The dream of cheap computers in the hands of millions of poor children is becoming a reality, though not exactly as its proponents imagined. For-profit competitors snatched the idea and have run with it.

In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte unveiled an idea for bridging the technology divide between rich nations and the developing world. It was captivating in its utter simplicity: Design a $100 laptop and, within four years, get it into the hands of up to 150 million of the world's poorest schoolchildren.

World leaders and corporate benefactors jumped in to support the nonprofit project, called One Laptop Per Child. Negroponte, a professor on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hopscotched the world collecting pledges from developing nations to buy the laptops in bulk.

But nearly three years later, only about 2,000 students in pilot programs have received computers from the One Laptop project.

An order from Uruguay for 100,000 machines appears to be the only solid deal to date with a country, although Negroponte says he's on the verge of sealing an order from Peru for 250,000. The first mass-production run, which began this month in China, is for 300,000 laptops, tens of thousands of which are slated to go to U.S. consumers.

Negroponte's goal of 150 million users by the end of 2008 looks unattainable.

His ambitious plan has been derailed, in part, by the power of his idea.

For-profit companies threatened by the projected $100 price tag set off at a sprint to develop their own dirt-cheap machines, plunging Negroponte into unexpected competition against well-known brands such as Intel (INTC, news, msgs) and Microsoft's (MSFT, news, msgs) Windows operating system. (Microsoft owns and publishes MSN Money.)

Organizers of a project to bring computers to students in the world's poorest nations turn to first-world consumers for help. The pitch: Buy two, keep one.

After 2½ years of relentless organizing, product development and evangelizing, the so-called $100 laptop is ready to go into production in October.

At a time like this, you'd think that übertechnology visionary Nicholas Negroponte and his team at the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization would be stockpiling champagne for a blowout celebration. Far from it.

Though the notebook computer for schoolchildren in underdeveloped nations is just about ready for prime time, the goal of distributing tens of millions of the cute green-and-white machines still seems a far-off dream. The reasons: The computers, now called XO Laptops, will cost about $188 each to produce initially, nearly twice the original estimate, and, so far, not a single government has written a check.

That's why OLPC last week announced a money-raising gambit called "Give 1 Get 1." Originally, the organization had no set plans to sell or distribute the computers in the United States. Now it hopes to capitalize on widespread interest from American gadget fans to raise enough money to pay for shipments of XO Laptops to four countries that are among the poorest of the poor: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti and Rwanda.

Under Give 1 Get 1, which will run for two weeks starting Nov. 12, U.S. customers will be able to pay $399 to buy two laptops: one for themselves and one to be shipped to a child in one of those four countries. About half of the purchase price will be tax-deductible.

Also, starting today, people can simply "give" a laptop by making a $200 donation. Those who'd like to participate can sign up for e-mail alerts on the Web site XOgiving.org. The machines, which are being built in Taiwan, will begin shipping to U.S. customers in January or February.

Help from a billionaire
Though the highly quotable Negroponte has been a master at getting publicity for OLPC, this effort is mostly about cash.

"It has become important for us to raise money this way," he says. "I have met with about 30 heads of state. They're all enthusiastic. But there's a huge gulf between a head of state shaking your hand and a minister making a bank transfer."

Negroponte won't predict how many laptops might be sold through Give 1 Get 1, but factory capacity presents no limitations: Quanta Computer in Taiwan can produce 1 million XO Laptops a month, if need be.

Interviewed during a stop in Europe, Negroponte conceded that the difficulties of his task sometimes discourage him. "You wake up some mornings feeling that way, but then I think about all the good people who are helping us and supporting us," he says.

Negroponte hopes that by subsidizing the purchase of computers in the four countries, OLPC will prompt other countries to make their own investments.

On the bright side, he says, Peru and Uruguay seem to be on the verge of placing orders. Elsewhere, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú has pledged to buy and donate 250,000 XO Laptops for Mexico's children.

There are more than a dozen pilot programs in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Thailand and elsewhere. In Brazil, where five such trials are under way, the government is deciding whether to adopt a program to distribute computers to students for free, and if it does, whether to buy XO Laptops.

The early results are promising, says Juliano Bittencourt, a university researcher who coordinates the pilot program at the Luciana de Abreu School in Pôrto Alegre, a major city near Brazil's southern tip.

Since March, 251 of the school's 298 students have received laptops donated by OLPC, well on the way toward the goal of supplying one laptop per child. More than 20 teachers who also received machines have been busy revising their curricula to make the computers integral tools for education. Students, for instance, are working in teams with the computers to conduct research and make presentations on topics of their own choosing.

