[Olpc-open] Re: Negroponte exploits the poor

[quixote]

Jose Antonio's response to objections about the OLPC look thorough.  
Unfortunately, I don't read Portuguese , so I may be repeating some of 
his points, but I wanted to weigh in since this is a topic that 
irritates me.

First, where do people get off, saying what the less-developed world 
"needs"?  I remember reading about an Oxfam study years ago in some part 
of East Africa.  I think they'd recently had a famine, and Oxfam had the 
bright idea of asking the locals what _their_ wishlist was.  They wanted 
schools for their children.  Food could wait.  If the OLPC serves no 
useful purpose, it'll be obvious soon enough.  Somehow, I don't think 
that's what the critics are afraid of.

The idea he quotes about sending the West's discarded PCs had me rolling 
on the floor, laughing.  Right.  Send thousands of incompatible, partly 
broken machines, none of which work together or with anything else, and 
each of which requires it's own IT support tech just to keep running.  
That'll give everyone an excellent experience with the world of 
computing.  (I guess the idea is it would build character.)

And in what sense is the OLPC "exploitative"?  All the software is open 
source.  The hardware is priced at a level that'll still be expensive in 
its intended markets, but certainly isn't a gold mine of profit for 
anyone.  I haven't heard about anyone selling ads on the desktop or any 
other chicanery.  So where is the exploitation??

The business about there being "no proven need" is also just plain 
silly.  In the 1960s, people kept yammering about what a waste the space 
program was, because it didn't feed anybody and who needed it?  Now 
those same people take satellite-linked cell phones for granted, and 
don't even remember the days when weather reports were one big guessing 
game for farmers and everyone else.  I'll bet if we could go back far 
enough, there were probably plenty of curmudgeons who didn't see what 
all the fuss was over the newfangled printing press.  I mean, how many 
copies of "The Book of Days" do you need to read in a lifetime?

Cheers, OLPC'ers, and keep up the great work.
quixote.

-- 
http://molvray.com/acid-test  http://molvray.com/sf