OLPC and the Optimistic Impulse
Now, I’m not normally the first to sing the praises of capitalism as a motor for progress-with-a-capital-p, but Grant McCracken‘s piece on the OLPC seem to have affected me at some deep, gut level -
“Here’s the thing in a nut shell: Negroponte’s One Computer Per Child project looked like a brilliant, necessary idea in 2005. Now it’s a project in shambles.
Right? Wrong. We could argue that Intel and Microsoft are rushing this market precisely because they were terrified that the first one in could own it. And this is a way of saying that Negroponte almost certainly moved up the Intel and Microsoft participation by, what?, a couple of years. Now we have a robust market, with real choices, competitors with deep pockets, momentum, urgency; not philanthropy, but that beast called capitalism.
And what’s that worth? To move everything up by a couple of years? Naturally, this is one of those calculations that don’t calculate very well. But at a minimum we would want to factor in
Kids who:
get on line
get knowledge
make knowledge
distribute knowledge
make friends
join networks
build networks
teach themselves to read
master math
become more cosmopolitan
learn to think clearly
learn to solve problems
learn to teach
learn to lead
learn to enterprise
learn to spot zealotry and jingoism
learn to refuse prejudice and violence
create value for their families, communities, country, the human communityx some millions
x ~2 years
Damn. Who called the computer a difference engine? Negroponte has created a lot of difference.
Does he get thanked? No, he gets dissed and displaced. He pays yet another penalty of taking the lead. He is paying for making a market where once there was none. Someday we’ll come to our senses. Negroponte will get his Nobel Peace Prize. In the meantime, this must really suck.”
What can I say? I’m a total sucker for the whole “another world is possible” shtick, and – as McCracken argues – the project’s success (or that of something similar) seems all but inevitable, now that the business model has been co-opted by capital. Selling out? Possibly, but – as long as the kids get their computers – does it really matter who’s in control, and their motivations?
I don’t know. Can’t help but feel sorry for Negroponte, though.
(Image courtesy of Laughing Squid)