THE NEGROPONTE EFFECT
The debate around the OLPC Project has, regretfully, over emphasized its technical side (software and hardware characteristics) instead of its social impact, e.g., educational improvement, and the overall economic benefits that may possibly produce in the developing world. No doubt, it is the social impact what really matters after all. And this is important, because from the perspective of the children in the developing countries it does not make a difference if the machine has more memory or extra capabilities. For these kids, the possibility of having a computer is a revolutionary experience in itself. Period.
In my view, there are at least two extra technological by-products of OLPC that can be socially relevant. They represent what I have called the Negroponte Effect, that is, the unforeseen social repercussions that the initiative promoted by the educational project of the MIT Professor, may produce in the following years.
1. OLPC is expanding the idea of the universal access to the ICTs as something possible and near in time. We find people talking a commenting more frequently about the so-called “˜100 dollar laptop”™ and about how this project can lead to better access to the new technologies. OLPC, in this sense, is generating hope. We heard that from President Lula some days ago when he met Negroponte and received the first machines to launch the pilot project in Brazil:
“We are building together the dream of having each school student with a computer like this one to study and work”
2. OLPC promotes economic competition and the development of new models to support the developing world. The fact that INTEL has got its own low-cost laptop to challenge the OLPC, and that according to my sources, AMD is preparing its own version for the second half of 2007, only demonstrate the interest produced by the POSSIBILITY of such a low-cost laptop to serve millions of children. Even projects like GOTA, in which we are working at the University of Chile follows the same motivation: The OLPC initiative inspired us to develop our own OLPC machine for the rural world.
In 2007, we will probably witness the emergence of many additional alternatives to the OLPC. That is certainly good news. The “˜Negroponte Effect”™ must be valued as something positive, as long as the net impact of these new initiatives mean a real INCREASE IN THE POSSIBILITIES for the developing nations. Probably many of those initiatives would have been launched sooner or later, but the role of the pioneers and innovators is precisely to put into the public domain an idea that from that moment becomes common sense. Negroponte did just that.
More One Laptop Per Child XO Competitors? Of Course!…
Which low-cost laptop do you want?
Have you counted how many “cheap computers”, “low-price laptops” and similar devices have we heard about in the last 12-15 months? Probably around a dozen.
And I’m sure there are many more coming, including ag…