for the XO Tablet, though naturally that would potentially cut into sales of the XO-4 (Touch).
What strikes me as somewhat odd about the evaluation is that the article indicates that it will be completed by the end of the year, even though the XO Tablets are only expected to be distributed in four months. Even excluding possible delays this leaves precious little time for any sort of evaluation and comparison with the 10,000 hybrid devices which are apparently also being evaluated.

Another interesting detail which the article reveals is that according to the current plans the pre-school pupils will have to keep their devices in kindergarten or pre-school whereas grade 1 pupils will be allowed to take them home.

Overall this is certainly good news. It's good for OLPC because, well, selling 10,000 XO Tablets indicates that it's not vaporware and Plan Ceibal has some confidence in the product. It's also good for Uruguay's pupils because it shows that Plan Ceibal continues to innovate and look for the most suitable technologies to integrate in the country's education system.

Resumen en español: Despues de no escuchar nada de OLPC Association sobre el XO Tablet que anunció en enero en los ultimos meses gente ya empezaron a preguntar si el producto verdaderamente existe. Pero la semana pasada se publicó un articuló en una pagina Web uruguaya que contó que Plan Ceibal había comprado 10,000 XO Tablets para evaluar el usó con niños de 5 y 6 años.

Nicholas Negroponte of OLPC

The X PRIZE Foundation announced today that it has set a goal of funding and launching a $10 Million Global Literacy X PRIZE in 2013. The purpose of this X PRIZE is to transform established beliefs about the timeline, nature, quality, and scalability of literacy solutions to serve the needs of over 60 million children who are not receiving primary education.