Posted on May 31, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Internet: Access, Implementation: Plan, Hardware: Wireless

olpc wireless mesh view
OLPC wireless mesh view
One Laptop Per Child is making great strides with their implementation of the emerging 802.11s standard on Marvell wireless firmware. Walter Bender says:
Polychronis Ypodimatopoulos set up a mesh demo where each laptop takes a picture at random times and tries to send it over to all other nodes in the mesh network. He has a web page where the aggregate data are displayed, based upon the number of hops between nodes. You can click on the pictures and see what the respective direct neighbors and nodes further than one hop are for the next node
Now that sounds damn cool, eh? That sounds like the OLPC XO mesh network "just works" and there will be full out-of-the-box mesh functionality on the Children's Machine XO.

But if you follow the netwoking listserv you can get a whole other impression of the XO computer. There, firmware and software bugs are exposed and fixed on a daily basis, with one example that suggests a larger issue. None other than Vint Cerf is having trouble getting his mesh network up and running:

olpc wireless mesh view
Here's the mesh problem...
I have an OLPC at home, using an unprotected apple express that is slaved to an apple base station, I can see my home network but double clicking on the icon for this apple express unit does NOT result in network connectivity. Do I need to invoke some kind of unix CLI mantra to actually get this system to link to the apple express?
Now if one of the founding fathers of the Internet needs OLPC tech support to run a XO WiFi mesh, how will children, teachers, countries be able to install and maintain wireless WiFi mesh networks in their schools and homes?

Will OLPC become a global tier 2 customer support center no matter how easy the mesh becomes to operate? Or will there need to be a strong WiFi mesh networking user support system in each county? Another social side of mesh. If so, doesn't that sound like the cornerstone of an implementation plan?

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Posted on May 31, 2007 by Guest Writer in Use Cases: Business, Sales Talk: Intel, Hardware: Power Supply


Paul Otellini + Classmate PC

Who knows Intel's Bill Of Material for the Classmate PC? I am Charbax and I'd say it's probably more than $400 a laptop. That is based on the fact that the Classmate is nothing less than a stripped down normal business laptop with optional flash memory instead of a hard disk.

Also part of Intel's strategy is to assemble the Classmate locally instead of mass producing in China, both factors, local assembly infrastructure and low volume production both push the price way up much higher than the $250 that Craig Barrett is claiming on 60 Minutes.

The cost estimations and the specifications of every single component of the XO-1 computer are available at the official wiki. $175 was Nicholas Negroponte's latest estimation as of last months industry analysts meeting.

Did you know that Intel's annual revenue is over $35 billion dollars and that over $5 billion dollars of that each year is spent on R&D? Compare that with the OLPC Foundation reportedly using a $30 million dollars on R&D over the last two years. $20 million dollars that also includes:

  • the cost of the thousands of pre-produced XO-1 beta models,
  • the expensive testing, development, engineering,
  • the partnerships that needed to be found to manufacture each component,
Each of these are needed for realizing the several innovations required that we all know about while keeping the costs low to make the OLPC project feasible. Innovations including
  • the 4x better battery life than a conventional laptop at heavy use with full backlight settings on
  • more than 10 times better battery in light use and black and white reflective screen mode
  • the revolutionary wi-fi mesh network
  • the DCON functionality that keeps the main processor turned off most of the time in light usage scenarios of a computer.
It's amazing how such a giant as Intel with such a huge R&D budget, can be so short sighted and so focused on serving their always-more-power always-more-unused-bloat product development strategy. The fraud and waste of money really happens in the way Intel can mismanage such huge sums of R&D money.

olpc classmate linux
One laptop is a dog

How could Intel choose not to develop a "Do no evil" plan-B for this obvious situation arising in this competitive market, where someone in the computer industry are now delivering cheap and simple computers instead of powerful and over-bloated ones. How can Intel not come with anything more innovative than a stripped down normal business laptop?

The Classmate PC has a UMPC-type ULV processor requiring cooling, only having caved in on not including the HDD and instead using a 2GB Flash memory which still only saves about $30 on the BOM and only improves slightly Intels battery life. Why didn't Intel invest anything in Low-Cost Computer technology yet?

How come the cheapest Intel computers available today in the big retail stores aren't any cheaper than those that were 5 years ago? We were running approximately the same Windows XP OS with approximately the same user experience as we have today. Yet 95% of computer usage five years ago and today is opening a browser, playing a few small multimedia files and eiting documents.

I don't need a quad-core 45nm high-k metal gate processor running Windows Vista to do that.

