deserving approbation

Every once in a while I hear about things that are truly innovative, bold and prodigious in their goals. These things get me all excited and reinvigorate my enthusiasm for human achievement waking the sometimes sleeping optimist inside me. This morning I found buried in a design article in the NYTimes, a reference to the OLPC, or One Laptap Per Child project initiated by Nicholas Negroponte and being led by MIT (with support from Google, Red Hat and others). The idea of OLPC is to produce a rugged, low-power, low-cost, rechargeable, wireless computer aimed as a teaching tool in poor or developing countries. The target price of the first model to be introduced next year is 100$. Yes, only 1/15th of the average priced laptop.

At first glimpse there are some curious omissions from the computer: no hard drive to accommodate bulky video and mp3 files, no glorious video chip to play all those impressive games. In exchange for these absences, the developer brings several enviable attributes that are far more useful for the intended market, students. The computer features integrated wireless networking, something that most of us now take for granted. Here the idea has been expanded and designed in a way to extend the range beyond most current computers. The focus of the networking has also changed. In remote areas, access to the internet for even one computer can be limited, irregular or simply not available at all. To counter this, the computers will be connected directly to one another instead of using the internet as its main thoroughfare. Its more similar to a game of "pass it on" but without the distortions and less time lag. Once one computer acquires information from the internet, CD/DVD, etc, it would then be passed onto other computers in range and connected to the network. What this could allow is one master computer to share necessary information with all the others in a classroom, outside under a tree or even from another students computer at home if a child couldn't go to school that day. And what would they be sharing? Well, that is almost limitless. Everything from arithmetic lessons and textbooks, ebooks for language class, news, just about everything you can imagine or create.

I know skeptics and classroom teachers will immediately think of the limitations of a computer screen, but with books being expensive (new books for every child for one year easily exceed 100$ and many places new books every 10 years is impossible to come by) imagine having thousands of texts suddenly available. Well, what about writing, specifically handwriting? Can your computer do handwriting recognition? While tablet style computer are on the market, most of us don't have them and we might argue that it isn't really important for most people. The OLPC computer has this necessary writing education feature which can be used with a stylus, a capped pen or possibly even a twig. The screen twists around, similar to some very expensive laptops on the market, so that you have access to the normal laptop form factor, keyboard below with the display up above, or as an ebook reader format. The screen twists around and falls back on the body allowing the user read it like a book.

The areas intended to use often have irregular electricity and sometimes none at all. How do you introduce one of the foremost symbols of the modern technological world? Incorporate human generated power. At this time they seem to still be in the finalization faze but it looks like the initial offering will have a hand crank on the side with a 1:10 charge to use ratio. Crank it for a minute, it will run for ten. Perhaps not perfect yet but if power is sometimes available it's probably enough to get the job done and a full charge is expected to last a full school day, better than most of our computers. But, that is not the finished concept. They are exploring more efficient ways to power the computer. One more thing about the crank, because it's aimed at children, the crank itself is durable and easy to turn, sort of a like a high tech jack in the box except the reward is a bit more fulfilling (if less surprising).

To further ease the power consumption issue, they have dramatically modified or eliminated many power-hungry parts of a traditional computer. On our laptops, the LCD or display, has a fluorescent light-bulb usually at the base behind the screen. While that technology is far more efficient and brighter than previous versions, it is still the most power hungry part of your laptop (or iPod, cell phone, PDA, etc.). This computer takes the display consideration a step further without sacrificing brightness or quality. Light will be supplied by ultra-low power LED lights behind the screen. Versions of this are popping up everywhere in new gadgets, my bicycle lights have them and they're extremely bright and the battery life is amazing. This computer will adapt to available light and evidently the backlight will shut down completely in bright weather and still be readable. Additionally, the processor will shut down entirely while not in use. This is perfect during long readings much like the engine shuts down on hybrid cars while idling at a stoplight.

We think, but yeah, I can't even keep coffee from causing laptop life and death scares and these are kids! Right? Well, they thought of that as well as the conditions that many of these children will be living in. While not waterproof, it is for most intensive purposes. There is a big sturdy handle built into the body of the laptop similar to the old original colored iBooks. The computer is meant to be carried like a bag and when shut, all the ports are covered and the computer is sealed by rubber to guard against rainstorms (not a drizzle but heavy rain) and dust. The keyboard has a solid rubber overcoat to seal off the internals in case of accidents. There are all sorts of more precise design aspects to add to durability but you get the idea. But, one addition they have thought of is that because these are kids not only is the keyboard a bit smaller, the keys are easier to press, perfect for small, less nimble fingers.

Built in Mic? Check. Speakers and headphones? Check. Built in video camera? Check. Windows or Mac OS X? Nope. The licensing fee would probably outweigh the total cost of the computer from the get go. Now I don't put it past the Bill Gates Foundation or even Steve Jobs at Apple to offer an operating system for next to nothing or even free for a project like this but why bother? It would require a lot of time, research and money to do so when there are similar open-source (everyone can write programs for them) operating system already available. Many of the more geekier-than-thou people already run linux on their system and this computer will use the same backbone. The benefit of this is that it will be much easier for governments or whoever to write specific software aimed at localized languages for the students. Furthermore, there are already comparable applications available to almost everything you might use on the Mac or Windows computer.

The benefits of this project could be limitless. Besides providing the tools for the fundamentals, what happens when previously unseen talents in the maths and sciences are discovered? Some of the students may lack running water, sanitation and even electricity but with open doors to education these issues could be mitigated in the future. Gifted students would no longer be limited by the available resources or specialties of their teachers. The math student who excels could sit in on calculus classes hundreds or thousands of miles away, even in a second language which they have been able to study through this technology.

So, that is the basics. I didn't really mean to write so much but projects like this just excite the hell out of me and make me feel a little better about humanity. The last project that got me going was when I learned about Wikipedia which I hope most of you (any of the 4 or 5 who still read this) are aware of. I have always have had an overabundance of faith in what the internet and technology could mean for education and alleviating the economic and knowledge iniquity in the world. It is projects precisely like this that reaffirm my hopes.