Robert Scott Horning wrote:
Jimmy Wales wrote:
Robert Scott Horning wrote:
The real purpose, for example, that the OLPC folks don't want to deal with EU or American states is because the laptop component manufacturer's that are offering price breaks for the OLPC don't want a competing computer product that would undercut their own sales in the USA and EU. If that isn't a political agenda, I don't know what one is.
Hmmm.... so, if a manufacturer is willing offer a donation in the form of a price break, so long as the product is sent somewhere else, then the OLPC should just give up and walk away? I don't really understand this perspective.
We do this all of the time with Wikimedia projects, where good and worthy contributions are turned away due to licensing conflicts. We just turned a substantial body of work away from Wikibooks because we couldn't get copyright clearance due to a non-commercial use only license, to use an example. I could cite other significant examples, but sometimes you need to identify what the goal could be and make sure you havn't made too many compromises early on that would limit your true potential. BTW, I think selecting the GFDL as the target license for Wikipedia was an incredibly fortunate accident by you Jimbo, and something that has ultimately set the tone of all Wikimedia projects.
In the case of the OLPC folks, I think they are limiting themselves and their vision of what could be accomplished, and limiting the potential market of those who might both need and be able to pay for these laptops. They are also significantly restricting their development community, as even software developers who would create content specific for the OLPC won't have access to the equipment unless they obtain them somehow from 3rd world governments directly. I could cite numerous issues that would come up trying to develop software for the OLPC, but having actual working hardware makes the job of a software developer significantly easier. That people are willing to put in effort in spite of these problems is more a testament to the volunteers than the OLPC organizers.
The proposed distribution system for these laptops is something that seems so prone to typical 3rd world graft and corruption that I don't know how realistically these computers can get into the hands of ordinary people of these countries except accidentally. You can't even move a shipping container of wheat or rice to these countries without substantial quantities being diverted away from litterally starving people and into the hands of multi-billionaires who stash all of their money in Switzerland. Why would electronic components be any different?
At least with Wikipedia, Donald Trump has just as much utility to the content that I do.
Their proposed system is to address themselves directly to governments. They will apparently not follow any other distribution mean.
This implies that negociation only occurs between olpc team (well, Negroponte I presume) and national government. Once the deal is cut, the entire country is considered. Not specifically poor children, but all children (again, this is what I understood). So, Walmart distribution is unlikely... I would not imagine the US government getting involved in this.
I am actually quite confident all kids will get the computer at some point (quite confident as well as the deal involves some nice financial opportunities - otherwise, sponsors of the project would not be sponsors otherwise - Google, ebay, AMD, Newscap, Brightstarn IADB, Marwell, Nortel, RedHat, 3M, Chi Mei, Quanta, UN, SatelliteTBA... are not only being doing that for the heart...).
However, given the exchanges between borders over there, I just wonder how long it will take for the kid to exchange his own laptop with another kid in the bordering country.
When I was in Algeria, I was always amazed to see what was happening when you gave a pen to a little kid. Within minutes, a group of older children was jumping on him and picking up the pen. And the crying baby was back to us asking for another pen. Which would be stolen a few minutes later. Older kids can then set up a business with kids from the next country.
Best to give the pen to the schoolteacher. Her job to ensure little ones have pens somehow.
This is not only about Africa, this is true in all schools. How many times did my own kids come back telling me someone stole their rubber ? You drop the issue till what is missing is the leather jacket :-)
All the kids in Nigeria will maybe get a laptop, but it is to be expected that kids in nearby countries will find themselves with one very quickly :-)
ant