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Posted on May 30, 2007 by Guest Writer in Sales Talk: Countries, Sales Talk: Intel, Prototypes: OLPC

Macedonia classroom
Macedonian classes of tomorrow?

I am Novica Nakov of Free Software Macedonia and the Macedonian Government announced a project about computers in education in December 2006. The ambitious project "Computer for every student" is now under way.

Reports say that it will cost around 20 million EUR. However, the Government seems determined to buy 150 000 desktop computers for all public schools in the country.

In the past there were similar projects, and although none was of this scale schools had problems with the amount of hardware they received. Electricity is a problem only for remote schools. Most of the schools though have problems with securing enough room for the computer lab. Also, past experience has shown that schools have hard time protecting against robbery. Whole computer labs have gone missing over night in the past years.

The people at the USAID funded Primary Education Project are aware of these problems. Chief of Party Dr. Keith Prenton says that they will try to convince the Government to look for other, more effective, hardware solutions by the time the "Computer for every student" project ends in 2009.

Typing on his Classmate PC at the UNDP conference for Free Software held last week in Skopje he explained to the interested crowd how Classmate PC and OLPC XO are the education technology of the 21st century. PEP has 16 Classmates and they are hoping to put them in a classroom when the new school year starts in September.

classmate pc olpc xo
Classmate PC or OLPC XO

However, the hardware is not the only issue in Macedonia. Mr. Dragan Nikolovski, who spoke at the UNDP conference as a representative from the Ministry of Education, says that there are growing concerns about the software curriculum in the schools. In his presentation he talked that classes have turned into courses for Microsoft products.

Now, he explained, they are looking to introduce GNU/Linux and they are working towards a vendor neutral curriculum. On the other hand, PEP is working closely with Microsoft and recently they signed an agreement for cooperation.

Knowing that the Classmates are preloaded with Windows XP, we at Free Software Macedonia are trying to get one of those and install GNU/Linux. Afterwards, we might to convince the people from PEP to do the same with all of their Classmate PCs. This may be our first contribution to the growing numbers of school & computer related projects in our country - most of which have been Free Software unfriendly.

Still no one is talking about One Laptop Per Child. I'm sure that there will be great benefits from testing the OLPC XO together with Classmate PC when the school starts in September. And while Macedonia probably can't be in the in the first batch of countries buying OLPC, it is quite possible that things change over two years time - smaller orders could be possible or some regional cooperation could prove useful.

In the mean time it might be wise to send few green laptops for testing in a country where the Government is willing to spend money on education and technology.

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Posted on May 30, 2007 by Guest Writer in Sales Talk: Intel, Hardware: Power Supply, Prototypes: XO

olpc future
I want to know more
Hello my name is Will Ahdoot and I have some experience with OLPC's XO but no hands-on experience with Intel's Classmate PC. I am very skeptical of the Classmate PC for a number of reasons but primarily because of the Veil of Secrecy that Intel keeps around it.

While some people feel that OLPC miscommunicates, Intel hardly communicates at all. We know hardly anything about the Classmate PC. There is nothing on the web beyond a few brisk product reviews and Intel's own pathetic "community" website that basically reviews it hardware and software specifications.

I was quite curious to read Tina Gasperson's review of the Classmate running Mandriva Linux . Apparently it comes w/ several learning applications such as Tux Typing, Club Penguin, a web browser (Konqueror?), and . . . that's it. Yup, no Block Party, no eToys, no TamTam, no OLPC Library. Wow, Intel's commitment to content is impressive! Most amazing about the Classmate is how long its battery lasts power -- Two whole hours!

Continue reading "Classmate PC: Intel's Two Hour-Long Joke"

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Posted on May 29, 2007 by Christoph Derndorfer in Internet: Access, Hardware: School Servers, Hardware: Wireless

olpc mesh network
OLPC XO servers needed
Browsing through the archives here at OLPC News and over on the official "Community-news" mailing-list I noticed that there's one topic that hasn't really been discussed all that much: the OLPC school servers.

Reading through Walter Bender's weekly updates to the mailing list there are only few recent mentions of the school server. In early March he wrote that "software architecture of the school servers is starting to come together". Then 4 weeks later he mentions that "the school server development continues" and "applications and content for the Library are starting to be installed". Development went on throughout April and apparently there's one trial setup being used at the OLPC offices in Cambridge but as of May 5 "work on the School Server hardware design continued".

With regards to the OLPC Wiki there are several entries dealing with school servers but there's relatively little in terms of (f)actual information. I assume this is also the reason why Walter Bender called the Wiki entries "really more of an introduction".

