So I just ordered an X-O laptop under the OLPC "Get one - give one" program. I promise a full report on this little sucker as soon as it arrives. I had a chance to hear N. Negroponte speak about the OLPC project about a year and a half ago and was inspired by the vision. It will be interesting to watch it play out...
Keywords: OLPC
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Hi Tim.
Your icon still doesn't look like you. ;-)
We've bought a couple of XOs for our school board. We needed more than one so that we could test out the networking features.
I heard Nick Negoponte about a year and half ago too. Were you at NECC in San Diego?
The Sugar user interface puts 'verb' actions on the desktop and documents in the menus. At the San Diego NECC conference, David Thornburg said that the current user interfaces on Windows and Mac, which reverses this, are really so '70s - like Nehru jackets (I think I still have one in my closet).
I just wish that OLPC had made the XO available for first world countries. We could use them in our schools too. It would allow us to move 1:1 computing more quickly.
Ron
I hadn't thought about trying the mesh networking by buying more than 1...
I'll have to bring it along to te next conference I'm at to see if anyone else has one to "mesh" with...
I too bought one on the opening day and know two others at least so the mesh grows! Or is that the mess grows?
I believe that the computer itself will be very interesting but the "peripheral fallout" is and will be more interesting. This machine is designed to link people (shades of Wikinomics) and other manufacturers are now "competing" - it show that laptops can be made for less. Intel and MS are of course trying to "get in there" now. They could have led but . . .
Wikinomics speaks to a new organizational model for working - I feel the structure is more like a geodesic sphere than a pyramdi and we all know how it feels to be in that structure! A colleague of mine calls it BAH - Bureacratic Administrative Hierarchy - I prefer the sphere as FUN - Friendly Unstructured Network! We are in at the birth of the next Renaissance IMHO - as Ersasmus said in 1517 about printing: "Immortal God, what a world I see dawning. Why can I not be young again?”
Geoffp and lasting impact on their private lives.”
The deadline for purchasing has apparently been moved to Dec 31st so if you were wondering about getting one you have more time!
Here is the press release - hope it is right since the web site still shows 5 days. However we all know what a chore it is to keep web sites up-to-date!
Geoff
As did I....I believe a day after you Geoff.
Now...what about ECOO...should we just go ahead and purchase 10? Anyone think it is a bad idea?
OLPC hits a snag...
http://gizmodo.com/339704/olpc-slapped-with-interim-injunc
I wonder who will be the first Canadian to receive an XO.
Based on your quick demo of the ASUS eeePC in London, I purchased one. There seems to be a number of groups entering the sub-laptop market. Apple is rumoured to be announcing a sub-laptop in the next few weeks.
My concern with laptops has always be durability. Based on some of our local projects, they seem to have a working life of about three years - batteries, keyboard, normal classroom use. Our current budgets can't sustain a replacement cycle of three years.
Have you had any experience with any of the other sub-laptops?
Ron
The question of durability is naturally significant although the OLPC people worked to address that issue I think - and time will tell how near they got to being successful. On the other hand we all know that the nature of computing is that after 3 years a computer seems to have problems related more to the changes in technology than durability.
If OLPC can get the price down to $100 how close is that to text book costs these days? How long do they last? In their case it is content sometimes that becomes dated. Of course the OLPC machine can hold text books too. I feel that one of the major things that OLPC have done is to force other manufacturers to think differently! The costs CAN come down - even now they have already proved it at $188.
Another perspective is that the child owns the machine and it lives with them always - that is not the same as a "library book" approach that we have had to follow when machines cost well over $1000. There will always be students who are rougher than others but I bet the majority would look after it far better if they owned it. At $100 per machine how much would it cost to equip a class? At the Elementary level if it costs 30 x $100 and lasts 3 years then that means per year it costs less than ONE machine right now!
If OS software is used then the TCO is also much less. Can a board afford $1000 per year for a classroom? How hard is it to raise that through parent groups? Could govt. give some breaks to parents especially if they do not have provide anywhere near as much for computers to Boards?
Perhaps the major manufacturers should concentrate on Secondary students but also aim for a much cheaper machine? Perhaps the major software manufacturers have to offer simple versions of their software for Linux as a "loss leader" to support such ways of thinking? Paying it forward? Their way of truly supporting education?
Thinking differently.
An interesting and very recent conversation with Negroponte here.
I feel it is the way the machine was "born" and the philosophical approach that sets it apart. The Intel fiasco shows that well - a traditional hierarchy at work that cannot think outside it's structure?
@Ron
We started a wiki page to keep track of options:
http://www.commun-it.org/wiki/index.php/Ultra-Portable_Laptop_Co
I haven't used any of the others (yet). We did do a large project with eMates a few years ago (Apple last effort to try and do 1:1). They were decent, but limited by no network connectivity.
For me, the real turning point in my head (since getting the Asus) has been in giving up on trying to have a laptop that replicates a desktop. Our laptop initiatives have failed here (for the most part) because they were aimed at trying to "do everything". We end up buying expensive/powerful laptops and trying to manage them like desktops. In the end, battery life, complex software, unreliable wireless, and just plain old frustration doom these type of efforts.
With our trial of the Asus machines, I'm planning to focus on letting the machines do what they are good at (mobile Internet) and not try to make them do everything. I hope teachers/students will be happier in the end.
BTW: Asus is now shipping the "Surf2G" models (no web cam, 2 gig drive, slightly weaker battery) for just $299. You can buy 4 of them for the price of 1 Mac laptop. Hmmmm....