One Laptop per Birmingham Child

Yep.  Per Birmingham child.

Not New Orleans.  That third world country we call "Birmingham, Alabama".

Every student in grades one through eight in the Birmingham city school system will receive a laptop computer under a tentative agreement Mayor-elect Larry Langford has reached with a foundation that provides computers in developing countries, an adviser to Langford said Monday.Nicholas Negroponte, the founding director of the MIT Media Laboratory, set up and heads the nonprofit foundation. He developed the laptops specifically for use abroad in Third World countries to try to bring the users up to speed with technology, Katopodis said.

"Mayor Langford was able to persuade MIT to make an exception and do this program," he said.

Those sons of bitches.  Negroponte's goons explicitly told me "no exceptions", even for New Orleans.

Big tip o' the brim to Mominem.

Comments

[Editor B]

Outrageous.

[joejoejoe]

That's messed up. I would write Asus, who just came up with a commercial sub notebook that isn't so limited in the same price range (about $300 in real costs) as the MIT non-profit notebook and ask them to match the Birmingham donation for New Orleans.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/10/31/asus-eee-subnotebook.html

OLPC's greatest fear is that the commercial market will outstrip their efforts. I only care who gets laptops to kids first so if OLPC is filled with a bunch of duplicitous wankers and ASUS gets the job done in the quest for the almighty buck then I say more power to capitalism.

http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/competition/price_classmate_pc_asus_eee.html

[KamaAina]

Ha! The phrase "Negroponte's goons" is usually applied to Nicholas' brother, John. Yes, that John Negroponte, the Prince of Darkness in both Central America and now the Middle East.

I always thought of Nicholas as the good Negroponte, sort of like Patricia Clarkson to John's Jackie. Now I'm not at all sure... (P.S. Your question has apparently been deleted. Again.)

Under the banner of "Sinn Fein", here's my modest proposal to stick it to both OLPC and Asus: Train a number of young New Orleanians to be PC assemblers. Then, order a bunch of cheap, slightly outdated parts, and have the machines built right there in the city. Sort of like an electronic Cafe Reconcile; all it needs is an electronic Emeril. (David Filo, check your inbox...)

[mominme]

There is also the possibility of getting off lease refurbs pretty cheap.

There is a company we work for in Atlanta which takes off lease computers, refurbs them and ships them out to developing countries.

Shell probably throws enough away every year to give one to every kid in New Orleans.

[saintseester]

Now that is truly outrageous. Sickening. What on earth could be their justification? We all saw the snotty comments from them about how New Orleans didn't qualify.

[saintseester]

I also think screen shots of that obnoxious article are going to come back to haunt them.

[brianfike]

I admire what they're (OLPC) doing, although it upsets me that they don't consider the Gulf Region for this project. I wonder why it is that NOLA doesn't qualify?

Right now you can for $300 purchase two of their laptops. They will send one of them to a child in a third world country and send one to you. I am giving it serious consideration as my eight year old spends too much time on our laptops. Linux is very popular outside the US and it's about time it got a foothold here.

http://laptop.org/

[Professor Zero]

This is so infuriating. And: speaking of prejudice against the city of New Orleans, consider this man from whom I am taking a course (yes, I am taking a course). He lives on State Street. He says:

* although he had water damage he was able to move back in in December 2005. His insurance covered him completely. People who were not smart enough to live on State Street or be insured with his company do not deserve to return to N.O.

* the people in the Superdome should have realized the French Quarter was dry, and should have just walked over there. Since they were not smart enough to do that, they did not deserve even such rescue as they got.

I LEFT THE CLASS AND WENT OUT TO THROW ROCKS INTO THE DITCH UNTIL I COULD CALM DOWN.

*Why* are people (I am talking about my professor) this ignorant??? He is the ignorant one.

[ashley]

Prof: please tell us who it is...give us a hint or whatever. Tell us the subject matter of the class -- it just amazes me how mooks like him equate intelligence with money. "not smart enough to live on State Street"? Good lord.

