Requiem for One Laptop Per Child

Hear those bells tolling? They are announcing the death of the One Laptop Per Child initiative, a truly stupid waste of money, setup by do-gooder socialists who have no idea what it takes to build wealth in impoverished nations. OLPC was riding the FAIL train to Doom Junction.

In an article by PCWorld here, excuse after excuse by OLPC are laid out- everything from unfair competition to rising costs of production, and the outright rejection of the idealism behind OLPC are listed. The author of the story still goes out of the way to paint the OLPC project as the sainted savior of the technological poor of the world rather than the abject failure it is.

And remember, I predicted its doom from the very beginning.

From PCWorld with my comments:

The One Laptop Per Child project is now beset by waning orders and competition from commercial vendors that threaten to sideline the nonprofit effort.

Its getting sidelined. This is not about OLPC struggling, this is its death knell.

While Intel is successfully selling its Classmate PC to governments and educators in the developing world, OLPC’s distribution and support model are “not appropriate for a venture of this kind,” critics said. Both have led to its stumbling, as its target customers, governments, reduce orders or withdraw from commitments to order the laptops.

That was excuses 1 and 2. Competition and the lame excuse that they didn’t know WTF they were doing.

By the time the laptop reached production in November, its price had jumped from $100 to $200.

Excuse 3. Prices went up.

The production delays and rising costs have resulted in governments and educators either withdrawing or reviewing original commitments to order XO laptops. The numbers are significantly lower than the one-million-unit minimum that Negroponte, in 2005, called the “entry ticket” for governments wishing to participate in the program.

Only a socialist acts shocked that customers get pissed off when you try the old “bait and switch” on them. You promise wonderful inexpensive technology that magically makes your kids smarter and instead you give them unworkable solutions at twice the cost.

Nigeria, which last year committed to buying 1 million XOs for $100 each, is now reviewing the order with OLPC, said Tomi Davies, who supplies XO laptops to Nigeria’s primary schools. “I understand this commitment is currently under review by the Federal Government of Nigeria due to the price change and potential conflict in educational priorities,” Davies wrote in an e-mail.

The OLPC guys are fooling themselves. Its not under review- the Nigerians are going to cancel. And the next paragraph is why:

Intel PCs loaded with Windows are preferable to open-source XO laptops, as familiarity with the Windows platform helps secondary-school students join the workforce earlier, which benefits the country’s economy, Davies said.

Intel also bested OLPC in Libya, with the country withdrawing its order of 1.2 million XO laptops, opting for Intel’s classroom PC instead.

Notice they use language like “withdrawing order” instead of “canceling the order?” Kinda like the verbage for soldiers in Iraq. The leftists want to “re-deploy” when everyone knows they mean “retreat.”

Even U.S. customers that purchased laptops through the Give 1 Get 1 program have grumbled, with OLPC providing little or no communication about laptops– either the ones they donated or the ones shipped to them. “XO laptops just appear on doorsteps without even an e-mail to tell us when or how they will arrive.” said Wayan Vota, an OLPC observer and donor who runs the Web site OLPC News.

Fabulous customer service. But each laptop dumped on a doorstep comes with a “virtual hug” of thanks for contributing to “the dream.”

Nigeria follows a strict curriculum for students based on specific study material, and Intel is working with the government and schools to integrate Classmate PCs into curricula. OLPC has yet to clarify its plans to support curricula, Mogensen said.

OLPC in Nigeria is primarily involved in promoting the idea of the laptop rather than working with the government to develop a structure to implement the curricula, Mogensen said.

Like I said, its all about the good intentions. Let someone else worry about the results. Other countries have given OLPC the finger too:

India early on decided not to buy XO laptops. “We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools,” India’s education secretary Sudeep Banerjee reportedly wrote in a letter to the country’s Planning Commission.

“In the developing world, the ministers say, ‘Why aren’t you using [XO] in the U.S.? Why should I risk my limited budget on your dream?’ [OLPC] hasn’t done objective testing– no data that shows XO laptop is a better option to educate kids in the classroom than other computers, or better-trained teachers,” Vota said.

Vota is a big cheerleader for OLPC, but he knows the score.

“Most people didn’t know Negroponte until he announced [the XO laptop],” Kay said. “If this thing fails, he will be remembered as the guy who launched this crazy idea.” However, it’s too early to call the project a failure, he said.

I called it a failure at the outset. Now if the socialists hold true to form, they will have huge press conferences blaming big business and capitalists for their own shortsightedness and failures. And for all those dimwits who didn’t have enough sense to not invest in this crackpot scheme: I hope the sting of your empty pockets is soothed by the warmth in your heart by trying to do “a good thing.” Suckers.