talks at freed.in/2008 - OLPC: It is an education project, not a laptop project

Filed Under Talks

Organisation / Affiliation	None
Title of Talk	OLPC: It is an education project, not a laptop project
Talk Abstract	The OLPC project has started the deployment of XO-1 laptops in countries all around the world, and now the focus is on the education aspect of the project. In reality, the OLPC is a education project, and not a laptop project - and we are starting to see a large number of “Activities” (programs for the kids) starting to take shape around the “Sugar” graphical environment of the OLPC. This new software ecosystem needs a lot of Free/Open Source developers, and the comparative young stage of the project makes it, in some ways, the ideal thing for new FOSS developers to be involved with. This talk will provide an introduction to the OLPC project and its goals, try to explain the software framework the project provides and explain how one can get involved in the project.(..and yes, I will be carrying an XO-1 laptop with me)
Relevance to freed.in/2008	One of the central theme of Freed.in seems to be Knowledge. The OLPC project has the potential of making the knowledge accessible to more and more kids all around the world, in a sustainable way. Instead of the hardware, I will be concentrating on the software and the educational aspects of the project, making it relevant to the theme of Freed.in 2008.

Comments

Niyam Bhushan on February 19th, 2008 2:27

this green bunny complete with wi-fi rabbit-ears is hot! i especially love the sugar user-interface that simplifies the complexity of linux for children in villages to understand.
without ‘knowledge content’ can the olpc survive? or is it a fancy skype-phone running on a mesh network, an mp3/ogg player, and a web-surfer, for children?
Dipankar on February 21st, 2008 13:32

Hmmm, i kinda agree with the government stand on OLPC … nerds like me would probably buy one as a toy to play with ….

The software looks decent, but i am not sure if it is going to be useful in our part of the world … rather kids who get it might get hurt, because people would try definitely steal one of these … great idea but fit for universe utopia
Sajan on February 24th, 2008 12:40

An interesting fallout of OLPC is what OLPC News calls “the potent mix of Internet access and the natural curiosity of children, especially those reaching puberty, to go looking for images others may not want them to see.” Or, to quote the Press, “One Porn Image per Child”.

There was quite a furore over this after Reuters Africa reported on it. Check out http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL19821905.html and http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/nigeria/pornographic_image_child.html.

Well, I guess any kind of education is better than none.