One Laptop Per Child Talks

Christopher Blizzard

In October 2006, Amber MacArthur of City News International interviewed Christopher Blizzard, Software Developer, Red Hat, about the One Laptop Per Child computer.

The transcript of Christopher Blizzard's interview:

Q (Amber MacArthur): What is the one laptop per child program?

A (Christopher Blizzard): The One Laptop per Child program is really an effort to bring technology and laptops to millions of kids all over the world. It’s about giving kids opportunities to learn. It’s about giving kids the type of tools to be able to learn themselves and really help lift up a lot of those people who live without technology and the connections that we’ve grown to appreciate over the years.

Q: And how did this all get started?

A: Well, I think it was a vision of Nicholas’s and the people he worked with, asking the question why is it … what would it take to be able to get technology and learning into the hands of millions of kids. You know if you look at the laptops we have today that usually cost about $2,000, the price is a huge issue. If you can get the price of a laptop down to a hundred, hundred and forty dollars, all of a sudden you can cover 15 to 20 times as many kids and that’s really what it’s all about. The cost, uh you know, became a motto for the laptop project but it’s really a huge factor in being able to affect as many kids as possible.

Q: How do you possibly create a laptop that only costs $100?

A: You make good choices. I think that’s the most important thing. You have to understand that sales and marketing play a huge cost in terms of any particular laptop that you have. They roughly make up half the cost. If you make choices about the technology you choose, if you make choices about the software, you can get that price down. It’s … we’re doing it. I’ve seen the bill of materials. It’s possible.

Q: What is the laptop actually made of? Because I’ve seen photos of it. It looks kind of rugged; it almost looks like a toy.

A: Well, we’re trying to stay away from a toy look. We’re certainly looking for something that kids will like. But it’s made of ABS plastic. It’s very solid. It weighs about, I think it’s a kilogram. It has a good solid feel to it but it’s certainly made of plastic. It’s got rubber bumpers around the outside so it’s a little bit better if you drop it or if you bang it around a lot because we know the environment it’s going to be used in.

Q: And what about the software that you’re using for the laptop?

A: The software we’re using for the laptop is Linux-based. We’re building a UI that is specifically aimed at kids being able to add and share and learn together. We’re building something that’s really about collaboration and allowing kids in classrooms to work on interesting things together.

Q: And how has the internet community or the open source community really helped to put together this project?

A: Well, I mean, it wouldn’t have been possible without them, right? I mean, it’s Linux-based and that’s a huge amount of that work right off the bat. We’re using a lot of the standard utilities that you see. We’re just mixing them together in a different way. So, you know, 95% of what you would find on a standard open source laptop is being used there today. We’re just taking the pieces that we have and putting them together in a much better way.

Q: And what’s the reaction like from some of the countries you’re interested in? I know I read somewhere that Libya has just ordered 1.2 million laptops?

A: Mm hmm

Q: And I know there’s other countries who are also on board.

A: Yeah, we get a huge amount of interest from a large number of countries. I think that for countries that want to do it, they really have to buy into the vision. They have to understand. Nicholas has been a great spokesman for that. He’s been able to get the countries to understand exactly what the goals are and how to get the kids involved and how to get the teachers involved and how to get the countries involved as well.

Q: And when the laptops actually get over into the hand of the kids and they want to use them and they want to get online, what about the infrastructure that exists in some of these developing countries to do that?

A: We’re actually tackling small parts of that as well. We’re really just stepping into that particular piece now. We’re talking about having school servers. We’re talking about having to answer the connectivity questions working with local vendors. You know, we work with satellite companies, we work with big telecom vendors like Nortel, for example.

And we’re trying to put together a complete package. If you look at the information that’s around the Libya release, it’s not just about the laptop. It’s also about servers for schools and expertise and being able to build the connectivity infrastructure required to get these kids on the internet.

Q: I noticed in your prototype video of the computer, have you ever had a chance to actually put that prototype in the hands of a child?

A: We’ve done a little bit of that. We’ve certainly done some testing with kids – not a huge amount because we’re still in the middle of building a user interface. We’re going to give it a couple of months but we’re going to get a lot of feedback from kids over the next couple of months, I think.

Q: When will this actually get into the hands of some of these kids?

A: Well, we’re hoping to do Libya sometime in 2007, early 2008. So you’re going to start to see a real production run hopefully within the next 9 to 12 months, I think.

Q: What is the end goal for the number of laptops that eventually will be manufactured?

A: As many as possible. There’s a billion kids on the planet. That’s a pretty big number. Why not do a billion kids?