One Laptop Per Child – the View from 1978

1. Basser Seminar 26 July 2009 Basser School of Information Technology University of Sydney Lee Felsenstein Fonly LLC Palo Alto, California lee@fonlyinstitute.com One Laptop Per Child – the View from 1978

2. What do you mean “revolution?” • Event that: • Overthrows an existing order • Involves efforts of large numbers of people • Opens long-term possibilities in an unexpected manner

3. What Existing Order? • The Computer Priesthood • IBM hegemonic • Large machines – high cost • Proprietary software, OS, hardware, support • Software prepared by experts to lessor's specifications • “End User” always a business or government agency

4. Opening shot - TV Typewriter (1973) • Build-it-yourself article • Complex documentation sent to interested correspondents ($2 fee) • Normal response – 20 • 10,000 paid responses! • Large pent-up demand • But for what?

5. Ideology - “Computer Lib” • Ted Nelson (1974) • Modeled after Whole Earth Catalog • “You Can and Must Understand Computers NOW” • Started thousands off to learn about hardware and software

6. Breakthrough - Altair (1975) • Incomplete kit offered for less than cost of CPU chip • Runaway best seller • Users embarked upon learning project of unknown duration and scope • Nearly empty box

7. Clubs and Shared Software • Necessary mutual teaching • Software seen as means to end of having working computer • Altair Basic widely shared – became the standard despite Gates' complaints

8. Interoperability - CP/M • Gary Kildall, PhD (pictured) • Allowed software to run on various computers • Enabled the personal computer industry (Harold Evans) • No computer company had previously seen the point

9. Interactivity • Shared Memory Display (VDM-1 shown) enabled fast user interaction • Computer games! • Visi-Calc spreadsheet arguably an interactive computer accounting game • No computer company had previously seen the point

10. Growth and Triumph – IBM opens up • 1976 – Sol-20 (complete system) • 1977 – Apple II (graphics) • 1981 – Osborne (portability, bundled SW) • 1981 – IBM-PC – adopts open architecture

11. OLPC definition – basics 1 • Originated by Prof. Nick Negroponte • Inspired by Cambodian kids using laptops in school sponsored by N. & E. Negroponte • Premise – Education is only way out of poverty • Premise – Only way to educate kids is to give them all laptops • Premise – Laptops alone, if designed right, will be sufficient to effect education • “Constructionist” (Papert & Kay) methodology • Children will explore world, “learn learning”

12. OLPC definition – basics 2 • Implementation • Design superior laptop • Secure agreements with heads of state for massive purchases • Require all children be given a laptop • Manufacture in million increments • Drive price down to $100 • Done!

13. OLPC - Assumptions • Mesh networking will compensate for lack of network access • Software applications will appear from 3rd parties • Crank- or pull-string-power generation will supply sufficient power • Colorful motif will prevent theft and black-market sale of computers • Teachers will “get out of the way” • Parents will not interfere

14. OLPC – hidden corrolaries • No research • “Enough is known already” • Ethnographic research eschewed (IDEO) • No existing body of data referenced • No research report from Cambodian village exists • No pilot projects • Full-scale implementation or nothing • No implementation plan

15. OLPC – what could go wrong? • Heads of state cannot dictate to education ministries • Bureaucracy has mass and inertia • India Ed. Min. declares OLPC “pedagogically suspect” • Infrastructure not included • Generator an afterthought • Network backhaul left to chance • Constructionism not shown to be effective • Talented teachers required

16. OLPC – the View From 1978 • There's been a revolution overthrowing the order: • of system definition and implementation by priesthoods • Operating under cover of hierarchies • Surrounded by ramparts of propaganda • Unquestioned and unexamined • of institutions defined as end users... • ...and individuals simply subject to the results

17. OLPC – the View From 1978 • The age of the Magic Machine is over • People know: • where software comes from • that submission is not required • that the priesthood is composed of mortals • People are as pragmatic as ever • They want to know how the new machine will help them, their families, their communities

18. Kay's Hierarchy • Hardware • Software • User Interface • Courseware • Mentoring • Each step harder than the one before • “We should have started at the top and worked down” - Alan Kay, Tunis 2005

19. Negroponte on OLPC over time • “This is an education project. It is not a laptop project.” - Sept. 2005 • “...we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries.” - Jan. 2009

20. OLPC – out of the wreckage • Only projects running are pilots • www.olpcnews.com • OLPC has spun off software – Sugar Labs • www.sugarlabs.org • More than 100,000 XO-1 laptops sold in US and Western countries (Give1, Get 1 – 2007 and 2008) • Needed – connections between education geeks and computer geeks with XO-1's to work on top levels of Kay's hierarchy.

21. Some Interesting Needs • A device to permit learners to achieve basic literacy in their own language on a standalone basis (no network needed) • A device to permit learners to achieve basic proficiency in arithmetic (no network needed) • A basic electronic book • A system for network availability supported by telecommunications revenues (village telecentre) • A system for battery charging without mains power (Low-power village power utility)

22. Pursue the Hands-On Imperative!