I caught the OLPC piece on 60 Minutes (video) last night and am equally delighted, and disappointed. Other news groups are picking up the story, centered around the Intel competition. Slashdot even has an article on it. Watching and reading these stories, I can’t help but hear the implicit editing reporters do to make a story more salacious than it is. I am disappointed that once again the focus is on the hardware alone. I am disappointed that ‘problems’ described with the project were not examined in any real depth. There are problems, and they deserve more than ‘[Wayan Vota] is concerned about the additional cost of the project for infrastructure such as satellite dishes.‘ While I understand that not everything can be covered in detail, there are some oversights which need clarification.

1. The Software

This is the biggest oversight on the 60min. piece. The most revolutionary part of the OLPC story is, in my opinion, not the hardware, but the software. This is not a linux computer (not in the classic sense). This is a new type of computer from the ground up. The interface, Sugar, is nothing short of a revolution in computing and computer interfaces. The object store file system, the gear key, the list goes on. When an adult test user of the classmate (Intel’s alternative) was asked what it was like, they responded ‘it’s basically a small laptop‘. The XO is NOT ‘just a small laptop’, it is a learning machine. The first time you see that initial screen and use the ‘Zoom‘ metaphor interface, it is the only way you want to use a device. It just makes sense. The software is the yin to the hardwares yang.

2. Learning on a computer is NOT like playing a musical instrument

Geekcorp’s Director, Wayan Vota, a strong proponent of OLPC, makes a poor analogy, saying that learning on a computer is like learning to play a musical instrument. He states that without a teacher, the child will only be able to ‘make noise‘. My mouth dropped open when I heard those words, while my three year old hammered out an identifiable ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ on his toy xylophone in the background. Spoken like someone who does not have children. I can not enumerate all the problems with this analogy, nor the statement, in this space. If the OLPC were a windows or even a linux OS machine with the now standard Gnome or KDE interfaces, I would agree in part that a teacher would be needed to get the full benefit of the device. MySpace, YouTube, social networking sites, and even the text messaging short hand children are using today show how shortsighted Wayan’s statement is. Children did not learn how to code up their MySpace page in school. The reaction to some pages is proof that the majority of school faculty has no clue what the internet even is, let alone how to embed the latest javascript widget. To get around lacking interface designs, a new language is created! Sure this is not learning in the ‘classic’ sense. These kids are not using a workbook, solving predetermined problems where the answers are already known. They are solving real problems which have yet to be solved. They are adapting and learning outside the norms. For many children, this is ‘the norm.’ The XO is designed to excel at this type of learning. So when people are shocked to hear that the OLPC project wants to put laptops in the hands of children who do not have access to schools, ‘especially if they don’t go to school‘, why is there shock and horror their response? These are exactly the children who have the most to gain from such devices. Children adapt, children learn, lets give them the tools to do it. Schools are not always the most practical solution.

3. How is Intel harming OLPC?

I do not believe this has been clarified enough. Intel had a chance early on to be a part of the OLPC project. Instead they ridiculed the project. In order for the XO to meet the $100 goal, there needs to be a commitment of 3Mil. units. Intel realized that OLPC was succeeding, and instead of joining the project, decided to start up their own. They are going around to the governments who had approached OLPC to buy the XO and offering their device instead at a discounted rate (NOTE: OLPC originally did not approach anyone!) Intel is misrepresenting their device in that they tote the higher MHZ and memory as representing a better learning device, ignoring other inherent problems. This means that while promises were made, few agreements have been signed while governments wait to see what happens. This is directly undermining all of the OLPC efforts to date and jeopardizing the $100 goal. Intel now says they want to work ‘with’ the OLPC group; but they want to work with them on their device, not the XO. I could go on to discuss the fundamental differences between the projects, hardware, and software. I could go into great detail on the work by the OLPC to limit the impact on the environment with safe batteries, an open hardware spec that anyone can build, and upfront cost estimates instead of offering proprietary devices well below cost at a snake oil ‘introductory offer’ price. I could, but I don’t feel like typing THAT much.

If Intel is really serious about providing devices as a humanitarian effort, then they should join OLPC. If they want to donate funds to bring down the price of the devices, fantastic! If they want the devices to use intel chips instead of AMD’s, and to sell them themselves, the hardware spec is open, get to it. What they are doing instead is working against OLPC for purely monetary reasons. OLPC is a threat to Intel; a threat they dismissed as a joke, but are now more aware. If only they were wiser as well.

Interesting observations

While the XO was being used by 2nd graders, the Intel ClassMate was being used by children who appeared to be in middle school. While the XO was being used by families who have no electricity and children in over crowded schools, the schools using the ClassMate appeared to be quite affluent with school uniforms and small class sizes. The children using the XO laptops were collaborating and teaching each other how to use the devices and working together, the ClassMate users were sitting alone at their desks quietly. When Nicholas Negroponte saw children working together with the device he built against all odds, he said, ‘That is what we are doing!’ When Craig Barret, Intel’s President of the Board, was shown his companies marketing brochure given to the Nigerian government putting down the OLPC and selling the ClassMate he said ‘That’s the way our business works.’.