Much Ado About Nothing

welcome to this page.In class my group is doing a project on olpc (one laptop per child), an organization where you can buy a laptop for 400$ and one laptop goes to an underprivleged child in a third world country.TO find out more ,here’s a link to the website http://laptop.org/

I found this website to be quite interesting.They had quotes from the teachers and students who recieved the computers as well as pictures of the children using the computers.It was really interesting because at first i was a little sceptical i couldn’t quite understand why they chose this way to help educate,I thought that the children would only play with them ,but i read the quotes and i saw that it was more than just for entertainment.I truly beieve that it  gave them a window into a world,wich before the computers might not have streached much farther than their own village.I think it’s hard for us, living in America, a place where information is readily available and you are connected to the outside world to imagine not having these things,but i dought sincierely that before the computers came,these chilren had this bouty.

Here is a link to an article i found in the new york times website http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/technology/05laptop.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1 it’s aboout how Intel quit it’s partership with olpc.Personally i find it very petty considering what they are trying to do.

here is another article on olpc and theXO laptop.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/circuits/04pogue.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1191677876-fOSMs3sQvlI/nggC+bTIHA&oref=slogin 

I found this article to be extremely intersting and facinating.It talked about how some U.S critics complained about the mediocre technology,but the bigger problem would be the critics who say that this project is a really bad idea.They say that people in 3rd wold contries need malaria vaccines and running water more than they need laptops.In a way they’re correct,in the short term this would help more than laptops,but do these countries want to always be dependant on other contries to come up with the money and technology to bail them out and build them out,just to make the same mistakes?If the knowledge gained from these laptops finds a creative and original mind then in the future that mind using the technology from that laptop could find a cure for malaria,or find a low cost water purifier.These minds could change the course of history for the countries they live in,all they need is the chance.I called my project XO vision,because the project is trying to realize a vision for the future,a future a kid with a laptop holds the key to.