[nzlug] OLPC and Harvard Business School

[Martin Bähr]

On Mon, Dec 24, 2007 at 02:17:11AM +1300, Nevyn wrote:
> > part of the design goal also was to make it not appeal to adults so the
> > adults won't take it away from the kids.
> This idea seems again counter-productive to me. 

i agree. what appeals to adults is very different from culture to
culture. in asia the olpc design will very well appeal to all ages.

> If this is actually in the design specs. (which I haven't heard that
> it is), may have been a mistake in my opinion.

it has been mentioned at the olpc presentation in vienna last week.

> What I meant to say is that, no other
> minimalist laptop maker (Intel, Asus etc.) are offering a foot pedal,

ah.

> Yet the market they are trying to appeal to aren't seeing this and it
> seems that they're mostly going with the Intel machine.

ah, i see your point. i guess the problem is that at least the
decisionmakers in most countries can't imagine deploying a computer in
areas without electricity.
but according to this article:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/olpc/why-and-how-olpc-got-reamed-negropontes-dreams-stolen-and-crushed-326540.php
the reason actually appears to be the lack of windows support.
otherwise it fully supports what you are saying about the project failing.

here is another nice article making making an interesting point about
the olpc not being accepted in developing countries because it is not
available in developed ones:
http://www.greghinzmann.com/?p=234

> If the targets were too high, it wouldn't have been such a problem.
> The customers would've just ordered less numbers.

but less numbers mean a higher per piece price, so this still is a problem.

> > i'd consider the project a failure only if the machine itself would fail
> > to have any positive effect on the children using them.
> Just because:
> A) They built a decent product
> B) They fulfilled all the intentions of the product
> Does not make the product a success.
> [ ... ]
> You first need users of the product to make it a success.

true. if nobody gets an olpc then it can't have any positive effect.
having a positive effect implies that children actually do get the
machine. but wether the number of children is one hundred thousand or a
few million is secondary.

> there has been absolutely no word on just how useful these machines
> have been to the end-user.

i think it may take a few years until we can see any longterm effects
that allow to evaluate the usefulness.

> > i hope the "give one get one" campaign is successful enough that it will
> > be extended. this machine should really be offered everywhere and not
> > just in places where people can't afford computers.
> This scheme is nice though crosses lines they're trying to avoid.
> Their target market isn't hobbyists. They're trying to target the
> under privileged.

the olpc can be beneficial to every child not just the underpriviliged.
why not offer the machine via retail to those privileged ones?

here in macau i just saw a "computer" in the toys section that is a
make-believe thing looking like a laptop with a 100x200 pixel or smaller
monochrome display with 50 educational games selling for 60 USD

if there is a market for that sort of thing then the OLPC which could
offer 500 or more educational functions for only 3-4 times that price
surely has a market too.

quanta, the maker of the olpc, is being quoted as considering to make
their own model based on the olpc specs. i hope they do.

hobbyists are not going to make as big of a dent but they are important
for a different reason: they can contribute to the development.

part of the reason why i decided to get one is to potentially enable and
motivate myself to contribute. the other part the improved networking
compared to regular notebooks, allowing me to access wifi more easely
when traveling. and lastly the display quality and higher resolution was
a major factor for not choosing the asus eee instead. (800x480 is
horribly small. many applications just don't fit into that space. the
intel classmate has the same small screen :-(

greetings, martin.
-- 
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Martin Bähr       http://www.iaeste.or.at/~mbaehr/