Headlines

Jonathan Zittrain on Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child Project

momendo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:34:03 -0400

Walter Bender comments on his departure and future plans

momendo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:11:55 -0400

Walter Bender, who left the OLPC Foundation recently, gave an interview to Xconomy.com Walter explained his reasoning for leaving the project. His main dispute was the deemphasis of Sugar and going more mainstream with Windows as an alternative operating system.

Nicholas Negroponte explains his position Part 2

momendo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:01:07 -0400

Negroponte has posted a statement on the OLPC list serv. This is what most news services have been quoting.

Nicholas Negroponte explains his position on Windows and Linux for XO

momendo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:06:32 -0400

Negroponte has been fielding emails and interviews about the recent departure of Walter Bender and the state of the OLPC project. Specifically, there is fear amongst Internet technology reporters and Linux advocates that the OLPC may become a Windows only laptop.

Negroponte honed his thoughts on this subject. In an interview with pcpro, he commented on the limitations of the Sugar environment and Linux.

Walter Bender resigns from OLPC Foundation

momendo — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:50:12 -0400

The OLPC Foundation is busy restructuring its organization to better handle the market and goals. PCWorld is reporting that Walter Bender, former President of Software and Content, has resigned. His position has been removed and is no longer filled.

Walter has posted a farewell message on the laptop.org list-serv.

Babylon to provide multi-lingual dictionaries to OLPC

momendo — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:50:06 -0400

Babylon will be providing searchable dictionaries to OLPC laptops. These dictionaries are comprised of 2,500 words in 16 languages. This is the largest contribution of words and definitions to the OLPC project.

New board member joins OLPC Foundation

momendo — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:14:27 -0400

Jorge G. Castañeda, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, has recently joined the OLPC Foundation as Board Director.

Birmingham Board of Education and City Council approves initial pilot of 1,000 OLPC laptops

momendo — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:48:12 -0400

Intel announces 2nd generation Classmate PCs

momendo — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:00:59 -0400

At the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, China, Intel has announced the 2nd generation Classmate PC. Andrew Chien, Intel vice president, Corporate Technology Group and director of Intel Research, said, "Only 5 percent of the world's children today have access to a PC or to the Internet. Education is one of the best examples of how technology improves our lives. We have seen how technology helps teachers create fun learning experiences more efficiently. We have also been touched by children's excitement when they are inspired by technology.

OLPC Free Sound Archive moves to Bittorrent

momendo — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:03:09 -0400

The sounds and instruments included with the OLPC laptop are available for download on the laptop.org website. However in recent days, over five terabytes of data have been transferred. The servers are being overwhelmed. To better serve users, the sound archive can now be downloaded over Bittorrent at Mininova. There are over 6,500+ sounds available in 16bit mono. Dr. Richard Boulanger of csound.com donated the sounds for the OLPC project. These sounds are free to use under the CC-BY license.

MIT Media Lab receives huge funding for banking research

momendo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:20:51 -0400

The MIT Media Lab announced the creation of the Center for Future Banking. Bank of America will be providing $3-5 million dollars in annual funding in a joint collaboration with the media lab.

OLPC struggled in the early days

momendo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:50:03 -0400

Taiwan Review has written up an article about the early problems of getting the OLPC project running. There were significant manufacturing hurdles to create the laptop. From the article:

"Normally, when we design a commercial notebook, we have Microsoft's Windows or other software that will run on the device."

25,000 OLPC laptops ready to roll in Peru, 400,000 to come

momendo — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:28:39 -0400

Peru is poised to deploy 25,000 laptops to students. Peru is one of the OLPC Foundation's largest deployments. In December 2007, Peru announced a signed contract for over 260,000 laptops. Initially President Alan Perez announced in October 2007 a 40,000 laptop purchase with an option to buy 250,000 later on.

Peru has been conducting a pilot program in Arahuay with early beta OLPC laptops. Peru will be ramping up the deployment. Technology Review reports 400,000 laptops will be deployed throughout Peru.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is busy bringing OLPC laptops to Illinois students

momendo — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:12:37 -0400

Myjournalcourier reports that last Thursday morning, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois gave first-grade students of the Illinois School of the Deaf (ISD) in Jacksonville brand-new OLPC laptops. From the article:

Principal Sue Brosmith reminded them the computers were not toys. And, if they broke the computer, they won’t get a new one. The children can take the computers home and get to keep them when school is done.
“We’ll pretend we’re on ‘Oprah,’” Ms. Brosmith said as she handed out the computers by grade.

100 OLPC laptops arrive in South Africa

momendo — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:02:20 -0400

NPR is reporting a recent OLPC rollout in Kliptown, South Africa. One hundred laptops localized to Zulu and English were distributed to children of the Kliptown Youth Programme. Larry Weber, a friend of Nicholas Negroponte, and his son and two daugthers flew from Boston, Massachusetts to hand deliver the OLPC laptops. The children and Thulani Madondo, director of the Kliptown Youth Programme, gladly accepted the laptops with open arms. From the report: