<incom> Negroponte's Bite of Humble Pie - Hats off to HIM anyway

[Nnenna]

I am not sure this mail will get to the list.

I do recall attending the launch.  I still have a picture of one OLPC in my album.  I love it.

>From the global South, the Civil Society recognizes the potentials of OLPC as well as cons.  But better still, the different local  specificities in each country.  

The truth is that there is nothing that exists that is called 'Africa'.  There are only African countries with different levels of economic and technologival buy in.  In some countries the Policy makers are informed.  But moving from information to action is another thing.  The people we meet and shake hands with may not be the people who make procurement decisions.  In truth, they may not even be the ones making hardware decsions at all.  In certain countries, the schools whose pupils  would most likely use OLPCs are not under Federal Legislation.  They are mostly regional/state issues. The best the federal person can do is to promote.

In the process of the WSIS, apart from certain CSOs like APC, many who came were NGOs and academicians engaged in other things who had an interest in ICT as an enabling factor in their work.  

Certainly the discourse has improved and CSOs from the African end are now more aware and more engaged.  All the same our capacity to engage in a movement to ressurect OLPC is a big challenge.  Because when it trickles down to national levels, the ICT CSOs are no longer as strong as they are at the international levels.

I would like to doff my hat to Negroponte.  He may have taken a big bite of the humble pie, but I am convinced he has added inches in experience.

A simple question though, what was his "B" Plan?  I mean what you do when plan "A" fails?

Cheers

Nnenna

Pat Hall <p.a.v.hall at btinternet.com> wrote: My hope is that it will now be retailed in small quantities for use  
in schools, perhaps to NGOs working in 'the global south'.  There is  
some evidence that if it is appropriately used it could add value to  
teaching.  I was at a UNICEF conference in Kathmandu last week as  
part of a session on the pros and cons of OLPC, with a very  
thoughtful and well-informed group of south asian policy makers.   
 From me they knew the cons, but were fascinated by the technology of  
the OLPC, clapped when Shankar for the pros dropped it from a height  
and picked it up working.  If only that technology would find its way  
into normal PC offerings - rugged and low energy demand.

Perhaps we need a movement to resurrect the OLPC to meet people's  
real needs.

Pat



On 24-Sep-07, at 9:27 PM, Steve Cisler wrote:

> During a short period in November Canadians and
> Americans can pay about $400 and get an XO for
> themselves and have one donated. I guess the OLPC
> organization decides where the donation goes though.
> http://xogiving.org/
>
>
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> incom-l at incommunicado.info
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