I've watch this (OLPC) initiative
for a while now. Not sure if I've ever posted about it. I just read
that they are calling a cease-fire with Intel (they were publicly
bickering about whose cheap-laptop-for-learning-children was
better) and visited their website. Probably one of my favorite
ideas/projects ever. (8 min video that
talks about shifts in world education with a passing mention to
OLPC.) I like the concept: Give technology to everyone. I like
the participants: great ideas coming out of "our" (speaking as an
American) elite institutions: MIT (a prof is at the center of the
OLPC), Intel (has their own OLPC-like device), Microsoft (has a
suite of software for $3 - since the OLPC starts with Linux). Great
brains can come up with great ideas - even in the corporate and
academic worlds. 3 cheers. I also like the attitude: You can't
afford it? That won't stop us. It's the beauty of ideas in
constraints at work. We come up with ideas based on the
restrictions that we impose. (Mental trigger: 37signals talking
about less is a good constraint, one link: http://rendevo.us/wordpress/?page_id=9.)
"The art of marketing is not finding more money to do more
marketing. It's figuring out how to tell a story that spreads with
the resources you've got." If I may paraphrase: The answer is not
not-having the constraint. Start with your constraint and make it
happen. Link from Seth Godin:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/07/its-the-best-iv.html.
Recently, in a project I'm working on, I had a great idea but
immediately dismissed it: "no way to do it in the budget of the
project," I said. *crunch, crunch, crunch* By the end of the
weekend my brain had started over with the budget constraint as an
opportunity instead of a problem. I had an idea. *crunch, crunch,
crunch* I had 3 general possible conceptual solutions (and 9
specific options). I've gone from "no" to "probably" in 48 hours.
If you have to be cheap, use the cheap as an opportunity: we must
find cheaper parts, we must find a way to trim out the excess of
the thing (OLPC has a black-and-white screen, you don't usually
need color), we must find indie artists to donate
their music talent instead of hiring the sound production firm.
Cheaper, smaller, less talented (yes, really), any constraint: we
must ___________ since we've got the opportunity to do ___________
better than most. Anything kicking around your brain that you think
you just can't do? Update: More on the OLPC (since it's a project
I've been tracking and really think is cool.) Nicolas Negroponte's
TED talk on the OLPC (video):
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/41?gclid=COeeqI7OxY0CFQYVhgodkykuQQ
MIT Bio on NicNeg: http://web.media.mit.edu/~nicholas/
For the truly geeky: a VMWare image of the "Sugar OS" that runs on
the OLPC-XOs. Fun to play with.
http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-to-get-one-laptop-per-child-image.html