airgordon: knickknack: pragerd: Do you remember the one laptop per child project  that was all the rage a year or two ago? It’s coming closer to a reality, and this is the laptop that will cost $75 and looks better than your Macbook. It’s going to be released in 2012. Full Article Yves Behar, FTW.  A year or so behind schedule but the second iteration is sure to be an impressive debut.  Technology aside, let’s not forget the social and cultural barriers affecting the introduction of such a device.  But given the turbulence of the last release, I’m sure OLPC will pull through. Cool computer and concept, but honestly, how first world is this shit? “Hey, let’s get those poor fucking Africans some laptops! What, you want some water or food or other basic services? Well, you can’t. But I can invite you to Google Wavves.” In my limited experience I would say: you’d be surprised. There’s a signature experience, I think, for Westerners first visiting less-developed nations. You expect, maybe, to see children who lack basics. Children begging. You expect, maybe, to see children entranced by things like your sturdy Western shoes. Material things you have and they don’t. But for a lot of people, what’s less expected — and way more striking — is the way they will meet a whole lot of relatively healthy, curious young children who will ask them for pens. For spare pencils. For some notebook paper. Sometimes you can hand a child a 99-cent breast-pocket notebook and the child may react like an American kid getting an Xbox. Some places you can hand a child a map or a picture or a book and the child may pore over it like a Dead Sea scroll. Feel free to purchase pens and notebooks and plane tickets and confirm this. Money? Pshaw. Can I have your pen. Why? Because for every child who grows up without access to basics (food, shelter, potable water) there are a few more who get enough of the basics to grow up, but are starved for information and education, and will grow up without having been exposed to much of the world beyond the basics of how to get the food, where to draw the water, etc. The reason Westerners are struck by the experience of being asked for things like pens and paper is that we tend to think of poverty in terms of material comforts. And suddenly, perhaps, they’re staring at a child with just as much intelligence, curiosity, and potential as they ever had as children, and the difference between them isn’t strictly about “material” comforts — it’s about this child lacking intellectual tools we take for granted. Tools that allow us to take our intelligence and curiosity and learn so, so much about the world. And the Westerner will probably be sharp enough to realize that the window is small — that once the 8-year-old pen-begger in front of them becomes 10 or 12 or 14, the opportunity will have shrunk. That child will be working. As was said above, there are huge cultural barriers to introducing things like these computers into developing areas — both in making them do things that are relevant to the people there, and in acclimating children there to their use. But part of the thinking behind them, obviously, is that expanding the worlds of those children who do have the luxury of being educated — who have food and water and time yet — is a good long-term investment in improving the lives even of those who don’t have the basics. This is, after all, the thing we’re constantly marveling about with computers: that a single one of them can carry incredible amounts of information, all the images and texts and maps and video some kids have no access to, plus the ability to sit and manipulate information, to write, to record, to deal with signs. And even if you go hungry now and then, that doesn’t mean you’re beneath the potential to feed your head, you know?

airgordon:

knickknack:

pragerd:

Do you remember the one laptop per child project  that was all the rage a year or two ago?

It’s coming closer to a reality, and this is the laptop that will cost $75 and looks better than your Macbook.

It’s going to be released in 2012.

Full Article

Yves Behar, FTW.  A year or so behind schedule but the second iteration is sure to be an impressive debut.  Technology aside, let’s not forget the social and cultural barriers affecting the introduction of such a device.  But given the turbulence of the last release, I’m sure OLPC will pull through.

Cool computer and concept, but honestly, how first world is this shit? “Hey, let’s get those poor fucking Africans some laptops! What, you want some water or food or other basic services? Well, you can’t. But I can invite you to Google Wavves.”

In my limited experience I would say: you’d be surprised.

There’s a signature experience, I think, for Westerners first visiting less-developed nations. You expect, maybe, to see children who lack basics. Children begging. You expect, maybe, to see children entranced by things like your sturdy Western shoes. Material things you have and they don’t. But for a lot of people, what’s less expected — and way more striking — is the way they will meet a whole lot of relatively healthy, curious young children who will ask them for pens. For spare pencils. For some notebook paper. Sometimes you can hand a child a 99-cent breast-pocket notebook and the child may react like an American kid getting an Xbox. Some places you can hand a child a map or a picture or a book and the child may pore over it like a Dead Sea scroll. Feel free to purchase pens and notebooks and plane tickets and confirm this. Money? Pshaw. Can I have your pen.

Why? Because for every child who grows up without access to basics (food, shelter, potable water) there are a few more who get enough of the basics to grow up, but are starved for information and education, and will grow up without having been exposed to much of the world beyond the basics of how to get the food, where to draw the water, etc. The reason Westerners are struck by the experience of being asked for things like pens and paper is that we tend to think of poverty in terms of material comforts. And suddenly, perhaps, they’re staring at a child with just as much intelligence, curiosity, and potential as they ever had as children, and the difference between them isn’t strictly about “material” comforts — it’s about this child lacking intellectual tools we take for granted. Tools that allow us to take our intelligence and curiosity and learn so, so much about the world. And the Westerner will probably be sharp enough to realize that the window is small — that once the 8-year-old pen-begger in front of them becomes 10 or 12 or 14, the opportunity will have shrunk. That child will be working.

As was said above, there are huge cultural barriers to introducing things like these computers into developing areas — both in making them do things that are relevant to the people there, and in acclimating children there to their use. But part of the thinking behind them, obviously, is that expanding the worlds of those children who do have the luxury of being educated — who have food and water and time yet — is a good long-term investment in improving the lives even of those who don’t have the basics. This is, after all, the thing we’re constantly marveling about with computers: that a single one of them can carry incredible amounts of information, all the images and texts and maps and video some kids have no access to, plus the ability to sit and manipulate information, to write, to record, to deal with signs.

And even if you go hungry now and then, that doesn’t mean you’re beneath the potential to feed your head, you know?

Cite Arrow reblogged from airgordon
47 notes | | Dec 30, 2009
  1. toolsforschools reblogged this from robertogreco
  2. jadedhippy reblogged this from ocean-bright-wine
  3. ocean-bright-wine reblogged this from isabelthespy and added:
    Reblogged for truth. There’s a reason I kept running out of pens when I was in Cambodia.
  4. isabelthespy reblogged this from agrammar and added:
    this is something i’ve felt super vaguely for a long time, but could never articulate nearly this well. this is one of...
  5. lateralhip reblogged this from agrammar
  6. awoade reblogged this from girlytree
  7. twomanytimes reblogged this from girlytree
  8. robertogreco reblogged this from agrammar and added:
    We’ve supported OLPC in...goings on. Images...Yves Behar...
  9. rebeccalando reblogged this from agrammar
  10. bonneaventure reblogged this from girlytree and added:
    Information is more important in people’s lives than you think.
  11. girlytree reblogged this from agrammar
  12. agrammar reblogged this from airgordon and added:
    In my limited experience I would say: you’d be surprised. There’s a signature experience, I think, for Westerners first...
  13. airgordon reblogged this from knickknack and added:
    Cool computer and concept, but honestly, how first world is this shit? “Hey, let’s get those poor fucking Africans some...
  14. 2arrs2ells reblogged this from knickknack
  15. knickknack reblogged this from pragerd and added:
    Yves Behar, FTW. A...so behind schedule but the second iteration is sure
  16. pragerd posted this