OLPC versus Classmate? How about OLPC and Classmate

 NOTA: Este post fue escrito especialmente para el portal OLPCnews

As a member of the committee in charge of the citizen-led campaign One Computer Per Child (Chile) we have been working hard to make the a strong claim in favour of increasing radically the use of computer technologies in our country. Currently we have a ratio of 30 school students per machine. The government has proposed improving it up to 10 students per computer by the bicentenary (2010). However, we are proposing a target of 4 kids per machine, which means adding about 1 million computers to the public educational system by that year. That number is relevant because we have about the same number of kids living under poverty.

The revolutionary invention behind the OLPC initiative can make that dream possible. Yet, the arrival of Classmate has changed the scenario in the South American region, and is becoming a solution that deserves to be seriously considered as well. Here I would like to argue why is that the case and why we should not be embarrassed to considered a possible mixed strategy.

Having tested both machines, and after interviewed Intel’s executives, including the person in charge of the Classmate for the whole Latin American region, I have to say that I’m honestly impressed by the new contender. Let’s see some highlights:

Price: Intel is already selling Classmates in Chile, directly to the Schools. It is a clever strategy because gives every single local authority (not the central government) the possibility to buy even one laptop per school. Unit price: 425 dollars. BUT: they are also challenging OLPC with the 1 million number. In Argentina, Intel offered a selling price of 200 dollars per million Classmate plus the possibility to get the machines manufactured in that country. That price is not far away from the $150-170 for the OLPC. Besides, the Intel executives also confirmed that the price is most likely to fall in the next months.

Selling Strategy: Interestingly, and although it may sound contradictory for developing countries, price is not the only consideration. I have spoken with people from the educational sector and they seem to be willing to pay a bit more if they get proper “Ëœpeace of mind’ (technical support). The fact that they are able to take small risks that is, buying a few units instead of a million makes a huge difference in terms of the decision makers. I totally understand Negroponte’s view about scale (no great changes unless no great numbers), but the risks for developing nations are just enormous. It take a lot of courage and vision (such as in the case of Brazil’s President Lula), to take the “Ëœ1 million decision’. Intel strategy may not be the most disruptive but believe me: it fits better the average mind of the average politician. We have millions of those in Latin America. Professor Negroponte: please take note.

Ruggedness: The Classmate machine has been seriously beaten in front of my eyes and keeps working without any problem…it has a ‘bad-boy behaviour’ in mind. You can see a live demo at the final 30 secs of this video. I know the B2 prototype still does not have the final materials, so it should not be compared with Intel’s laptop right now, but I am a bit concerned about the resistance of the two green antennas. Not sure if they would resist the worst case scenario.

Linux: Yes, you can order (if you are a school owner, such as the municipality) all your Classmates with Linux. However and here is the surprising news: The selling price is not very different to the windows version, because Microsoft sold the Windows licences at a very low price, -at least we were told so by the Intel executives we interviewed. Not sure what they meant by that, but apparently it’s around ten dollars (I’m trying to get this info). The key issue here is the “Ëœpopularity contest’ (already won by Windows) behind adopting a Linux based system if such a decision will be in the hand of local authorities or even the national Ministry of Education. With all its obvious strengths, Linux is a geek mantra, not a politician or Ministry of Education mantra. Only extremely visionary politicians have understood that in this part of the word. Thus, after the arrival of Classmate, those advocating for a “ËœLinux Generation’ produced as a consequence of a massive implementation of OLPC in schools are feeling fairly sceptical, again.

Hardware: This is an unfair comparison at the moment because I have with me the B2 test (not the more robust forthcoming B3). Plus, in the B2 many features run really slow simply because, well, it’s a prototype! However, the performance of the Classmate running Win XP we tried in Santiago de Chile some weeks ago is frankly impressive, particularly when we run things like youtube videos. Now, you may be tempted to ask: Do poor kids need more powerful machines? Well, the question should be a different one: Do your son or nephew living in New York or Boston needs one? Of course they do. And in fact, that’s why OLPC is making this huge hardware upgrading, making both machines almost identical in terms of performance.

Software: With the new upgrading, the XO can run the Microsoft software for Classmate, which is also truth the other way around. Yet, (and see below), the educational models differ: Classmate’s gives more control to teachers, while OLPC´s gives more freedom to students. This last point is particularly important from the point of view of more discipline-oriented schools.

Educational Model: I’m super fan of the student centric OLPC model. Actually, that is in my view the most revolutionary contribution of the project. However, the Intel guys have been working for years (about a decade in Chile) with the school teachers. Their educational model called Intel Educa has been delivered to over ten thousand teachers here and now it’s even part of the curriculum in many universities. And of course, people in the Ministry of Education are familiar with the Intel approach, and they seem to love it, so there’s already a huge advantage for Intel in terms of the proximity to the decision makers. This is also truth for most of the Southern Cone region. Here we find the real David and Goliath battle! (not in the machines themselves)

Bottom line: I truly believe that there is room for both machines. For example: the OLPC seems to me more powerful in the hands of younger children (6 to 12 years), particularly in rural schools. Its key strength is that it can produce enormous transformations under extreme conditions. OLPC is also more “Ëœvalue for money’ if governments and local authorities are able to buy smaller quantities (not 1 million). On the other hand, the Classmate seems a bit more Ok for middle size or big cities, (yes, we do have cities in Latin America with more stable electric supply and better infrastructure. I also tend to think that the Classmate machine is more suitable for more grown-up kids (12 to 16), but this is something more subjective based on the external look of both machines and their current software environments.

However, in an ideal world, I’d be rather happy if, by next year, any Latin American country can have most of their public (underprivileged) schools with ‘mobile laptop labs’ (at least 20 or 30 machines per school) with OLPC and CLASSMATES.

The dream of ONE COMPUTER PER CHILD can still take some 5 to 10 years in most of our countries, but we need to start moving in that direction right now. Here we have two good alternatives we should seriously consider.

LUIS RAMIREZ
Campaign One
Computer Per
Child-Chile
www.ucpn.cl

Tags: Argentina, Brasil, Classmate, Intel, Laptop, Nicholas Negroponte, UCPN y OLPC