3:40
But a curious thing has happened as OLPC has gotten its act together: The rest of the world has caught up to--in fact, has zipped right past--Negroponte's original vision of lightweight, affordable, portable information and communications technology transforming the lives of billions of people. In the next few years, about 7 million laptops will be distributed to children by governments in Latin America alone. The Intel "World Ahead" program has distributed about 5 million Classmate PCs, both netbooks and tablets, in 70 countries, paired with software, connectivity, and support programs. In Mexico, Carlos Slim's personal foundation announced a donation of 250,000 XOs in 2007; recently the foundation has expanded its efforts, by offering computers from Dell and Lanix, a Mexican manufacturer.
11:25
Meanwhile, it may turn out that laptops, or even tablets, will be a mere footnote in the technological education of the developing world. There are already 6 billion cell-phone subscriptions for the world's 7 billion people, and observers like Anne Nelson, who teaches at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, believe that SMS is the real technology to watch. She points to programs such as the BBC's Bangla Janala, which teaches English through text messages.
So what, finally, will be the legacy of OLPC? Mike Best, editor of Information Technologies and International Development, credits OLPC, and Negroponte, with starting the conversation about the need for low-cost, low-power computing. But, he says, "in the end, computers are the easy part. The hard thing is the humans." Putting technology into the hands of the citizens of the developing world will get easier and easier. Leveraging those tools for real change is another story.
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