One Laptop per Child & Corruption: A Tale of 2 Cities

[aitoehigie]

The idea behind the OLPC project is quite laudable but in Africa, to be specific, in Nigeria, the project is being frustrated by corrupt government officials who it is rumored have taken bribes from Computer manufacturers who intend to introduce their ultra low cost PC's into the country and also subtle pressure from the "Red Devils from Redmond". Also, due to the gross ignorance of the Minister of Education who said this "Children are not supposed to use computers, only adults should, so we are planning to introduce compulsory computer education to universities and colleges". You might ask, what do african children need computers for, in the light of hunger, war and other things plaguing the continent, but i dont think this is so, technology can be used to leap frog the continent into rapid development, and also increase the standard of living of africans. I wish this to be taken as a petition to people of this forum to mount pressure on the Governments of 3rd world countries to do what is right.

[dskhatri]

I am pretty damn sure the corrupt leaders in countries like Nigeria and Kenya (where I was born and raised) will not be swayed by an online petition! Rather than use this forum as a petition, you might consider leveraging the intelligence and experience of this group to discuss the issue of the digital divide and possibly offer suggestions as to how we could bridge it.

For example, as hackers and entrepreneurs we could work to develop an open online app that could make it easier to introduce kids in developing countries to CS and provide mentorship in some way. At MIT there was an program called AITI (Africa Internet Technology Initiative) that sent students to Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia over the summer to teach programming to high school kids there. What about a project that would provide some seed money to local African entrepreneurs to setup educational internet cafes in communities there?

It is a huge problem and would be really interesting to discuss the issue further here.

(Posted earlier here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=208030 but recommenting since the submission is now getting some traction)

[aurora72]

Not directly related to the OLPC & Corruption issue but, something annoying's happening in Turkey, too. (First of all, let me start by saying that our country's got nothing to do with the english meaning of turkey and in contrast to the popular impression, it's not a country of radical religion some extremist groups of people notwithstanding)

After this brief introduction let me come to the main point:

Well the national telecommunication company of turkey (Turkish Telekom or Türk Telekom) has began to offer its E-Mail services ,which is bundled free with the ADSL subscriptions, on the Microsoft Windows environment! For years it has been offered thru a fine and effectively working Java application.

Sadly, this change from Java to Microsoft occurred right after the turkish telekom 's been privatized.

What annoys me is not only that the public services are being misused, it's also that this new Outlook like E-Mail service apparently favors Internet Explorer. This in turn makes people more dependent on Microsoft....

Just wanted to let you know...

[davetufts]

Um... Children AREN'T supposed to use computers. It's not just the Nigerian Minister of Education who believes this. Children should be using their hands, developing coordination, developing social skills, and solving problems through imagination. Ideally, they should be outside in the natural world. Unequivocally, they should be away from all screen media.

[0x44 → davetufts]

That's a false dichotomy. Time on the computer does not mean one mustn't spend time outside or on other tasks.

[davetufts → 0x44]

But time on the computer means there is less time to spend outside and less time to spend on other tasks. Screen media simply isn't helpful for children under high school.

[0x44 → davetufts]

You've made that assertion without any evidence. I was home-schooled for about half of my K-12 education, part of that included time on the computer during "school hours", and I was also given time on the computer after school - in moderation. As a result, I have a distinct love of the things that is not shared by my siblings who did not receive a similar education. So, since I am a (hopefully) competent systems administrator and programmer, I think that my experience on the computer as a child benefited me. I think that doing many different things in moderation is far more valuable than sending your children outside for every hour of the day.

[dotcoma]

wrongdoing from Redmond? Now, that's strange ;-)

[Hexayurt]

Technological and Development Support for the Global Poor

Socially responsible technology development projects aimed at stabilizing and then improving the conditions of the global poor can easily be created from America's scientific and technical base. Many projects already exist, such as the One Laptop Per Child initiative, but these projects are seen as stand-alone initiatives, rather than parts of a coherent policy approach to the developing world.

Target areas could include global access to clean water through simple technologies like solar water pasteurization, development of new appropriate technology power systems, low cost basic medical technologies and so on.

The close analogy to the Air-support-only defensive pacts is that the US would take responsibility for developing and testing these technologies, but would only make the designs available free of charge - essentially providing design and laboratory services, and leaving nations, NGOs and individuals to capitalize the designs and handle resource distribution. This keeps costs down, and makes clear where US responsibility ends, which is an important consideration when considering how to reach outside of our borders on non-military levels.

Another critical area is farming. Roughly 50% of the world's population makes a living by simple farming, mainly using manual and animal labor. One recent study shows that modern organic agriculture techniques could roughly double the food output of these farmers (Perfecto et. al. "Organic agriculture and the global food supply.") Organic agriculture practices could be disseminated using modern ICT. For example, a farmer could send an SMS message to the local American embassy while standing in their field. The GPS data about their location could be correlated with satellite imagery showing the condition of their fields over the previous few years using techniques from precision agriculture, a common first world farming practice. Individualized recommendations could then be delivered. The cost per individual helped is relatively small: the heavy work is done by computers. But the effect on global food security, and on how the US is viewed by perhaps 50% of the world's population is beyond price.

Similar approaches are possible in medicine. Carefully prepared information packs, tailored to the health risks of each climate, geography and lifestyle could be coupled with existing medical expert systems to provide very basic, but still very useful, global health support at relatively low marginal costs. Education is similarly an open door: primary and even secondary education materials, vetted for accuracy and cultural appropriateness, and then translated into many world languages could help countless people at very low cost, and the more educated a population is, the less vulnerable they will be to rumors and propaganda.

http://guptaoption.com/2.long_peace.php

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There is a lot to be done with computers in the developing world.

[Create]

This happens in Europe as well: Something Rotten in Hungary

In the end, Steve Ballmer is doing what any good CEO should be doing, by recognizing where to best put his efforts to best sell his company to the world. Clearly, Mr. Ballmer sees the young minds as being valuable enough to invest 10 billion HUF (~40,000,000 Euro) in them. He's even has done something even better for his share holders: he has figured how to make this investment using someone else's money - namely, the EU taxpayers' money.

http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=49451