2007-01-24
Vision
Some people have got vision and a drive. Sometimes this really thrills me. The people of OLPC do. They wanted to improve education, especially of children in the poor countries. Their vision: A new concept for learning using latest technologies. They called it One Laptop per Child. But they did not just want to create a cheap laptop. Their focus was a new concept. The principals are people from the MIT Media Lab and other brains. They are specialists on education, connectivity, content, media and finally software and hardware engineering. First the concept, then technology. They reinvented the laptop!
This week, 2 years after the start of the project, the first devices have been delivered for testing. They are simple and effective, appealing to children. This is elegant design. It costs a fraction of an ordinary laptop and does not have the burden of a bloated operating system. In fact it has very few in common with an ordinary laptop. They reinvented everything. Everything? No, they stuck to the QWERTY keyboard. It inspired them for a nice parable on their wiki.
Wow! This thing is cool.
I want to go back to school!
This week, 2 years after the start of the project, the first devices have been delivered for testing. They are simple and effective, appealing to children. This is elegant design. It costs a fraction of an ordinary laptop and does not have the burden of a bloated operating system. In fact it has very few in common with an ordinary laptop. They reinvented everything. Everything? No, they stuck to the QWERTY keyboard. It inspired them for a nice parable on their wiki.
Wow! This thing is cool.
I want to go back to school!
