One Laptop Per Child Talks

On Thursday, April 26, One Laptop Per Child held a three-hour analyst meeting at their headquarters in Cambridge, MA. The OLPC Leadership spoke on several key aspects of the Children's Machine XO architecture and the program's overall production strategy.

OLPC Talks received exclusive audio tapes of the meeting, transcribed below. Please reference OLPC Talks if you use any quotes or information from the transcripts.

Walter Bender of OLPC

Walter Bender: ...movement don't remember what is called but there is a big protest movement about people that are landless. Okay, The trial in Port Alegra we were only able to give 100 laptops to a school of 400 kids. So the kids have started a movement, a laptopless movement. So there is this whole protest movement by the kids saying they want more laptops, they want... every child should have a laptop. When you give kids computers what do you expect is going to happen?

Man 2: But are they working well?

Walter Bender: Oh Yeah.

Woman 1: Have there been any problems here?

Man 2: What are you learning about them, I mean, is that why you are changing the keyboard and doing... You've been talking about a lot of changes it seems like.

Walter Bender: Yeah we are changing things because we are learning things and some of the things we learn are from the kids but a lot of the things we learn are because...It's a development process, an iterative process and we learn things.

Woman 1: How long have they been in Brazil and how many?

Walter Bender: Well there is 200 in Brazil, 200 in Argentina, 200 in Uruguay, 200 in Nigeria, 200 in Pakistan, 200 in Libya. I think there is something on the order of 50 in Thailand, on the order of 50 in somewhere in Palestine, there is a bunch in Rwanda, There is... then there is a gazillion of them out in the development with the developers. But those are the major school parts.

Woman 1: [inaudible] Have they been there for a year?

Walter Bender: No, No, No, No. They have only been there for... the longest one has been the one the Thais have been doing longer than anybody else. It's been in [?], I think they have had them for maybe three or four weeks. The thing that is kinda neat in Nigeria they had them and right after they got them, maybe a week after they got them, they started a one month holiday. So the kids took them home.

Man 2: What did they do with them at home?

Walter Bender: I don't know yet because they are not back to school till next week. So we will find out.

Man 2: And have any of them broken?

Walter Bender: A few of them had problems. None of them to my knowledge have broken. A few of them arrived not working properly. We are sending those back to the factory... I mean these are beta machines. What we've discovered are problems with the keyboard with the cable that connects the keyboard with the keyboard processor was one millimeter too short. So they lengthened that for B3. So some of the keyboards in shipping were coming loose. It's little things like that. So those were... That is why you do trials. You find those things.

Man 2: Are the teachers... What about linking the curriculum to the computers because the computers just a tool, right?

Walter Bender: So it is interesting to get... each country got there different way of doing things. Different countrys have different points. Costa Rica's been doing this stuff with us actually since 1988. They have twenty years of experience with the Media Lab. Technology and Children. They have a wealth of knowledge and they are willing to share that knowledge. This is brand new in Nigeria. We're actually sending somebody to Nigeria to work with the teachers to help them think about this as more than just Google. But the kids are doing more than just Google anyway. But it's going to take them time. But the nice thing is... the wonderful thing is. They did some experiments in Port Alegra I was mentioning right? What's changed is the network so they have made some before and after videos in Port Alegra. Those videos have already been posted to YouTube. Okay? So guess who can look at them. The teachers in Nigeria can look at what the teachers in Brazil are doing. Okay? So all the sudden its going to be different.

Man 2: So how can I find those videos on YouTube? Would I look up...?

Walter Bender: Google.

Woman 1: [inaudible]

Walter Bender: Thousands. Thousands.

Woman 1: So like two thousand?

Walter Bender: We built 508 test boards. We built... I think 875 B1 machines. We built 2500 B2 machines and all those are out.

Man 2: ... Its one of several options for manually powering the thing, but this thing [hand crank] is gone, you're not doing...

Walter Bender: Well no, we are. We are working with a company called Freeplay but it's not all attached to the side of the laptop. If you think about it, if it attached to the side of the laptop... Crank, rap your knuckles...Crank, rap your knuckles. It doesn't make any sense.

Man 2: So how were you going to do it?

Walter Bender: It's attached with this..

Man 2: Oh OK.