OLPC begins mass production, and EA makes SimCity Open Source for OLPC use

Originally written 7/11/2007; updated 11/11/2007

Today there are plenty of reports that the OLPC laptop has gone into mass production. I'm trying to get my hands on one through the (US only....) give one / get one programme that will start on 12/11/2007, with a well-organised media campaign, including a full page donated advert in the Economist, and professionally produced public service announcements on YouTube such as this one (the "Download video!" link does not function): 

Meanwhile the global games company EA has made Will Wright's original SimCity open source so that it can be ported onto the OLPC laptop. Some of the companies that subscribe to Fortnightly Mailing have content that might be suited for OLPC re-use, though SimCity is, as a learning environment, rather in a class of its own); and conceivably some of the material from Jam, the BBC's scrapped £150m on-line content service for school pupils, upon which the BBC has gone rather quiet, might also be suitable.

Comments

[Dick Willis]

Surely the really interesting dimension to this will result from the trend towards the delivery of applications via the web, rather than from a local server? In terms of day-to-day [business] software, this model is already offered by Google. Once this trend reaches a critical mass of educational applications, it will be potentially more sensible for schools to invest in bandwidth, rather than new PCs, and provide each of their pupils with an OLPC device or similar.

As I understand it, these devices can create a local wireless mesh, enabling pupils to get in contact easily with each other and the school. This, and the cheapness of the device, could radically address digital exclusion by enabling kids from poorer households to have both machine and internet access.

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Thanks Dick. Broadly I agree with you, although there of obviously large tracts of the world were connectivity (other than for owners of mobile phones) is non-existent, and there are several posts on Fortnightly Mailing about "getting bandwidth into impoverished or out of the way places", for example:

Terranet: http://fm.schmoller.net/2007/09/terranet-ab-all.html

Wireless Ghana: http://fm.schmoller.net/2006/12/wireless_ghana_.html

Point-to-point WiFi: http://fm.schmoller.net/2007/07/point-to-point-.html

Mobile phone coverage: http://fm.schmoller.net/2006/09/2_billion_peopl.html

Smartphones in the developing world: http://fm.schmoller.net/2007/08/smartphones-are.html

Freedom Toaster: http://fm.schmoller.net/2006/09/welcome_to_the_.html

Seb 16/11/2007

[Dick Willis]

Hi Seb

Yes, I fully appreciate this. However, I wasn't actually thinking about the developing world - I was thinking about Bristol and the problem of digital inclusion for kids at my local primary school and the cost of keeping the school's ICT kit up to date, now that there is no additional funding for this purpose

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OK, Dick. Point taken. My guess is that the OLPC XO Laptop (I'm hopeful I will have one before too long courtesy of a friend in the US) will prove perfectly suitable for use in the developed world, and that its release will contribute to a change in developed world schools technology policy, which currently seems to be based on giving fragile, support-dependent business machines and applications to children when business levels of support are unsustainable. And I fully agree with you about the value and relevance of "hosted-in-the-sky" resources like Google Apps, the advantages of which, especially for schools, seem to me to be both blindingly obvious, and bizarrely under-promoted by those with responsibility for providing advice, and for ensuring value for money in the public sector.

Seb