

OLPC XO v3: Like an iPad but bendier - jurjenh
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2010/10/07/olpc-part-2-nicholas-negroponte-on-the-mideast-and-the-xo-3-tablet-and-why-he-may-not-ever-have-to-build-it/?single_page=true

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jurjenh
While reading about Pyjamas I came across a sidebar note that mentioned part
of the OLPC team, and wondered "What has happened to the OLPC" - and so had a
look.

It seems like they've passed the initial press honeymoon and are settling down
into the business stage - "while the days of ubiquitous praise and head-
spinning press about the OLPC project are long past, the organization is
actually settling into a pace and place where it could make by far its biggest
impact in the next few years ahead."

Now it seems like their direction has become a little more political rather
than technical due to the effects of new technology on their market. An
interesting case study as it is a humanitarian organisation, so does not need
to keep its history / direction as shielded as a typical business - “The
interesting thing about now versus five years ago—five years ago, we had to
build a laptop, because there wasn’t a laptop” geared for the developing
world, he says. Now, Negroponte says, it’s possible that “we don’t have to
build a tablet. All we [might] have to do is threaten to build a tablet. And
what’s interesting is that the key features of our tablet are ideas we want
people to copy. So our IP will be as open as humanly possible.”

