Magda Pischetola wrote: > Thank you all the members of the list for your kind answers! > I will try here to discuss some of the topics that have been raised: > > Tim: the OLPC is said to be a quality tool for children of the developing > world but what you pointed out is very true: people living in rural > developing areas are going to appreciate any kind of technology that could be > presented to them, as they do not have any alternative. So, the point is: why > not offering them the technology that we all use everyday (a standard laptop) > instead of a tool created to be a “laptop for the third world”. > I'd like to delve into this further. If we say that the technology is isolated, this may be very true. However, technology does not exist in a vacuum - and because of that, technology competes with other things based on life prioritization. Are laptops of use to a community? Sure they are. But if the community does not have running water or stable electricity, or even stable communication via landline or cell phone tower, which is more important? I think we all know the answer there.
Technology has, can, and always will be of assistance to mankind. It's what we do, from sharpening stones to forcing electrical signals to do our bidding, be it in streams of 1s and 0s or otherwise. Good technology and technology use improves quality of life, bad technology and technology use is a sinkhole. My personal criticism of the OLPC has always revolved around this - certainly, in some areas the OLPC will be a good technology used in a good way. But then, even in the developed world, Thoreau's words often ring true: "We have become the tools of our tools." > I am not sure that I agree with Satish when says that the OLPC is more > advanced than a normal laptop, as it is thought as a game for children who > aren’t failiar with technology. It was proved by a recent research held from > IBM that PCs and laptops introduced in primary schools as “games” where > making children ask why they do not have “normal” PCs and laptops, as the > ones that they saw in other contexts. That is to say: are we sure that it is > right to create a “game” of the first laptop that those children are going to > use, just because they have never seen a laptop before? What’s the difference > between the OLPC and the laptop that Taran suggested or the Asus EEE, which > have now the same price than the OLPC one but are “serious” laptops? > Exactly - a developing nation will always remain a developing nation until it uses the same technologies, or better, than those in the developed world. If anything, the OLPC may actually add to the digital divide even in the best of circumstances because of the simple fact that it is *not* the technology used and is not - sorry, OLPC lovers - the future of computing. While aspects of the OLPC technologies will survive and perhaps add to the technological environment within which we hope more to exist, it does not *define* the technological environment and never will. No one technology ever does. The greater society - known to corporations as market(s) - decides dominant technology use and thus the technologies of the future. While introducing children to any technology that might allow them to become familiar with computing is nice, we cannot expect that the technology will not be obsolete by the time they enter the workforce - in fact, that is usually the case. -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com http://www.opendepth.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ "Criticize by Creating" - Michelangelo "The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine." - Nikola Tesla _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