Continue reading "Where Have All The OLPC School Servers Gone?"

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Posted on May 29, 2007 by Guest Writer in Sales Talk: Intel, Hardware: Keyboard, Commentary: Press

olpc classmate linux
Dual Linux OS distros
Some time ago, I, Nicola Ferralis, proposed that kids testing different solutions has been the best way to assess the best educational platform. With this perspective in mind, I often ask myself: What makes a good review for a tool designed to educate children in the developing countries? Who is supposed to be a perfect candidate for such a review? A geek? An educator? Are those the people that the manufacturer should listen to?

I found recently a review over at Linux.com of the Classmate PC running a custom version of Mandriva Linux. I find it interesting because it shows how a mindset can produce a review that is effectively appealing to your peers (geeks in this case), but it falls short of addressing the real issues of using this device in a developing country. Let me then show a few examples:
"Intel says it is a "rugged learning device." "After five days with three active kids, the Classmate PC still works, and shows relatively few signs of wear -– just a little dirt and an unidentified food stain of some kind, probably ketchup, on the vinyl cover, which along with a thicker than usual plastic case provides extra protection from kids. The keyboard is not sealed, but we didn't need to clean it -- it wasn't that dirty."
What is wrong with this picture? The use of the Classmate for only few days already shows signs of wear. The author considers that acceptable, since this is probably common on any conventional laptop. Furthermore, the fact that the keyboard is not sealed is not considered as a strong negative point ("It wasn't that dirty").

Continue reading "All Wrong: A Intel Classmate PC Review for Geeks"

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Posted on May 28, 2007 by David in Software: Applications, Content: Games, Software: Third Party

Another week, another piece of software aiming to turn kids into programming maestros before the distractions or puberty. After four years research, a subset of MIT's seemingly limitless supply of boffin filled cubicles, the rather wonderfully named "Life Long Kindergarten" unleashed "Scratch" upon the world. In a BBC news article that coincided with last Tuesday's official release, their reporter, Jonathan Fildes, closed his article with a reference to a version being developed for the OLPC XO.

Continue reading "Learning Squeak from Scratch"

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Posted on May 28, 2007 by Roland in About OLPC News, Commentary: OLPC News

write olpc news
Is this you, writing for OLPC News?
My name is Roland from Switzerland and I am in no way connected to OLPC, OLPC News nor to the IT industry or education. I am simply privately interested in OLPC and its surrounding topics. And I occasionally post articles and comments in OLPC News.

You may ask why do I post on OLPCNews.com and not in wiki.laptop.org?

Well, first I did post in wiki.laptop.org but was dissatisfied with the uncritical and shallow attitudes of OLPC's disciples. It lacked independent thinking and most of all I was put off by sensing that discussing not only the bright side of OLPC but also its limitations and drawbacks were perceived as politically incorrect.

My critical but still moderate statements were dismissed and played down and pretty soon "edited for space saving" or in other words soft-washed. If somebody undertakes such a big endeavor as OLPC does they should be aware of and open about its limitations.

Continue reading "Why I Contribute to OLPC News"

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Posted on May 27, 2007 by Guest Writer in Use Cases: Education, Content: Reference, Prototypes: XO, Content: eBooks

martin woodhouse
Martin Woodhouse's youth
Its Martin Woodhouse again, and according to the Sunday Times of London, I am an eccentric Englishman.

When the One Laptop Per Child project was announced I thought, as I am sure we all did, that Information Technology had come of age; that it had moved from being a bright teenager to an adulthood where wisdom and love are added to cleverness. That hasn't quite happened yet, but it can still do so.

The OLPC XO, for instance, needs similarly to move from mere brilliance -- it is, I repeat, brilliant in design, just as OLPC is gorgeous in kindliness and concept -- to maturity. It needs to do the job it is meant to serve: to educate the world's illiterate, and therefore unempowered, poor.

Now before designing anything, it's always wise to consider its purpose, sometimes very carefully indeed. We have set down that purpose, and we need, accordingly, to ask what it is that a person needs in order to move from illiteracy to education? (As, I remind you, each one of us has done while we were ourselves growing from infancy, through childhood, to being an adult person. We are just proposing to allow every person in the world the same opportunity; that is all.)

Continue reading "A $50 Dollar One Laptop Per Child eBook Reader"

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Posted on May 26, 2007 by Guest Writer in Commentary: Academia, Prototypes: OLPC

olpc classmate linux
School yard antagonists
Like your editor, I believe that the OLPC initiative is, quite simply, the greatest philanthropic idea there has ever been. Since I am now about to be highly critical of it, let me make that plain from the outset.

