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One Laptop Per Child - Where in the world is that cool green and white laptop?
Location: Toronto
Just as the iPhone is an example of how innovation on an end point can expand the number of connected nodes or the experience of the people connecting (see my last post), there are a host of other new technologies emerging that also advance the trend toward global Hyperconnectivity. One that I am personally involved in (sit on the Board as Nortel’s rep) and am pretty passionate about is the initiative known as One Laptop Per Child (OLPC).
As way of background… OLPC is a non-profit organization, founded by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte and a team of educators, developers and technologists, that is dedicated to educating children in developing countries, with the ultimate goal of eradicating poverty. As its website says, OLPC is “providing a means to an end – an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community.”
To help do that, the OLPC has developed the XO laptop (below) – the first laptop ever created specifically for the purpose of educating children in developing countries, where close to two billion children are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all.
The XO laptop – the only laptop capable of being used in outdoor classrooms and in harsh environmental conditions – is unlike any ever built. From the specs …
- Has a high-resolution screen that can be read in direct sunlight
- Is based on a mesh network that turns each laptop into a full-time router that connects each laptop and allows for easy Internet access
- Has low power consumption (uses only 10-20 percent of the wattage of a normal laptop)
- Can be powered without electricity, by using pull chords, solar panels, and hand cranks
- Contains no hazardous materials
- Has no moving parts, except for the rabbit ears and the hinge
- Has a fully water resistant, rubber sealed keyboard
- Runs on free, open source software
So what is so exciting about OLPC? Well, in addition to it possibly catalyzing an acceleration of connections and computer literacy in countries and environments previously considered not possible, it is an early indicator of a few trends that we see as indicative of the future of IT in the developed world.
Three alternative approaches to the mobile computer and usage model are particularly interesting. One is the idea of a mesh-connected device that even when it is not in use it is participating in extending network coverage to other devices. Two, is the idea of a device being designed from the start to be part of a collective of communications-enabled peers, to do everything from music creation to collaborative learning. In fact, it is pretty clear that when we look at the evolution of IT, that the interaction between the end point and the network will become less hierarchical and more ad hoc and peer to peer. Content will not be just pushed to devices but will primarily be pushed from such devices to both the network and to other peers in your social group. And three, the web experience will transform from being primarily about accessing information to an experience that enables dynamic and effective collaboration and interaction. The XO laptop and the operating model of OLPC has all of these parameters built in from Day One.
Another way to look at the XO and its value to companies like Nortel is as a tool to stimulate R&D teams to think differently. One of the ongoing challenges in R&D in large companies is to keep the engineering and research teams excited about the new models of IT. In fact, early in my career a mentor told me that the way to keep R&D people happy and engaged is to “give them a new toy or technology challenge every six months.”
The OLPC effort has given our R&D teams something very different to think about – e.g., a new type of end point, a new technology model, a new platform to link to our capabilities and a new consumer base. When we held our Technical Conference in Boston this year, the OLPC team made a presentation to 300 of some of our top R&D experts when we visited MIT. Although the next item on our agenda included a social reception with food and an open bar, when the presentation formally ended two to three dozen from the audience – instead of heading to the free beer – “rushed” the OLPC presenters to continue the questioning and to learn more about this revolutionary laptop. That was a pretty good indication of interest and intellectual stimulation. Since that event, we have created internal Wikis at Nortel for OLPC work and have distributed some early laptop units to various R&D teams. The creativity and excitement have been extremely positive.
While OLPC is not a Nortel product, it is a tool to stimulate the R&D teams to consider new communication models of Hyperconnectivity, new programming models and new collaboration methods. It also represents a new type of client, as well as new economic and networking models that are possibly a reflection of the future nature of broadband networking. All of this has direct impact in creating innovative approaches to the more commercial activities we are pursuing, such as ICA with Microsoft (bringing communications functions into every application experience) or our 4G ecosystem models (everything that can be connected will be connected to the mobilized Internet). Additionally, if OLPC is successful we could add a few billion new users to the Internet, further stressing the scale of the telecom infrastructure.
The OLPC effort is about to go into full production and the realities of these possibilities are about to be discovered. For Nortel – as one of the early sponsors of OLPC – and for me personally, as a member of the Board, this will be an interesting and exciting time as the effort gets rolled out at scale. In the meantime, this initiative has been a great tool to get some of our R&D professionals to “think differently” about the changing world of Hyperconnectivity. And, the mix of societal good with business value is a good mutual benefit for all involved.
UPDATE 11/12/07: Check out the OLPC Foundation YouTube video on the "Give One Get One" program.
[…] to build networks very, very cheaply. John Roese, chief technology office of Nortel (NT), wrote on his blog about OLPC and the concept of hyperconnectivity. While OLPC is not a Nortel product, it is a tool to stimulate the R&D teams to consider new […]
September 28th, 2007 at 11:02 am from OLPC Has A Network Problem « GigaOM
[…] been a great week for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, which I’ve talked about in a previous post. As a Board member of this effort, seeing the XO laptops go into mass production, seeing the first […]
November 16th, 2007 at 5:07 pm from John Roese’s Blog » Blog Archive » You Can Help Kick Start One Laptop Per Child