MapAction and BrightEarth both feature in an article in the Independent entitled “Mapping the disaster zones” - how they think up the intensely creative titles for these articles, I just don’t know. Interesting enough, but these articles always leave me with a sense that the writer just doesn’t get it - apparently “Within 48 hours: [...]...
In
Digital Divide,
knowledge management,
Web,
Private Sector,
Emergency Telecommunications,
GIS,
olpc,
NetHope,
geospatial,
Communities,
AidWorkers Network,
BrightEarth,
Development Gateway,
Intel,
MapAction
As some light relief from the news from Burma and China, it looks as if the One Laptop Per Child project is falling apart under the weight of - well, mainly under the weight of Nicholas Negroponte. Ivan Krstic explains in a fascinating essay on his reasons for leaving his position as security director of [...]...
CTA Director Hansjörg Neun is struck by the potential of the 'one-laptop-per-child' concept (and the laptop) - but for farmers!In his latest blog posting he explains that CTA will soon test the new laptop in 'Wageningen' conditions, seeking answers to a whole lot of questions, like:Which agricultural content from CTA and its partners could CTA make available?Which content could be provided online (web/email) and/or offline (on USB memory sticks, flash cards)?How could it be used by illiterate people (by means of videos, graphical interfaces)?Who could (or should) be the usersand more ...In another posting on the same day, CTA's Kevin Painting makes the case "for what we at CTA are calling the 'One Laptop Per Farmer agenda' (OLPF) – which recognises the tremendous benefits that OLPC...
I’ve been recently interviewed by e-mail by journalist Ignacio Fossati. He put clever questions that made me think, which I really appreciated. Some of my answers were grounded on plain evidence, but other were just my own opinion — arguably all of them. As most of the interview dealt with “cheap technologies for Developing Countries”, such as the OLPC project, and we’ve been having some debate lately here, with Teemu Leinonen or at Peter Ryan’s, I thought I’d share them here, so the debate can go on.
In bold characters, the questions; the answers following.
Cheap laptops, what do you think their acceptance will be like in developing countries? Do you think it will be a success?
Personally I think that they will undoubtedly have some acceptance. In...