Imagine One Laptop Per Child - Sacramento Challenge
Imagine One Laptop Per Child - Sacramento Challenge
Let’s imagine that we could make the Internet accessible to millions of children around the world. Let’s imagine how that would change the world as we know it. Frankly, I don’t think I can imagine the entire impact that it would have, it’s just too vast, but it would certainly be one of those giant steps that the world takes every 50 years or so. An amazing non-profit organization, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) created by faculty members from the MIT Media Lab, and led by Nicholas Negroponte announced, in January of this year, a goal to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. The laptops would be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. These machines would be rugged, Linux-based, and so energy efficient that hand-cranking alone could generate sufficient power for operation. Mesh networking would give many machines Internet access from one connection. The pricing goal would start near $100 and then steadily decrease. What a goal!
Who would have imagined that less than a year later the machines are on their way to production? Yesterday, Taiwan’s Quanta Computer announced it will bring the machine to market by the end of 2006. Soon thereafter, OLPC says, 5 million to 15 million units will be launched via pilot programs in China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand. Even in this country, the idea is getting rave reviews. Massachusetts Republican Governor Romney has said he would love to get this laptop into the hands of all his state’s students and he has specific plans to buy for the half-million high school and middle school students as soon as they become available.
Hardware used for the laptop will include an eight-inch color LCD screen, wireless connectivity, and it can be powered by either an adapter or through a wind-up mechanism. One of the great hurdles that had to be overcome to meet the $100 price point was how to make a cheaper screen. Negroponte hired Mary Lou Jepsen away from her job as chief technology officer in Intel’s display division to become CTO at OLPC. Jepsen has invented a display that she thinks can be built for $35 or less (compared with the typical $100 or more). There has also been talk of giving the device the capability to access the Internet through cellular networks. On the software side, the laptop will have word processing, a Web browser, e-mail client, and programming software.
So, does the name Negroponte sound familiar? John Negroponte, the new US Intelligence Czar? Nicholas is his brother. He is the founder and director of MIT’s unique Media Lab. He authored a book Being Digital in 1995, which Publishers Weekly described as an upbeat primer on the information revolution. In addition, he was an investor in and correspondent for Wired. But, to me, the most interesting fact about him is that he has a passion to get a laptop into the hands of all children in the developing world since the 1980’s. He even set up a real-life experiment. He and his wife, Elaine, set up a school in a rural Cambodian village and donated 50 laptops. His partner, Seymour Paper, has been an integral player in getting laptops to every 7th and 8th grader in Maine. The results in Maine have been very positive. Teachers are now able to tailor lessons to individual student’s needs. One teacher reports that 20% of his eighth-graders are completing the honors algebra ninth-grade curriculum. How does Negroponte describe his motivation? “What actually happened was I got sufficiently irritated by people telling me it wasn't possible," he says. "I'm a firm believer that half of the solution comes from sheer resolve."
Corporate sponsors include Google, AMD, RedHat, Brightstar, News Corporation and Nortel. The Microsofts, Dells, Apples of the world are watching. Is Bill Gates getting heartburn imagining 200 million children in China getting cozy with Linux? Intel made a statement that clearly shows where it stands through its Chairman, Craig Barrett. “Mr. Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop -- I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget'," Barrett told a press conference in Sri Lanka. "The problem is that gadgets have not been successful."
So, at the risk of irritating our colleagues at Intel, I am putting out a challenge to the business, government and academia executives in Sacramento. What’s it going to take to make Sacramento the city (or the county?) that equips all (most, some) of its kids with $100 laptops by the end of 2007?
Let’s make a profound difference in the lives of these kids. And let’s imagine what happens when they take these laptops home and get their parents involved in the world that the Internet can open up to them.
As John Lennon said in his song Imagine, that withstands the test of time by the sheer clarity of its message:
You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
©Bag Productions, Inc
Gillian ParrilloThe Sacramento Executive
Let’s imagine that we could make the Internet accessible to millions of children around the world. Let’s imagine how that would change the world as we know it. Frankly, I don’t think I can imagine the entire impact that it would have, it’s just too vast, but it would certainly be one of those giant steps that the world takes every 50 years or so. An amazing non-profit organization, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) created by faculty members from the MIT Media Lab, and led by Nicholas Negroponte announced, in January of this year, a goal to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. The laptops would be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. These machines would be rugged, Linux-based, and so energy efficient that hand-cranking alone could generate sufficient power for operation. Mesh networking would give many machines Internet access from one connection. The pricing goal would start near $100 and then steadily decrease. What a goal!
Who would have imagined that less than a year later the machines are on their way to production? Yesterday, Taiwan’s Quanta Computer announced it will bring the machine to market by the end of 2006. Soon thereafter, OLPC says, 5 million to 15 million units will be launched via pilot programs in China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand. Even in this country, the idea is getting rave reviews. Massachusetts Republican Governor Romney has said he would love to get this laptop into the hands of all his state’s students and he has specific plans to buy for the half-million high school and middle school students as soon as they become available.
Hardware used for the laptop will include an eight-inch color LCD screen, wireless connectivity, and it can be powered by either an adapter or through a wind-up mechanism. One of the great hurdles that had to be overcome to meet the $100 price point was how to make a cheaper screen. Negroponte hired Mary Lou Jepsen away from her job as chief technology officer in Intel’s display division to become CTO at OLPC. Jepsen has invented a display that she thinks can be built for $35 or less (compared with the typical $100 or more). There has also been talk of giving the device the capability to access the Internet through cellular networks. On the software side, the laptop will have word processing, a Web browser, e-mail client, and programming software.
So, does the name Negroponte sound familiar? John Negroponte, the new US Intelligence Czar? Nicholas is his brother. He is the founder and director of MIT’s unique Media Lab. He authored a book Being Digital in 1995, which Publishers Weekly described as an upbeat primer on the information revolution. In addition, he was an investor in and correspondent for Wired. But, to me, the most interesting fact about him is that he has a passion to get a laptop into the hands of all children in the developing world since the 1980’s. He even set up a real-life experiment. He and his wife, Elaine, set up a school in a rural Cambodian village and donated 50 laptops. His partner, Seymour Paper, has been an integral player in getting laptops to every 7th and 8th grader in Maine. The results in Maine have been very positive. Teachers are now able to tailor lessons to individual student’s needs. One teacher reports that 20% of his eighth-graders are completing the honors algebra ninth-grade curriculum. How does Negroponte describe his motivation? “What actually happened was I got sufficiently irritated by people telling me it wasn't possible," he says. "I'm a firm believer that half of the solution comes from sheer resolve."
Corporate sponsors include Google, AMD, RedHat, Brightstar, News Corporation and Nortel. The Microsofts, Dells, Apples of the world are watching. Is Bill Gates getting heartburn imagining 200 million children in China getting cozy with Linux? Intel made a statement that clearly shows where it stands through its Chairman, Craig Barrett. “Mr. Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop -- I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget'," Barrett told a press conference in Sri Lanka. "The problem is that gadgets have not been successful."
So, at the risk of irritating our colleagues at Intel, I am putting out a challenge to the business, government and academia executives in Sacramento. What’s it going to take to make Sacramento the city (or the county?) that equips all (most, some) of its kids with $100 laptops by the end of 2007?
Let’s make a profound difference in the lives of these kids. And let’s imagine what happens when they take these laptops home and get their parents involved in the world that the Internet can open up to them.
As John Lennon said in his song Imagine, that withstands the test of time by the sheer clarity of its message:
You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
©Bag Productions, Inc
Gillian ParrilloThe Sacramento Executive
Comments