XO Laptop, re-revisited...

Busy life, busy weather (one storm after the other. Someone got to shovel all that snow!!!), so the little XO laptop waited patiently.

What is worth mentioning, is the shift of paradigm. PCs like Macs, despite all the hype are pretty much the same. A graphic interface... and you run applications. Applications have files and you manage files.

The XO puts the child at the center of his universe.

For instance, the "neighborhood mode" Like stars spreaded everywhere... are Wi-Fi "access points", hence the various dots in different colors.

It seems the colors are generated randomly for others' Wi-Fi access point, while mine is always blue. I wonder how it is on other XO laptops...

It's even more obvious in "Home" mode, with the big "XO" icon at the center, representing a child. So, around me, there are my journal, my piece of paper (a text editor), my world (a web browser) and so forth. Beneath are the battery (charging) and the Wi-Fi access points that I'm logged too.

At the bottom, are the activities I may like to do.

In a way, I have to "unlearn", to "untrain" myself about the traditional ways computers work, to begin to truly appreciate the XO.

Not showing in these photos are friends. Friends with XO laptops of course! :)

Since I have no one with a XO laptop around, I have to take OLPC's words. :) The idea of friends represents a shift in the computer paradigm.

Isn't for nothing that the P in "PC" stands for "Personal". You're in your own bubble, isolated, and you do your own stuff without worrying, nor being aware what others are doing.

However, the XO laptop assumes that there are other children... with a XO laptop (which would show up in these pictures as other XO icons, all of different colours).

Children have friends, and so are recognized by the XO laptop.

With friends, you can do things together, so is the XO laptop. You tell who are your friends, and you tell the XO what you want to do together. An essay? The text editor is fully shared. A whacky audio jam session? Sure. Apparently, all applications can be shared, and doing so is ahem... a child play, pun intended. :)

Sure, there have been "groupware" before, but they feel clunky, and those are just specific applications that have been built specifically for that purpose.

On the XO, it's the entire laptop and therefore everything on it that was built with sharing activities in mind.

Now, I have to let my inner child comes to the surface, and to find other XO owners to really see how well it really works. :)

The IT guy in me is amazed. For a $200 laptop, this is no toy computer. Its shell is rugged, it feels solid, there are many things that come built in (even a webcam, usually found on pricey top of the line PC and Apple laptops), tons of USB ports, there are decent built-in applications... not bad at all.

Then there's the guy in me. As a teen, I was in organizations like Marche 2/3 and the like, believing in projects to help the lesser fortunate of us.

When I grew up and began programming, my approach to computers has been the same too.

Computers are there to help us, humans, whether to compensate for our deficiencies, whether to help us to learn, whether to simply let loose our creativity, whether anything one could possibly want to do.

(These days, it seems the other way around, computers are controlling our life, but I digress terribly! :) ).

Given my background, it's no surprising that the XO laptop strikes a chord. In the long run, I don't know... how such computers will fare. I think they are on the right way by hiding as much "computer stuffs" as possible, and to present to a child... a world that is less intimidating, a world that is familiar to him, a world that is also fun, inviting, and a world that would stimulate his mind?

I'm also wondering about the social interactions of humans through computers. I come from the forum world, and if I count my BBS years, I've been online since 1984. That doesn't exactly make me feel young, and yes I do have grey hair... but I have seen a lot, and saw the evolution, since the ancient time of 300 baud acoustic coupler modems. :)

I've never been a big fan of computers in class school, yet... this is the intended usage of the XO laptop. To be used at school and being brought home later.

For all the good things unleached, there are bad things being unleached by computers. Also computers are sophisticated pieces of equipment, and too often, there isn't the expertise, both IT skills as well as *human* skills. This is too often true in our western world... So imagine elsewhere...

There's also a matter of culture. Those XO laptops are western designed, therefore with our mindset and our way of seeing and understanding things. Western solutions to problems... even in our own world do not always work, so again, imagine elsewhere...

I still believe that local solutions to local problems are the best. However, that's not always possible, especially in the short term, so all help is welcome, figuratively and too often literally.

In the case of computers like the XO... if they serve as a springboard for future generations, they will serve their purpose.

I'm also thinking that in countries with little infrastructure, in countries with ahem... dubious governments, one has to start somewhere. Why not with computers like the XO ?

Today's kids are tomorrow's adults...

... and better educated adults having more chances to be at key places... to allow things to happen? How's about better leaders? That's a long-term goal... but what is something like 10 or 20 years in the lifespan of a country?

Finally, I'm tempted to say bad words against OLPC. Hehehe...

For the way they royally scr*w up the distribution of XO laptops, it's a complete disaster. Also, how ahem... misinformations were being carried by that organization. There's a huuuge pool of good will that has been wasted, for nothing.

It makes me wondering that if they can't deliver laptops in countries like the US and Canada, nor able to even tell us donors what is going on with our orders with a reasonable amount of accuracy...

Gee whizz, in the very two countries which we have optimal infrastuctures... should delivery *NOT* being an issue, and communication should be flowing... easily?

So imagine in African countries... whether to have those XO laptops delivered, whether *to train* and *to support* teachers, when the infrastructure isn't there.

Mhhhh....

... and that's my comment about OLPC. :)

Nonetheless, I have big hopes for the little XO. The 3 persons in me (!), the IT guy, the online guy and the guy with a big heart and big dream are all impressed by this little green and white kid.

Cheers!

-E