1. One Laptop Per Child – the View from 1978
Basser Seminar 26 July 2009
Basser School of Information Technology
University of Sydney
Lee Felsenstein
Fonly LLC
Palo Alto, California

2. What do you mean “revolution?”
Event that:
Overthrows an existing order
Involves efforts of large numbers of people
Opens long-term possibilities in an unexpected manner

3. The Computer Priesthood
What Existing Order?
The Computer Priesthood
IBM hegemonic
Large machines – high cost
Proprietary software, OS, hardware, support
Software prepared by experts to lessor's specifications
“End User” always a business or government agency

4. Opening shot - TV Typewriter (1973)
Build-it-yourself article
Complex documentation sent to interested correspondents ($2 fee)
Normal response – 20
10,000 paid responses!
Large pent-up demand
But for what?

5. Ideology - “Computer Lib”
Ted Nelson (1974)
Modeled after Whole Earth Catalog
“You Can and Must Understand Computers NOW”
Started thousands off to learn about hardware and software

6. Breakthrough - Altair (1975)
Incomplete kit offered for less than cost of CPU chip
Runaway best seller
Users embarked upon learning project of unknown duration and scope
Nearly empty box

7. Clubs and Shared Software
Necessary mutual teaching
Software seen as means to end of having working computer
Altair Basic widely shared – became the standard despite Gates' complaints

8. Interoperability - CP/M
Gary Kildall, PhD (pictured)
Allowed software to run on various computers
Enabled the personal computer industry (Harold Evans)
No computer company had previously seen the point

9. Interactivity
Shared Memory Display (VDM-1 shown) enabled fast user interaction
Computer games!
Visi-Calc spreadsheet arguably an interactive computer accounting game
No computer company had previously seen the point

10. Growth and Triumph – IBM opens up
1976 – Sol-20 (complete system)
1977 – Apple II (graphics)
1981 – Osborne (portability, bundled SW)
1981 – IBM-PC – adopts open architecture

11. OLPC definition – basics 1
Originated by Prof. Nick Negroponte
Inspired by Cambodian kids using laptops in school sponsored by N. & E. Negroponte
Premise – Education is only way out of poverty
Premise – Only way to educate kids is to give them all laptops
Premise – Laptops alone, if designed right, will be sufficient to effect education
“Constructionist” (Papert & Kay) methodology
Children will explore world, “learn learning”

12. OLPC definition – basics 2
Implementation
Design superior laptop
Secure agreements with heads of state for massive purchases
Require all children be given a laptop
Manufacture in million increments
Drive price down to $100
Done!

13. OLPC - Assumptions
Mesh networking will compensate for lack of network access
Software applications will appear from 3rd parties
Crank- or pull-string-power generation will supply sufficient power
Colorful motif will prevent theft and black-market sale of computers
Teachers will “get out of the way”
Parents will not interfere

14. OLPC – hidden corrolaries
No research
“Enough is known already”
Ethnographic research eschewed (IDEO)
No existing body of data referenced
No research report from Cambodian village exists
No pilot projects
Full-scale implementation or nothing
No implementation plan

15. OLPC – what could go wrong?
Heads of state cannot dictate to education ministries
Bureaucracy has mass and inertia
India Ed. Min. declares OLPC “pedagogically suspect”
Infrastructure not included
Generator an afterthought
Network backhaul left to chance
Constructionism not shown to be effective
Talented teachers required

16. OLPC – the View From 1978
There's been a revolution overthrowing the order:
of system definition and implementation by priesthoods
Operating under cover of hierarchies
Surrounded by ramparts of propaganda
Unquestioned and unexamined
of institutions defined as end users...
...and individuals simply subject to the results

17. OLPC – the View From 1978 The age of the Magic Machine is over
People know:
where software comes from
that submission is not required
that the priesthood is composed of mortals
People are as pragmatic as ever
They want to know how the new machine will help them, their families, their communities

18. Each step harder than the one before
Kay's Hierarchy
Hardware
Software
User Interface
Courseware
Mentoring
Each step harder than the one before
“We should have started at the top and worked down” - Alan Kay, Tunis 2005

19. Negroponte on OLPC over time
“This is an education project. It is not a laptop project.” - Sept. 2005
“...we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries.” - Jan. 2009

20. OLPC – out of the wreckage
Only projects running are pilots
OLPC has spun off software – Sugar Labs
More than 100,000 XO-1 laptops sold in US and Western countries (Give1, Get 1 – 2007 and 2008)
Needed – connections between education geeks and computer geeks with XO-1's to work on top levels of Kay's hierarchy.

21. Some Interesting Needs
A device to permit learners to achieve basic literacy in their own language on a standalone basis (no network needed)
A device to permit learners to achieve basic proficiency in arithmetic (no network needed)
A basic electronic book
A system for network availability supported by telecommunications revenues (village telecentre)
A system for battery charging without mains power (Low-power village power utility)

22. Pursue the Hands-On Imperative!