And my apologies for not having you on the blogroll earlier. I have an excuse, though: I'm a twit.

Brian: Linux still doesn't have much of a desktop presence. I'm a CS prof, and I don't have the time to deal with it, despite the claims that open office works decently now. However, if I had a web server, you can bet I'd be running Apache instead of IIS.

The GUI for the OLPC is the interesting part.

Others: I looked into this. The big problem is dealing with a large inventory of heterogeneous computers. If we could get a huge lot of computers that had identical components, then maintenance/configuration costs would be much more manageable. With different parts comes much higher maintenance costs.

BTW, I haven't given up trying to get NOLA kids laptops. I have given up on OLPC doing it.

[ashley]

KamaAina: Common Ground is doing just that. I've donated plenty of computers and components to them, and they have a staff that refurbs them and either gets them to people that need them or puts them in their computer labs.

[KamaAina]

I hadn't thought about the maintenance and configuration costs. All the more reason to do it my way, then, since we could have them all built identically, from shipments of the same parts.

[Wayan]

Ashley,

Before you get all pissed over Alabama, do read the article again, closely. The mayor-elect is very, very far from reaching a deal with either his City Council or OLPC. It was more a politics play than reality.

We'll have a detailed discussion of Alabama on OLPC News this week.

[ashley]

I did read it, very carefully, but this quote just blew me out of the water: ""Mayor Langford was able to persuade MIT to make an exception and do this program," he said."

I know that nothing has been inked yet, but Negroponte's goons are considering it. They didn't consider New Orleans, which I would dare say is a hell of a lot closer to a third world country at this point in time than Birmingham.

If you'd like, I'll give you a tour. Hell, I'll give Negroponte a tour -- then let him tell me personally that we aren't worthy.

[KamaAina]

As usual, Common Ground's heart is in the right place -- but...

http://www.cgctechs.com

Some of What we’ve done

Assembled 50+ computers with open source operating systems from parts

"50+ computers" ain't gonna feed the bulldog. And the kicker:

Our long term vision...

Setup full wireless network access at the woodlands housing project

Common Ground, as you know, was chased out of the Woodlands Apartments (not "housing project") in January of this year. (at least I think they were; I can't seem to find any info on that after Jan.) Apparently this site hasn't been updated since then. Ruh-roh, Rorge...

Seems like a good start, though. A decent infusion of grant money, and they could do something with that.

[alli]

They got kicked out of the Woodlands because someone else bought it. CG only had a verbal agreement with the former owners, and because they were too stupid to get it in writing, the owners undersold them to someone else, who kicked them off their property.

I have enough CG stories to fill a book. If anyone ever needs inside scoop on what went on there between roughly May 06 and May 07 then email me.

[Joe]

Ashley,
Read the article again. Birmingham has to BUY 15,000 laptops at one shot. They don't get anything until they show up with 3 mil, cash-not promises. What's the chance of that happening?

[wheeler]

from: someone who live in b'ham until last summer

re: b'ham and its current mayor.

1) yes. eighty per cent of the city is very much a third world country.

2) the mayor is - even for a politician - notorious for promising big things but ignoring the costs. at various times over the years, he's told reporters that he's thisclose to landing an nba team for b'ham; that he's thisclose to securing financing for a domed stadium; and that he is probably going to run for president. think ray nagin, but more insane. in short, if he was the source for the story, i'd ignore it.

[ashley]

Wheeler, have you been through Gentilly and the lower 9? Are you really comparing Birmingham to that?

[paul]

KamaAina,

I'd like to take you up on your offer to hear your Common Ground inside scoop. It would help right some wrongs. Thanks. How can I contact you?

[paul]

Sorry, Alli. I meant to direct the last comment about Common Ground to you.

[jane doe]

alright,so the kids will be computer survey! but do we really wanna expose them to that kind of world so early?child locks on sites rarely work anymore!we'll have a bunch of e-junkies
.............................
jane doe

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