OLPC vs. the world

Sunday night's 60 Minutes, usually a show at the tail end of the technology bell curve, weighed in on a surprisingly relevant topic--Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative. If you've been following the MIT professor's story, you'll know he set out several years ago to develop a cheap laptop for children in third-world countries, featuring a low-power AMD chip, flash memory instead of a traditional hard drive, and even built-in Wi-Fi and a Webcam.

Closer to $175 than the originally projected $100, the systems are being rolled out in small test markets. We actually got some hands-on time with one a couple of months ago at the Game Developers Conference, and it felt surprisingly sturdy for a subnotebook, although its toylike qualities can't be denied.

The drama of last night's 60 Minutes profile came from the nonprofit OLPC's corporate competition--namely the low-cost Classmate PC from Intel--with a similar rugged design and carrying handle. "Intel should be ashamed of itself," Negroponte told 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl. "It's just--it's just shameless." While Intel Chairman Craig Barrett told her, "We're not trying to drive him out of business. We're trying to bring capability to young people."

You can watch the 60 Minutes segment on the CBS Web site, and also check out Tom Krazit's take over at News.com.

[Ashley Wagner]

Interesing

Negroponte's focus has been charity and making a difference in the world with his non-profit organization. Clearly Intel's focus is $$. Intel should be ashamed of themselves.

- Ashley Wagner
CyberNet News

[Fil0403]

InteresTing

Yeah, that's right, Intel should be ashamed of bringing capability to young people, how dare they?

[genotypewriter]

Why is this a problem?

So one person came up with the OLPC idea and someone else might have improved it. There's nothing more normal than this in technology.

Unless this Negroponte wanted to become the king of the cheap-computer-for-economically-disadvantaged-children game and win the Nobel prize, I can't see why he has to worry about it so much if his intentions were pure.

Who cares even if Intel wants a profit out of it? Which ever product that is more suitable will win. And how can letting this targeted market have a choice be a sin?

Correct me if I'm wrong...

[mustangj36]

Yes. Shame on Intel for upstaging

Negroponte by developing a REAL computer that has more longterm value to its prospective users than that pathetic toy the OLPC project came up with. Sure, Intel will make a small profit from each one, but so will the makers of OLPC. Business is business.

[kingjoevii]

We should have more "Intel"s

Bravo to intel for this endeavor. They can probably do it better, cheaper, and more efficiently than the non-profit. Who cares if they make money...thats what businesses are supposed to do. Plus if they make money, that means more laptops for children, its a win/win.
It would be wonderful if every computer maker decided to make a computer like this...we need more business involvment, not less