The pilot programs are essential for identifying the glitches that are bound to arise when computers are deployed in strapped schools. Setting up and paying for Internet access can be a challenge. Bittencourt and his research colleagues have been giving OLPC feedback on the hardware and software so its techies can make improvements.

Winning over educators
Also, because there are few electrical outlets in the Pôrto Alegre school, they jury-rigged a system for powering and charging the computers using a web of cheap power strips. The XO Laptops are designed to consume very little electricity.

"If we bought traditional laptops, we'd have to replace all of the electrical wires in the school, and that would make it impossible to make this work," says Bittencourt.

For use at home and where power is not available, the group says, the XO can be hand powered. It will come with at least two of three options: a crank, a pedal or a pull-cord. It is also possible that children could have a second battery for group charging at school while they are using their laptop in class.

Though there has been much praise for OLPC, the project has its critics, too.

"I think the problem of getting orders is showing that the brilliant idea of getting governments to buy in huge volumes is a flawed strategy," says Wayan Vota, the editor of OLPC News, a Web site that tracks the project closely.

Vota supports OLPC's goals, but in addition to selling the idea to high-level government officials, he favors a process of winning over educators closer to the front lines and enlisting them in gradually rolling out the laptops to schools.

Vota and other observers also say Negroponte and his colleagues are sometimes too doctrinaire in their belief that the best way to use computers in education is to hand them to children and let them figure out what they want to do with them.

Negroponte says that's an unfair criticism.

When he approaches governments, he says, he lays out two options. The first is the idea of putting the machines in the children's hands and letting them take them home at night, where they'll learn by experimenting. A second option, which he calls the "Trojan Horse," is employing the laptops as electronic books that the teachers and administrators can use to deliver their already-existing curricula.

"This is less disturbing to the educational establishment," he says.

Competition from a startup
When Negroponte launched his project, he hoped to quickly get the cost per laptop below $100. Instead, he found that the cost of buying and assembling the 800 parts that go into each machine was nearly double. However, as production volumes rise, he expects to reduce the current $188 cost by about 40% with each passing year. If he's right, he may yet succeed in bringing the laptop down to the $100 mark.

Another challenge he faces is competition from commercial computer makers.

For instance, NComputing of Redwood Shores, Calif., sells a system that includes a single PC that connects with up to seven simple computer terminals for a price of $142 per student. The startup has had some successes in rural schools in the United States and in some emerging nations.

"I'm concerned that programs depending on charity will never meet the real needs of children in developing countries," says Ncomputing's CEO, Stephen Dukker. He says his products "provide low-cost access to the complete PC experience while also providing the profits necessary to support an entire value chain of support and services."

And so, with alternatives to chose from, countries are taking their time to evaluate their options. Despite the bumpy start, OLPC initiative has plenty of support from powerful technology companies, including Google (GOOG, news, msgs), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, news, msgs), eBay (EBAY, news, msgs), Intel (INTC, news, msgs) and News Corp. (NWS, news, msgs).

AMD chief Hector Ruiz, who was the first industry leader to pledge support to Negroponte, remains confident that demand for the machines will take off eventually. "Unfortunately, it gets caught up in a bureaucratic mess," he says.

AMD, which provides the processors for the machines, has already benefited from collaborating with OLPC to help design a device that's inexpensive, rugged and extremely energy-efficient. Based on that work, the company plans by the year-end to release a processor designed specifically for personal computers in emerging markets. If that product sells well, at least AMD will have cause for celebration.

This article was reported and written by Steve Hamm for BusinessWeek.

I saw this guy on "60 Minutes". I think he had a great vision but too many for profit companies wanted to get in on the press and unfortunately created competition which always puts a negative spin on people who have good intentions.

I hope his vision comes to fruition. I think it's a wonderful thing if we can help get the underdeveloped countries connected!

Yes, I thought the greed was shown by the for profit companies. I couldn't help but think of Liberace's quote, "You can only drive one cadillac at a time."

I'm not really understanding how the competition in the market of cheap laptops has raised the production cost of the XO laptops. In fact, it makes no sense at all.

Criticism

Third generation prototypeThough generally well received at early stages, the project has been criticized on several fronts.

Design

On November 10, 2005, Lee Felsenstein criticized the centralized, top-down, “imperialistic” design and distribution of the OLPC. Felsenstein, currently of the Fonly Institute, draws upon his previous experience with distributed collaboration and open source hardware in the Homebrew Computer Club.

Porn browsing/Censorship

On July 20, 2007, Reuters reported on a minor scandal when the News Agency of Nigeria claimed that several units seen by its reporters had been used to navigate pornographic websites. In response, the OLPC program laid out filtering options.