I have read OLPC News, and its archives, for several months now.. And what I feel is a growing sense of disbelief, as one would-be participant after another arrives on the scene. I am looking, it appears to me, at a school-yard battle over a bag of sweets.

I dare say it was inevitable that this scuffle would develop; we are after all looking at a projected target population of, well, it depends upon which enormous figures you're looking at today, but around five billion potential users? Nobody wants to be left out of the photographs, so we have Mr Gates climbing on board, and Intel, and the Linux Lads, and no doubt Apple any moment now.

Mine is bigger than yours, and all that.

It is all very understandable. But, people, it's not very edifying, is it?

Continue reading "OLPC XO? A Great Idea, But I Have a Better One"

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Posted on May 25, 2007 by Guest Writer in Countries: Brazil, Sales Talk: Countries, Countries: Uruguay

I'm Charbax. During the past year and a half, I was updating a page at the official wiki whenever I would find a video on the Internet about the OLPC. Since the past few months, now I am adding every OLPC related video I find or that are submitted to my video-blog site at olpc.tv.

I also filmed 5 OLPC videos myself at CES and WCIT which you can see here, and I also filmed the first interview with a Classmate (then codename Eduwise) representative at WCIT in May of 2006 the day Paul Otellini, Intel's CEO, announced its OLPC-copy to the IT representatives from all countries in Austin Texas. The theme of that WCIT was the closing of the digital divide, you can also see my video of Nicholas Negroponte's keynote at that event here.

Continue reading "First Videos From OLPC Test Schools"

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Posted on May 25, 2007 by Jonah Bossewitch in Use Cases: Education, People: Leadership, Content: Music, People: Negroponte

olpc negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte of OLPC
It is no secret that the OLPC's underlying and motivating educational philosophy is Constructionism, best captured by this Nicholas Negroponte quote:
"...for me, education doesn't mean school and it doesn't mean teaching. To me what education means is the passion for learning. If I could build a world where kids are more passionate about learning and have a bigger slice of their day to engage in it, that to me is the solution."
It seems to me that this posture represents an educational tactic, not a comprehensive strategy. A passion for learning what, Nicholas? Isn't the content of education at least as important as the form of engagement? Does education describe the process which results in higher scores on standardized tests and prepares students for the workforce, or is it about something more.

I am involved in a community that is exploring these issues, best surmised by the question "What Educates"? I recently heard the educational theorist Ernest Washington make the case that education is about teaching morality, but not in the traditional fundamentalist sense. He meant that at its core, education is about cultivating emotions and emotional awareness. Providing students with the emotional vocabulary so they can achieve greater self-awareness and self-control. This sentiment is echoed in Taylor Mali's poem "What Do Teachers Make?"

Continue reading "OLPC Leadership: Musicians or Instrument Makers?"

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Posted on May 25, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Software: Applications, Content: Games, Software: Third Party

olpc game jam
Now I really wish I could code in Pygame or Python. Weak out graphics and animate movement, so I could be joe-cool enough to participate in the much anticipated OLPC Game Jam on June 8-10 in Needham, MA.

Now what's a "OLPC game jam," you might ask? Ben Sawyer says:
Attendees bring their laptops and we install the game building SDK on it (Pygame/Python is the SDK but FLASH works too so if you're going to make Flash games come as well) and everyone sits around and builds games for the next 50+ hours (sleep optional).

The idea is that 50-100 people come and we have fun working solo or in teams to build 15-30 games. We will have XO Laptops to port games too once you get it working on your own system (Pygame works on PCs, Linux, Mac, Windows,etc.) and then at the end of the day we sit around and look at the collective work. There may even be some prizes...

Continue reading "One Laptop Per Child Game Jam"

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Posted on May 24, 2007 by Roland in People: Leadership, People: Negroponte, Commentary: Press

olpc negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte of OLPC
Although the nonprofit project of One Laptop Per Child has a noble cause namely to help improve the education of children in poor countries, there is considerable skepticism, criticism and refusal. The majority of reasons stem from the distribution of tasks and responsibilities between OLPC and the target countries.

The countries' purchase of OLPC hardware binds substantial precious resources. For the planning and execution of the distribution and integration of the revolutionary new tool into the education system the countries are left alone. Moreover OLPC's inherent new learning method called Constructionism has not yet proven its superiority over traditional learning styles. All this and more has been discussed in detail in OLPC News.

