One Laptop Per Child
I’ve blogged about this before, and undoubtably I will blog about it again. The one laptop per child is a fantastic initiative which aims to make $100 laptops available to children in developing countries. It seems that the organization behind the device have listened to the general population (my self among them) and will be making it available on a “buy 1 give 1″ basis (you buy two, one is given to a child in a developing country and you get to keep one for your own kids.
As you can probably imagine a lot has been said about the One Laptop Per Child initiative, ranging from the pertinent to the just downright ignorant. Anywhere you find OLPC mentioned there’s always some ignorant fool in the comments saying; “these children need food not this!” Such a comment demonstrates nothing more than an armchair familiarity of developing nations (through nothing more than television). Obviously the laptop is a solution in regions where children have enough food. There are plenty such regions where food is not the problem - the problem is education and access to information.
Information is a powerful thing, of more value than money, money is fleeting, food is fleeting, information and knowledge lie behind both of these. Money doesn’t exist in reality, it is a social construct, it has value because human society chooses to give it value. That value buffers us from the inconvenience of bartering. It is our knowledge of agriculture that allows us to cultivate enough food. Just as there is a tremendous gap between the rich and the poor, so too there is a huge gap between the information rich and the information poor. Providing access to information gives access to new opportunities.
The device may have some form of tie in with wikipedia, another brilliant project which has benefited humanity, and just think of the power of giving children access to a device which has a copy of wikipedia on it (in their native language). The device itself forms a wireless mesh network which allows devices to connect together to form a network for sharing information. If one of the devices is able to connect to the internet then all of the devices in range are able to access the internet. To the left you can see a screen shot of one of the devices in network view.
Why am I such a big fan of this project? My grandparents gave me my first computer at the age of five, and encouraged me to learn, explore, create. My papa even bought me books about programming (books aimed at children obviously), and at five I was pushing my computer to the limits of my own imagination. Children in developing nations should have the same opportunity I had; access to information technology, access to information, access to knowledge and education. We should not belittle the children of these countries by implying that they have no need of such devices. I believe that the children of these nations are probably far more capable of getting the most out of any technology than their decadent brothers and sisters in the developed nations. The life changing nature of knowledge and education is most apparent to those who so desperately need it.
