OLPC -- don't be ridiculous.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is no way I could support a program like One Laptop Per Child. I think people need to get their priorities right and figure out a way to solve more pressing problems. That being said, I do think it's appropriate to try and bridge the digital divide -- see my post about the company in Illinois that recycled the computer parts and donated them to schools. That is appropriate, because the majority of the kids in that school are generally cared for.

Say there were, 50,000 kids who deserved the laptops. Each laptop is supposed to go for around $100 each, so there's $5,000,000 on a technological lesson that would hardly teach them to sustain themselves and their families. I hardly think these kids are going to Google their way out of a better life. And why should we expect them to? They're surrounded by hunger, disease, poverty, but here kid, go tinker on this computer for a while.

Nicholas Negroponte might have been better off asking the UN how the world could better spend this money. Vaccines? Food? Schools? Spend the money on schools if you want to teach the kids!! I just get very frustrated by this whole thing.

Save the Winter Olympics!

With the commencement of the 2010 Winter Olympics at hand, many were asking -- does anyone even care about the winter olympics anymore? The general consensus was no. A few friends liked to watch the opening ceremonies and a handful of others liked to watch ice skating, but other than that, the Olympics were mainly viewed as an interruption to our regularly scheduled TV programming.

That's why Twitter is cool. I think it was around for the 2008 summer games (which people seem to like way more), but it probably wasn't big enough yet to have any kind of impact. Now, with the tweets of participating athletes, it gives things a new spin. Coupled with a recent press conference about not being able to participate, Lindsay Vonn tweeted about having to take a "bunch of painkillers." Although it seems very surface, such insight to athletes lives gives their followers a personal connection to the games. This, especially for the big name athletes, is helpful in a lot of ways. Ratings, because if people feel more connected to it, they'd tune in. Advertisers must love it, because it's a whole new, free in some regards, platform. Finally, fans love it -- either devoted or just "here for the party" kind of fans -- because there's a new 15 minutes of fame batch of celebrities allowing more of their lives to be displayed more intimately.

The Great Divide

This video is a news article about a Chicago based company that recycles computers that would have wound up in the landfill and gives them to needy children, in order to bridge the digital divide. It's a great concept, and it led me to think about the differences in the digital divides and the ease of bridging them in respective communities.

It's much easier to bridge the divide in America. People have the resources to teach themselves, and they have the resources to be able to donate to others. In third world countries, and places where they try to implement the One Laptop Per Child programs, it's just not feasible. In fact, it seems counterproductive. If by some chance the program had enough resources to distribute the laptops, they certainly don't have the resources to maintain the laptops effectively. It's hard to think about these children who would be teased with this promise of technology when it would be fleeting.