OLPC and the XO-1

It's an education project, not a laptop project.

-- Nicholas

A non profit organization in Cambridge, MA. No longer related to MIT.

OLPC has a fundamental belief that education is the best way address the most extreme issues affecting the world: poverty, hunger, etc.

One essential aspect of education is about having the tools to learn:

• Information (e.g., books, etc)
• Communication and Collaboration (e.g., other learners, expertise, help, new perspectives)
• Creation (tools not just to consume but to create)

A laptop is one way, at the moment, perhaps even the best way today, to cheaply provide a platform for experimentation and growth with powerful ideas.

Famoulsy it used to be $100. Now it's $170. The cost of school book is >$20 per year in even the poorest countries.

These two things things (laptpos for education at a low price), in a certain sense, are already being accomplished:

OLPC has resulted in a proliferation of low-cost and education focused laptop projects.

Core principles include:

1. Child Ownership (responsibility and committement is the child's, for the child and for the family)
2. Low Ages (ages 6-12)
3. Saturation (the whole community should have an investment in the project and the laptop should not excacerbate inequalities. think universal education)
4. Connection (to each other and, when possible, to the Internet)
5. Free and Open Source (i'll come back to this)

The XO-1 Product:

• AMD Geode 433MHz CPU
• 256MB RAM
• 1GB Internal Flash (+SD)
• Wireless Mesh Networking
• 6" x 4.5" Screen - 1200x800 B&W - 800x600 Color
• Camera 640x480
• USB Ports, Game Buttons
• Rugged/Water Resistant

• Target Power: 1 watt
• Ebook Mode
• Flexible Input (10-20V)
• Human/Solar Power Options
• "Greenest" PC Ever

• New Sugar UI
• Few Words
• Activities instead of Applications

Implementation details:

• Based onFedora and GNU/Linux
• Python, C, C++

Free Software/Open Source

Free software is about freedom. It's about empowerment.

Communication technology control:

• What we can say;
• Who we can say it to;
• When we can say it;
• How we can say it;

It's about who controls the code that we use to communicate and live. Who gets to control that? Verizon? Microsoft? You?

Free Software, I hope we'll all remember is:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose;
• The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs;
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor;
• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits;

Free software shows up in:

• GNU/Linux
• Firefox
• Apache

It results in a development methodology where users can do their own work and help define their own systems and leads to better software. There's a whole discourse there that I won't get into it.

Free Software on the XO and in Education

I'm going to focus on the argument for free software on the laptop.

But there's a similar talk to have about any of the other items on the list.

Free software and open source has almost been assumed since day one with the laptop. Nothing else made sense.

So, Why Free Software?

First, practical reasons...

The core argument is one of knowing our own limitations:

Not only does a group of people in Cambridge Massachusetts not know how these machines will be most useful, they probably can't know.

We can't build an OS from scratch and we can't afford a non-free OS because it is:

• Too slow (our hardware is between an embedded system and a "normal" laptop);
• Too expensive (a Windows license is more than the cost of our machine);
• Too restrictive (we need to do a huge amount of changes and modification to make the system work on our rather innovative hardware);

Free software is the only real option.

But there are more fundamental and important reasons.

This is a laptop designed to support learning, not education.

Constructionist education is the pedogogical model we adopt:

• Contrast with memorizing times tables
• Pioneered by Seymour Papert
• Made famous by LOGO
• Give learners powerful tools to build, explore, create
• Give students the tools to learn
• Give students control of their education and education environment

Free software is simply a powerful match for this model of learning and exploration.

But the most important reasons that free software is perfect match for OLPC:

The alternative technological reality is unsatisfying, and potentially horrifying.

Information technology is coming whether we want it or not. This is what it looks like:

• Mobile phones
• DRMed ebook readers
• Locked down thin clients

There are between 1 and 2 billion phones in the world today. They are cheap and accessible and they connect people. They solve real problems in access to technology.

But at a huge cost.

• We all have phones, probably
• We also have computers

If we're adventurous we can even reprogram our phone (if Apple doesn't sue us or brick our phone in the process) ... because we have computers

With computers, we have the option of having technology on our terms.

Only some people take advantage of this but the result, ultimately is good for everyone because we end up with:

• IM Client on an iPhone
• A browser that blocks pop-ups

Phones and ebooks are not "self-hosting development environments."

They are computers robbed, by design, of their general purpose and generative nature.

The most powerful and empowering quality of information technology in the context of personal computers is that as communication is being mediated, facilitated, and defined through software on computers fully within users' control, each user has the ability to determine the terms on which they communicate.

In a world where people are communicating, trading, voting, learning, working, and organizing through digital channels, massive power lies in the hands of those who have the tools (e.g., computers and development platforms) and access and permission (e.g., Free and Open source software) necessary to make the necessary changes.

The ability to transcend ones position at the bottom of the economic heap is dependent on being able to become independent an to become in control and to become innovative.

This will not happen unless we do something about it.

That something is simple:

• We need to create and distribute -- real computers that can be used as development platforms -- at a price that can begin to compete with their alternatives (e.g., phones, thin clients, WebTVs, etc).
• Make sure that these machines are hackable -- totally hackable -- on every level. That means open hardware. That means Free and Open Source software. That means open specifications, protocols, and data formats.

Get Involved

Eric Raymond described how FOSS exists to "scratch itches."

I'm happy to say that OLPC proved him wrong to the extent that it's surprised me hugely.

Until less a month ago, the only way to get an XO-1 was to be 6 years old and to live in the developing world.

And yet, there are hundreds of contributors and developers working to create a platform that they thought they would never use.

Of course, the Ben Schwartz example demonstrates that it's very helpful to have access you don't have to keep schlepping into the OLPC office.

Watch for the possibility of another G1G1. There are no plans and things are busy but it's in the cards for some point in the future.