One of my podcasting co-hosts, Mark Gura, and I have been discussing a $100+ laptop project on and off for the past two years in our popular bi-weekly series. If you’re not familiar with the $100 laptop project; it has been spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte, formerly of MIT. The significance of this is how it has harnessed the tidal wave of open source software adoption and forced computer manufacturers to develop low-cost netbooks. This education-related project has truly transformed the computer industry and the expectations of technology users!

Background

Negraponte’s project is now called One Laptop per Child (OLPC) because the basic purpose is to provide low-cost, durable laptops to children in developing countries. The prototype of these laptops has gone through wide variations and generated a lot of criticism over the last few years and they never claim to be the “does it all” computer.

These are entry-level models, and yet quite revolutionary in several ways. On the one hand, they are very small, they have alternative energy sources, such as manual power, they can be connected to each other to form an intranet (wireless broadband that can mesh a network), and, above all, they do not suffer from what the founder calls Microsoft bloat. “In dedicated efforts to keep the cost so low, the software used is open source, which requires much smaller installation space and hardware operation requirements.

Brief details of the original 2007 prototype: Linux based operating system, dual mode display, 500 MHz processor, 128 MB of DRAM and 500 MB of Flash memory. No hard drive, four USB ports, and wireless broadband that creates a mesh network.

Enter: Widest Public Adoption of Open Source Software!

In several episodes of the Teachers Podcast, we discuss the merging of another one of my favorite technology trends with the OLPC phenomenon: open source software and development. Open source development occurs when groups of people openly share source code in the development of programming languages, operating systems, or other applications. The purpose is for the community to be able to test and work collaboratively around the world on the project with many available minds and perspectives that might not otherwise come together and work together. It really is a community and therefore the content and the product remain “open”, meaning free to use. Very often a Creative Commons code license is used to describe the use and attribution of software.

Probably the most famous current example is the Linux operating system (identified by its mascot, the penguin, also known as Tux). Related to Linux, which has dozens of programmers working on it around the world, there are also other Linux-like operating systems available, including Apache, Ubantu, Linspire, and more. For the education sector, open source software has been far behind in adoption as schools have mostly stayed on PCs and a small number on Macs in younger grades. However, having visited a few edtech conferences in the last couple of years, I’ve seen a different trend that ultimately pays interest, and the OLPC project could push it even further! Let me explain.

At edtech conferences, we’ve experienced hands-on demonstrations of Linux or Ubantu network labs, which are “dumb terminals” connected to a server and all get Internet access and applications from the server. This first-hand experience provides an entry point for many teachers, education technology specialists, and school administrators who may never have otherwise considered these options. In these cases, the participants see that there is not a great loss of performance with this configuration, while the cost of this equipment is a small fraction of a conventional school laboratory. This is due to two obvious main factors: 1) the hardware is not stand-alone computers and 2) the operating system is open source. Hardware costs and upgrade costs are also greatly reduced, as is the fact that software licenses and upgrades are eliminated.

Open source software isn’t just for techies anymore. These platforms are similar to most other programs. And there are thousands of freely available open source programs to meet business, educational, graphics, music composition, media design, and application needs, to name just a few. Technologies) in their schools, we are seeing the march of penguins, pencils and laptops strutting through education. At a time of heightened scrutiny of school budgets and increased accountability, I hope that 2009-2010 will be a time when open source software, dumb terminals, and virtual terminals (to be discussed in an upcoming e-zine article) they will be advancing at a double or triple rate.

May 2009 Update

The massive wave of netbooks (Asus, Acer, HP, Dell and more) that have flooded the PC market in the last 16 months has been a welcome relief to both consumer and school budgets. We have Dr. Negroponte to thank for almost single-handedly transforming the computer industry by propelling his OLPC project to the top of the corporate competition table. The details unfolded near the health of Negroponte’s progress was the Asus group and the launch of the laptop with Linux on board (originally).

Not just for the tech crowd, these launched in the standard gray and black colors, but also shocking pink, green and white; we can see that the market was broader than what the standard computer industry had been addressing). His product was enthusiastically received and had such an impact on the public market that major computer manufacturers had to respond quickly. Now, in June 2009, we have netbooks available from all major manufacturers for under $500. The resulting smaller, much less expensive (approximately 77% reduction in price), and robust hardware selections we now see all around us in computer and office stores are originally due to OLPC’s reorganization of a system optimistic and overvalued.

A related wave of adoption also continues in the spring of 2009, as open source, from Open Office.org to Linux, has had a very good year so far. Not only are we seeing more advertisements for these products in mainstream publications, but laypeople (not techies) are also asking about, requesting, and using them. What does this mean for Microsoft? Will there really be a backlash against high upgrade prices? We’ve talked about frustration for years, but has the time come for it to have a meaningful impact? These are exciting times for the voice of the people!

The connection

As more and more people catch on to the vision of netbooks and realize they don’t need high-end computers for every student classroom, and instead might even provide computers to take home with the kids; it will be the penguins of open source software who will lead that march as well. It’s been a long day for our education system to see that this is a much cheaper way to serve teachers and students, and therefore be able to serve ALL.

An important aside, worth reading and exploring, Negroponte is so outspoken that he is now publishing a wiki where he openly displays production tech notes, technical requirements, software, participating countries, photos of prototypes and much more ( see: www.laptop.org). Putting these tools in the hands of multitudes of schools and students around the world, near and far, can really change who will be the voices and who will be in global conversations in just a few months and in our global political future.

Providing such a tool and gateway to the outside world not only for students, but also for their families, as that is part of the purpose, can build a rising tide of social change through many forms of literacy and understanding. When the walls of Equity and Access come down in even these small ways, the opportunities are many for people to rise to new possibilities. Penguins, open source, education, and $100 laptops have great empowering potential for the world’s children, adults, and nations.