Open Letter to Nicholas Negroponte: Its Education Not Laptops
Posted on January 16, 2008 by Guest Writer in People: Negroponte, Prototypes: XO
Nick, you may have the impression that some people are opposed to One Laptop Per Child because they speak of OLPC's latest activities in less than glowing terms. The criticisms can seem harsh but that is because they see matters that need to be corrected for the good of the program.
They, we, me, really believe that OLPC is a fantastic, exciting, and groundbreaking endeavor. That's why so many of us spend so much time thinking, talking, and writing about One Laptop Per Child.
I am writing to you because many great things have happened regarding OLPC, some sooner than I expected, and I believe these events require OLPC to change its strategy. The Age of Low-Cost Computing has arrived in large part do to your efforts. Job well-done. The Asus eee, Everex GPC, Intel Classmate (the horror!), KPC, and others flocked to a market that you created.
The entry en-masse of commercial companies also complicates OLPC's status as a non-profit organization that produces a good in direct competition with private companies. Non-profits are meant to address public goods not met by the private market. Soon this will no longer be the case.
Education, Not Laptops
It is time for OLPC to get out of the business of making laptops. Move to the next step in a grand strategy. Guide this market and make sure these new XO-inspired laptops help kids "learn learning." Here are my ideas on how to do this. You're a smart guy, you have probably already worked all this out and have a better plan on your blackberry.
Stop calling OLPC a project or initiative. It is no longer a short-term project but a global movement. OLPC should change its business model to reflect this. It should become the Learning Innovations organization. Do the R&D on kids, education, and technology that Everex, Asus, and Intel can't or won't do.
Keep producing the XO but use it as a conduit to spread to innovation to the rest of the industry. Don't compete with Intel. Subsume it. Make sure Sugar can run on hardware such as the Everex, Asus eee, or even desktops. Work with companies like IDEO and Lego to built out peripherals for low-cost science laboratories.
Killer App for Education
I firmly believe that every device and technology needs a "killer app," that is a tool so effective that most people can't remember how they lived without it. The killer app for the PC was e-mail. For some people, Skype was the killer app that made them choose broadband Internet. Laptops lack a killer app for education.
I can name that killer app for the XO right now, English literacy. If kids and adults can consistently use a laptop to learn English, laptops will forever become a standard part of education.
To this end, distribute the laptops on the open market. The more smart, creative people with access to XO's and Sugar, the more innovation you will see in education. Let the XO lead by example, not sales. Add $50 to the cost of the XO to cover the ongoing costs of R&D into learning innovation.
If you sell 250,000 per year, that will give you more than 12.5 million to fund your ongoing operations. There is so much research to be done on mesh-networking and social and collaborative learning applications for mesh networking. My mind spins with all the possibilities.
So there you have it Nick, it is time for OLPC to chart a new course. May you steer well.
Robert Johnston loves his XO. He loves Sugar more. He loves children the most.
















