Transcript OLPC- the View From 1978

One Laptop Per Child – the View
from 1978
Basser Seminar 26 July 2009
Basser School of Information Technology
University of Sydney
Lee Felsenstein
Fonly LLC
Palo Alto, California
[email protected]
What do you mean “revolution?”
Event that:

Overthrows an existing order

Involves efforts of large numbers of people

Opens long-term possibilities in an unexpected
manner
What Existing Order?
The Computer Priesthood

IBM hegemonic

Large machines – high cost

Proprietary software, OS, hardware, support


Software prepared by experts to lessor's
specifications
“End User” always a business or government
agency
Opening shot - TV Typewriter (1973)


Build-it-yourself article
Complex documentation
sent to interested
correspondents ($2 fee)

Normal response – 20

10,000 paid responses!

Large pent-up demand
–
But for what?
Ideology - “Computer Lib”
Ted Nelson (1974)
• Modeled after Whole
Earth Catalog
• “You Can and Must
Understand Computers
NOW”
• Started thousands off to
learn about hardware and
software
Breakthrough - Altair (1975)
• Incomplete kit offered
for less than cost of CPU
chip
• Runaway best seller
• Users embarked upon
learning project of
unknown duration and
scope
• Nearly empty box
Clubs and Shared Software
• Necessary mutual
teaching
• Software seen as means
to end of having working
computer
• Altair Basic widely
shared – became the
standard despite Gates'
complaints
Interoperability - CP/M
• Gary Kildall, PhD
(pictured)
• Allowed software to run
on various computers
• Enabled the personal
computer industry
(Harold Evans)
• No computer company
had previously seen the
point
Interactivity
• Shared Memory Display
(VDM-1 shown) enabled
fast user interaction
– Computer games!
• Visi-Calc spreadsheet
arguably an interactive
computer accounting
game
• No computer company
had previously seen the
point
Growth and Triumph – IBM opens up
• 1976 – Sol-20 (complete
system)
• 1977 – Apple II
(graphics)
• 1981 – Osborne
(portability, bundled
SW)
• 1981 – IBM-PC – adopts
open architecture
OLPC definition – basics 1
•
Originated by Prof. Nick Negroponte
–
Inspired by Cambodian kids using laptops in school
sponsored by N. & E. Negroponte
•
Premise – Education is only way out of poverty
•
Premise – Only way to educate kids is to give them
all laptops
•
Premise – Laptops alone, if designed right, will be
sufficient to effect education
–
“Constructionist” (Papert & Kay) methodology
–
Children will explore world, “learn learning”
OLPC definition – basics 2
• Implementation
– Design superior laptop
– Secure agreements with heads of state for
massive purchases
– Require all children be given a laptop
– Manufacture in million increments
› Drive price down to $100
– Done!
OLPC - Assumptions
•
Mesh networking will compensate for lack of
network access
•
Software applications will appear from 3rd parties
•
Crank- or pull-string-power generation will supply
sufficient power
•
Colorful motif will prevent theft and black-market
sale of computers
•
Teachers will “get out of the way”
•
Parents will not interfere
OLPC – hidden corrolaries
• No research
–
–
–
–
“Enough is known already”
Ethnographic research eschewed (IDEO)
No existing body of data referenced
No research report from Cambodian village
exists
• No pilot projects
• Full-scale implementation or nothing
• No implementation plan
OLPC – what could go wrong?
• Heads of state cannot dictate to education ministries
– Bureaucracy has mass and inertia
– India Ed. Min. declares OLPC “pedagogically suspect”
• Infrastructure not included
– Generator an afterthought
– Network backhaul left to chance
• Constructionism not shown to be effective
– Talented teachers required
OLPC – the View From 1978
• There's been a revolution overthrowing the order:
– of system definition and implementation by priesthoods
› Operating under cover of hierarchies
› Surrounded by ramparts of propaganda
› Unquestioned and unexamined
– of institutions defined as end users...
› ...and individuals simply subject to the results
OLPC – the View From 1978
• The age of the Magic Machine is over
• People know:
– where software comes from
– that submission is not required
– that the priesthood is composed of mortals
• People are as pragmatic as ever
– They want to know how the new machine will help
them, their families, their communities
Kay's Hierarchy
1. Hardware
2. Software
3. User Interface
4. Courseware
5. Mentoring
•
•
Each step harder than the one before
“We should have started at the top and worked
down” - Alan Kay, Tunis 2005
Negroponte on OLPC over time
• “This is an education project. It is not a laptop
project.” - Sept. 2005
• “...we remain firmly committed to our mission of
getting laptops to children in developing countries.”
- Jan. 2009
OLPC – out of the wreckage

Only projects running are pilots
– www.olpcnews.com

OLPC has spun off software – Sugar Labs
– www.sugarlabs.org

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More than 100,000 XO-1 laptops sold in US and
Western countries (Give1, Get 1 – 2007 and 2008)
Needed – connections between education geeks and
computer geeks with XO-1's to work on top levels of
Kay's hierarchy.
Some Interesting Needs
• A device to permit learners to achieve basic
literacy in their own language on a standalone
basis (no network needed)
• A device to permit learners to achieve basic
proficiency in arithmetic (no network needed)
• A basic electronic book
• A system for network availability supported by
telecommunications revenues (village telecentre)
• A system for battery charging without mains
power (Low-power village power utility)
Pursue the Hands-On Imperative!