[Olpc-open] Mea Culpa and Epistemology Fwd: tabula rasa

[Carolyn Turbyfill]

I received the following criticism which is entirely legitimate:

"You seem to be attempting to shut down criticism on the basis that you
know the needs of third world country better than they the person
complaining. I would certainly accept your opinions a lot more readily
if you showed that your own opinions were informed rather than
egocentric."  (BTW - a previous posting from me is below.)


I  am sincerely asking an epistemological question.  (Epistemology:
a branch of philosophy  that investigates the origin, nature,  
methods, and
limits of human knowledge.   http://dictionary.reference.com/).  Do you
truly understand the target customer?  What infrastructure does the  
customer
have in his environment?  Would the customer prefer that a high cost,  
high
end solution that he probably won't get - or would it be preferable
to get a  lower cost, low footprint, no infrastructure required  
laptop where every kid
in the area could get one and they could collaborate?

Who do you or I presume to have the right to speak for?  Personally -  
I've been doing
high tech development for 25+ years and I don't consider myself  
representative of
any customer, much less an olpc target customer.
But really - all of our opinions don't really matter.  The user is  
always right.
How many target users of the olpc laptop are on this mailing list?

However - when SkyNet takes over and
wipes the worlds infrastructure, and OLPC laptop may be the only  
thing that still works :-)

As for my own third world experience:

I lived in Bangkok, Thailand from 1960 to 1964 - and travelled all  
over Thailand.
(I read "The Ugly American" when I was 12 years old:  http:// 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_American.)
Shortly thereafter - I returned to America and got a huge dose of  
reverse culture shock (we moved into
a small town in North Carolina) - before it had a name.

I lived in Zambia from 1965 to 1967.  While in Zambia there were  
months when writing and toilet paper was rationed
and people were deported or arrested for saying the wrong thing.

I lived in South Korea (as a Peace Corps volunteer working with  
Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) patients from
1978 to 1980.  (This is also when President Park  was assasinated   
and General Chun came to power.  Again there
was martial law.)

I spent time in Russia from 1992 on.  My last visit was last year.   
The changes in Moscow are incredible but they
do not necessarily indicate a change in standard of living for people  
in the countryside.

I'm leading a People to People delegation to China in December to  
network with Chinese
Women in Technology.  But I'll be large cities and don't expect to  
get a real sense of what life is like for
a factory workers or farmer.  In fact - I just got around to checking  
out the hotel's I'll be staying in and
for the most part - except for cultural differences, I could be  
traveling in Europe.

I apologize for letting my frustration come through.  I've seen  
plenty of cultural ethnocentrism
even among educated and well off engineers.   But you can understand  
a different culture and not know what
poverty is like.  My experience seeing poverty up close and personal  
is a humbling and heart wrenching  experience.
It was the discovery of poverty that set Buddha on his lifetime quest  
for enlightenment.


I believe the olpc project is one of truly good intentions and dogged  
execution.  It has also become a disruptive
technology in a wonderful way.  It is one of the things I wonder  
about when I look at reconstruction attempts in
war torn countries.  The west tries to help set up centralized  
infrastructure, power, water, that is subject
to sabotage and also takes a lot of time and work.  Most of the  
beneficiaries are powerless to be part of the change.
There are so many technologies that can allow us to decentralize:  ie  
letting kids network their own
computers without having to have a satellite uplink in a remote  
area.  (Has a lovely HAM radio feel to it.)
OLPC is a bottom up approach.  Foreign aid tends to be top down.

For all of you working on this project,  you have my admiration and  
thanks.

--Carolyn

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Carolyn Turbyfill <cturbyfill at mac.com>
> Date: November 20, 2007 7:50:53 AM EST
> To: open oltpwiki <olpc-open at lists.laptop.org>
> Subject: Re: [Olpc-open] tabula rasa
>
>
>
> I'm a big fan of OLPC.  3 years ago I started working on trying to get
> internet access for women in Afghanistan (they can't go to internet  
> cafe's
> unless the cafe has hours set aside exclusively for women).  I was  
> beyond
> delighted when I found out about the OLPC project.  I will be  
> raising some
> money and purchasing some laptops.
>
> For those of you who are thinking in high tech competitive terms, I  
> suggest:
> Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (Paperback)
> by E. F. Schumacher (Author) "One of the most fateful errors of our  
> age is the
>  belief that "the problem of production" has been solved..." (more)
>
> I have spent a great deal of time in poor countries - and to quote  
> my husband,
> with whom I worked with Hansen's disease (Leprosy patients) in the  
> Peace Corps,
> "poverty means there is nothing" - no resources, no opportunity.  I  
> worked with
> deformed and chronically ill people who worked harder every day of  
> of their life
> just to get by than I've ever worked.  A hardy laptop that doesn't  
> require batteries
> and is a bit slow - this is so seriously not a problem.
>
>
> Regards,
> Carolyn Turbyfill
> Fairfax, Virginia
>