OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to save the world. Where is it now?

Byryan

It was supposed to be the laptop that saved the world.

In late 2005, tech visionary and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte pulled the cloth cover off a small green computer with a bright yellow crank. The device was the first working prototype for Negroponte’s new nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, dubbed “the green machine” or simply “the $100 laptop.” And it was like nothing that Negroponte’s audience — at either his panel at a UN-sponsored tech summit in Tunis, or around the globe — had ever seen.

Source: OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world — then it all went wrong – The Verge

I remember being so excited for the OLPC, and what I imagined could happen once the lack of access barrier was torn down. Unfortunately, this was not to come to pass in the United States. As the article states, the netbook phenomenon took some of the wind out of the OLPC sales, and now Chromebooks have removed the rest (at least in the USA).

Similar Posts

Choose from 12 sets of styles with this Google Docs add-on

Choose from 12 sets of styles with this Google Docs add-on

Byryan

Make your documents look consistent in a click Source: Styles for Google Docs I have been a big fan of styles for awhile. In fact, it’s probably the most underused feature of word processing. Once you start using styles, you’ll create better looking, consistent, work, faster then you thought possible. This add-on gives you twelve…

Moving past the marshmallow test to predict future success

Moving past the marshmallow test to predict future success

Byryan

Kindergarten children whose teachers rate them as being highly inattentive tend to earn less in their 30s than classmates who are rated highly “pro-social,” according to a recent paper in JAMA Psychiatry. In fact, inattention could prove to be a better predictor of future educational and occupational success than the famous “marshmallow test” designed to assess a…

All things, including your smartphone, in moderation

All things, including your smartphone, in moderation

Byryan

A decade ago, smart devices promised to change the way we think and interact, and they have – but not by making us smarter. Eric Andrew-Gee explores the growing body of scientific evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds Source: Your smartphone is making you stupid, antisocial and unhealthy. So why can’t you put it down?…

Something I didn’t know existed, the Microsoft Office World Championship

Something I didn’t know existed, the Microsoft Office World Championship

Byryan

On a Sunday night two weeks back, in the Rose Court Garden of the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, 150 antsy competitors between the ages of 13 and 22 milled around eating miniature whoopie pies by the light of the Moon, sizing up their global rivals in the efficient use of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word….

Infinity:One is OLPC XO’s bigger, more responsible sibling | The Verge

Infinity:One is OLPC XO’s bigger, more responsible sibling | The Verge

Byryan

Remember One Laptop Per Child? They distributed a few million cheap, brightly-colored XO laptops running a weird version of Linux called “Sugar OS,” and then… what happened? Well, I’m not sure actually. But OLPC Australia is carrying the torch, sort of. This offshoot now calls itself “One Education,” and has just announced the Infinity:One. Gone…