I am Roland and I believe there is another reason repeatedly causing criticism: It is OLPC's way to communicate with the public that at least as much as everything else contributes to skepticism. It is not awkwardness that leads to this kind of communication. It rather roots in a dubious set of values. You sense very soon that to the OLPC project leader, public communication is not a tool to create clarity but a tool to steer the public's attention away from uncomfortable topics and even worse things.

Continue reading "One Laptop Per Child Miscommunications"

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Posted on May 24, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Software: Applications, Content: Games, People: Leadership, Software: Operating System

Think you have decent Open Source coding credibility, like eating Linux kernels for breakfast? Might others recognize your mad skills with a cool code name? Then maybe you are in John Palmieri's journeyman league with a nickname like his super-cool "J5". But even then, have you ever been called a "Build Master" in official title? J5 has and is the Build Master for OLPC.

But don't think he's a player, he backs up the flash with serious Open Source street cred, willing to thrown down applications toe-to-toe with anyone, including Microsoft. To quote him:
I personally am not in the business of forcing people to use my products but rather developing the product for specific needs and letting the customer choose. I’m in the business of building better systems, period.
And as the Build Master for OLPC, J5 is in the business of building better "activities" - applications in OLPC speak. Wondering what that means? Then watch J5 in the second Red Had video on One Laptop Per Child:
If you want to join J5 in building activities, then check out his PyGTK game tutorial. You'll learn how to create or port any number of applications to the Sugar UI using the OLPC game "Block Party."

Just be sure to give J5 respect, he has mine.

Continue reading "Build Master J5 - Tossing Open Source Activities At Ya!"

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Posted on May 23, 2007 by Guest Writer in Use Cases: Education, Content: Music, Commentary: Press, Sales Talk: Price

tam tam olpc
OLPC violin: Tam Tam
In his 60 Minutes interview, about One Laptop Per Child, Wayan Vota said:
If you hand a child a violin or a piano they can make noise with it, right? But will they be able to make music?

And if you give a child a computer they’ll be able to operate the computer, but will they really be able to learn without having a teacher, whether it’s formal, informal, to help them along that learning path?
This is an interesting analogy that Charbax took exception to:
OLPC is not like a violin. It's like a box that does all instruments in the world and lets the student listen to all the music in the world, watch all the learning video courses in the world, read all the theory in the world and record and upload recordings.

I'd say the teachers are like average violin players playing on not very tuned and old rusty violins. This may be approximate music that each teacher is playing in front of the class, but it would be much more educational for the child to access complete collections of all orchestra concertos, worldwide variety of artists and the ability to try and imitate the music that is being discovered.
I am Winter and I have a corollary view.

Continue reading "OLPC XO: A Cost Effective Violin"

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Posted on May 23, 2007 by Guest Writer in Use Cases: Education, Commentary: Press, Countries: USA

new york times olpc
The shirt says it all
I am Mark Warschauer, and I was quoted in the New York Times article Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops that was discussed on OLPC News.

There seem to be some misconceptions about (a) the New York Times article, (b) my comments in the New York Times article, and (c) the role of laptops in K-12 schools. I'll address each of these briefly in turn.

First, a number of people are taking the New York Times article as evidence that lots of schools are abandoning laptop programs. I've examined laptop programs across the country and haven't found that to be the case.

Continue reading "New York Times "Laptops in Schools" Article Backstory"

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Posted on May 23, 2007 by Guest Writer in Software: Applications, Content: Localization

Nepal olpc art
A little OLPC wixipedia?
If new here, see laptop v. education or faith v. miracles.

There is fear that OLPC deploys the cart before testing the horse. There are questions about teachers and localized educational content. Critics say learning learning is untested theory.. this idea that curious, creative, communicative kids will somehow construct learning troubles doubters. These are reasonable concerns. So can we actually test "learning learning"? Even push toward the edge of teacherless kids constructing localized educational content? I, Duke Crawford, believe we can.

If we narrow focus to language learning, we can test the theory in practice. How? Millions of the laptops ship soon and in many languages: Arabic, Yoruba, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, French, Portuguese, Spanish. Kids may use these machines to learn some English, too. So you may dare describe these laptops as a ''multilingual'' education project.

As these kids interact, some may want to grow bilingual, some even multilingual. How will the children learn language? Some may want instruction. Others may want construction. For these, let's provide a simple tool, maybe even with no explanation, then test the results.. Let the kids try learning language learning. Let them wixi.

Continue reading "