OLPC falters
A while back, a colleague asked me about OLPC. I wrote to him:"Here are the problems I see
1. they are going top down, from the head of government down. This introduces a lot of bureaucracy and I think chances are very good that the recipients of the laptop will be chosen due to political considerations, not need.
2. OLPC is not shared. But in developing countries, the only way to be cost effective is to share things - shared TVs, shared mobile phones etc. This whole approach seems wrong.
3. Doesn't work for illiterate users.
4. The money spent on a million laptops can be better spent on teacher salaries and blackboards.
5. There is no support for after-sales service and spare parts
6. A recycled desktop is cheaper, easier to repair, and widely available. Why create more electronic junk when the junkyeards are full of discarded PCs?"
This article from the WSJ validates this, and also raises some other problems. As for me, I back robust shared infrastructure. The only non-shared device is likely to be not a laptop for a child, but a cell phone for an adult.