Environmental concerns

The project has received criticism due to possible environmental and health impacts of hazardous materials found in computers. Many nations and organizations are working towards the development of “Green Electronics” (e.g. European Union with Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive). While any project on this scale will have environmental impact, OLPC has asserted that it is aiming to use as many environmentally friendly materials as it can; that the laptop and all OLPC-supplied accessories will be fully compliant with the EU's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS); and that the laptop will use an order of magnitude less power than the typical consumer laptops available as of 2007, minimizing the environmental burden of power generation. It is one of eight computers to receive EPEAT's Gold rating for environmental performance.

Effective use of money

At the UN conference in Tunisia, several African officials, most notably Marthe Dansokho of Cameroon and Mohammed Diop of Mali, were suspicious of the motives of the project and claimed that the project was using an overly American mindset that presented solutions not applicable to specifically African problems. Dansokho said the project demonstrated misplaced priorities, stating that clean water and schools were more important for African women, who, he stated, would not have time to use the computers to research new crops to grow. Diop specifically attacked the project as an attempt to exploit the governments of poor nations by making them pay for hundreds of millions of machines. Additionally, the price of $188/unit does not include the cost of setup, maintenance, training of teachers, or Internet access. Countries adopting the XO-1 must budget for these costs as well.

One criticism has been that the money for purchasing laptops could be more favorably spent on libraries and schools. John Wood, founder of Room to Read, emphasizes affordability and scalability over high-tech solutions. While in favor of the One Laptop per Child initiative for providing education to children in the developing world at a cheaper rate, he has pointed out that a $2,000 library can serve 400 children, costing just $5 a child to bring access to a wide range of books in the local languages (such as Khmer or Nepali) and English; also, a $10,000 school can serve 400–500 children ($20–$25 a child). According to Wood, these are more appropriate solutions for education in the dense forests of Vietnam or rural Cambodia.

Price - HRD India

The Ministry of Human Resource Development of India has rejected Nicholas Negroponte's offer of $100 laptops for schoolchildren. The Ministry has stated plans to make laptops at $10 for schoolchildren. Two designs submitted to the ministry from a final year engineering student of Vellore Institute of Technology and a researcher from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore reportedly describe a laptop that could be produced for "$47 per laptop" for even small volumes. No technical specifications or development timelines have been released.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1

Neat laptop for the price.

Very cool. Thanks Roy

You're welcome. I would have loved to have one of those when I was a kid.

Thursday, 6 December 2007, 12:05 GMT

Microsoft trials XP on XO laptop
Children with XO laptops
The XO laptops are being trialled worldwide
Microsoft is to begin field tests of Windows XP working on the so-called $100 laptop, or XO, early in 2008.

It has not committed to offering XP on the XO laptop but hopes to release the operating system in the first half of 2008 if the trials succeed.

The work, undertaken as part of the firm's plans to widen access to technology, forms part of a project to run Windows on flash-based machines.

The XO does not have a hard drive, and uses a lightweight flash drive instead.

Microsoft's James Utzschneider, writing on his blog, said: "We are hard at work on the project here.

"Between Microsoft employees and third party contractors that we have brought into the effort, we have over 40 engineers working full-time on the port."

The XO is the work of the One Laptop Per Child project to boost access to technology in the developing world by building a low-cost laptop designed for educational uses.

It has been pioneered by a not-for-profit group lead by Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab.

The group has taken its first orders, with 100,00 bought by Uruguay and 40,000 by Peru, with an option for a further 210,000.

The availability of Windows on the XO could boost take-up of the machine. There have been reports that some countries have been cautious about signing-up to the project because it does not run Windows, the world's most popular operating system.

The XO laptop runs Linux, an open source operating system which costs nothing for schools around the world to use.

If schools and governments wanted to use XP on an XO machine they would have to buy a license.

For Microsoft the challenge in porting XP to the XO machine has been in re-writing many drivers for the operating system that control functions like the laptop's webcam and wireless connections.

The engineers have also had to work to fit the operating system into a much smaller amount of storage.


One laptop

Factfile: XO laptop

Microsoft asked the XO project to add a slot for an internal SD memory card to boost the storage to 2GB in order to run XP. The complication for Microsoft is that the XO has a custom SD interface, rather than a standard one used by most computers.

"The potential payoff for students and schools from this work, of course, is that the tens of thousands of existing educational applications written for Windows can potentially run on the XO," said Mr Utzschneider.

Microsoft is currently looking into the process of installing XP onto the machines at the point they are manufactured in the factory and remotely, if needed.

Mr Utzschneider added: "Microsoft plans to publish some formal design guidelines early next year that will help Flash PC manufacturers benefit from our early work so they can design machines that enable a great Windows experience at as low a cost as possible."