$100 laptop risks being too cool for school

Lee Felsenstein of the Fonly Institute makes an important critique of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project instigated by Massachusettes Institute of Technology.

By marketing the idea to governments and large corporations, the OLPC project adopts a top-down structure. So far as can be seen, no studies are being done among the target user populations to verify the concepts of the hardware, software and cultural constructs. Despite the fact that neither the children, their schools nor their parents will have anything to say in the creation of the design, large orders of multi-million units are planned.

It seems another story of the techno-cool factor overriding the first and most important consideration: Is it useful?! (Note: There is no doubt that the laptop MIT developed is very cool and if you didn't see it already, check out the official photographs and the technical specifications)

If it indeed is true that "no studies are being done among the target user populations" then this is extremely worrying and sad for this initiative which definitely has awesome potential. What commercial product is developed without some sort of idea as to whether and how the target users will adopt it? It seems like MIT has done well at what it does best – produce a very sound prototype to fulfil the "$100 laptop pricetag", This is only half of the challenge, though, or perhaps only a quarter! It is absolutely critical that the technology is distributed in an appropriate, effective and sustainable way and backed up by highly sensitive education programs to ensure the laptops are actually useful.

On the face of it, the OLPC project seems to be such a timely, responsible and philanthropic initiative, but Felsenstein reveals a number of potential hardware and usability problems which appear unresolved. Even if MIT denies these issues will be a problem, how can they back up such a claim if they haven't surveyed the target users on the ground to find out how they will use the laptops? How can they know what the greatest challenges will be for these fresh adopters?

The OLPC project needs to move out of technical-development mode and into "social philanthropy" mode to first of all determine the real needs of the end users. Otherwise, we can predict a result somewhat like that of the town of Ennis in Ireland (as related in Mark Warschauer's "Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide").