negroponte

Negroponte: You really can give a kid a laptop

TRUCKEE, Calif.--One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte said that in two years the company has managed to rebuff one of the biggest critiques of his effort--the idea that you can't just give a kid a laptop connected to the Internet and walk away.

"You can, you actually can," Negroponte said, speaking on a panel at the Techonomy conference here. "Kids in the remotest places," he said, "not only teach themselves how to read and write, but most importantly--and we found this in Peru--teach their parents to read or write."

Negroponte … Read more

Analyst: OLPC won't draw global PC makers

Whitebox vendors in the Asia-Pacific region may warm up to the One Laptop Per Child's decision to open its design, according to market research analyst IDC.

Multinational PC makers, on the other hand, will continue their focus on mini-notebooks, Reuben Tan, IDC's senior manager for personal systems research in the Asia-Pacific region, told CNET News sister site ZDNet Asia in a phone interview.

Earlier this month, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte announced the organization's intention to open-source its hardware design and invite commercial PC makers to copy it. In an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, Negroponte said the … Read more

OLPC to laptop makers: Use our design

The One Laptop per Child initiative seems to have found that imitation isn't simply a form of flattery, it's grounds for a new business model.

Speaking at the TED 2009 conference, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte said that the future of the initiative--which set out to put simple, durable, low-cost laptops in the hands of schoolchildren in developing nations--is to become, in essence, more commonplace, to "build something that everyone copies," according to Ethan Zuckerman, blogging from TED.

That copying has already begun, Negroponte said, pointing to the surging popularity in recent months of Netbooks--laptops built by … Read more

OLPC giveaway offer comes to Europe

The One Laptop per Child initiative's "Give One, Get One" scheme is to come to Europe.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of OLPC, told ZDNet UK in an e-mail interview Wednesday that version two of "Give One, Get One" (G1G1) would enable European users to participate in the scheme.

"(The) popularity of G1G1 expanded in the USA," wrote Negroponte. "We are taking G1G1 global this time."

Under the G1G1 scheme, people will be able to purchase an XO laptop, the price of which will also buy and send an XO to … Read more

OLPC, or why you can't copyright ideas

I have to agree with Mike Masnick's contention that Nicholas Negroponte is way off base in arguing that Intel and Microsoft are to blame for the One Laptop Per Child's problems. Whatever Microsoft's problems, a fervent desire to compete is not one of them. Ditto for Intel. According to Masnick:

While the idea behind creating a super cheap, super durable useful computer for children in developing nations is good, Negroponte has always approached the idea as one where only he should be allowed to see that vision through. When other companies decided it might be a good … Read more

Negroponte passes the Windows "virility test"

Wow. Some things are better left unsaid, but since Nicholas Negroponte, embattled founder of the One Laptop Per Child project, said it, I'll quote it:

When I talk to people and tell them we can run Windows, they are very impressed. You pass a sort of virility test.

Until you're emasculated by ceding control of the project to Microsoft, which has a long practice of bullying the hardware vendors who carry its Windows operating system. As for being proud that he runs Windows, why? Since when has it been hard to do that? I guess if you set your sights low enough....

But then Negroponte really crams his foot in his mouth, arguing that he needed the open-source community to get started, but only to do the early heavy lifting to pave the way for Microsoft:… Read more

XP for the XO?

The chairman and founder of the One Laptop Per Child initiative said in an interview Tuesday that the XO laptop may switch from using Linux to eventually running Windows XP, according to several reports.

In an interview with the Associated Press following the departure of the OLPC project's president, Nicholas Negroponte said the open-source Sugar software, developed expressly for the XO, could run on top of XP. Negroponte cited weaknesses in the XO's current open-source operating system (right now the XO can't support the latest versions of Flash animation) as well as the Linux community itself (for … Read more

Negroponte's OLPC seeks CEO

In the wake of a nasty spat with former partner Intel, a reorganization, and mounting criticism, Nicholas Negroponte is looking for a chief executive for his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, according to BusinessWeek.

He wants someone to help manage the organization "more like Microsoft," according to the article, rather than like the "terrorist group, doing impossible things" it's been until now.

"I am not a CEO," OLPC Chairman Negroponte said in an interview with the magazine. "Management, administration, and details are my weaknesses. I'm much better at the vision, … Read more

Palm's Foleo a follower, not a leader

In the hardware world, the first-mover strategy only works if you get it right.

For example, let's consider Palm's Foleo. Introduced last May at the D: All Thing Digital conference, the Foleo was supposed to be a $499 lightweight "mobile companion" with a full-size keyboard. Sure, it looked like a 10-inch laptop, but it was woefully underpowered, and it was designed to only work with Palm's Treo smartphones at first: modifications would have to have been made to support other phones.

Faced with mounting criticism, Palm made the correct decision in September to postpone the Foleo project … Read more