Intel Moves To Ease OLPC Conscience

Written by Adam Gosling

Monday, 16 July 2007

Excuse me if I'm not gushing with praise for Intel over its decision to participate in the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative. But the company gave the impression of barely wanting to make the announcement much less actually contribute in any meaningful way. It certainly gave the impression of only agreeing to participate at the insistence of its Public Relations advisers. Intel got a sound pasting from the press and the cyber-communities after OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) founder Nicholas Negroponte launched a stinging attack on the company and the predatory pricing it is using to get its competing device into developing markets. Intel has its own cheap laptop project, the ClassMate, which is a more traditional laptop that runs Microsoft software. This competes with the XO machine under development by the OLPC which runs a version of Red Hat Linux and a suite of specially created open source educational software. Though the announcement said little about what Intel will bring to the OLPC project, Negroponte has certainly changed his tune when speaking about the silicon specialist. While it was only a matter of weeks ago he was saying Intel "should be ashamed of itself " now Intel is a "world leader in technology" and collaboration between OLPC and Intel will mean that the "maximum number of laptops will reach children". Though the microprocessor giant will be assisting in the project, it won't (at least at this time) be providing the CPU for the laptops, which will be provided under a deal with Intel competitor AMD, which got on board the project early in the piece without first criticising it. Nor will Intel provide the silicon for the mesh networking that will enable the XO machines to communicate with each other and hopefully with the Internet. Instead, "the world leader in silicon innovation" will work with OLPC to "bring the benefits of technology to the developing world through synergy of their respective programs". What ever that means, it seems more like Intel promising not to do anything to bury OLPC rather than to actually do anything to actively assist in the program. According to the statement, the agreement means the two will also "explore collaborations involving technology and educational content" - which quite possibly means nothing at all. It could also mean that Intel's Classamte is being positioned for teachers while the XO will be pitched as the machine for students. The could have content different but coordinated educational content appropriate to the target user. What it does mean is that Intel gets on the board of OLPC and can be seen to be doing its bit to help the "non-profit organization whose purpose is to bring learning opportunities to the most remote and poorest children of the world by providing connected, low-cost and rugged laptops to each and every child in their daily lives". www.classmatepc.com www.laptop.org Related news items Not nano, pico -23/04/2007 Location Services Finding Their Place -04/04/2007 Newer news items Yahoo! GungHo! On Mobility! -07/01/2008 45 nm Comes To Centrino -07/01/2008 Acer Elbows Into Third Place -27/08/2007 Lenovo Investigates Packard Bell Acquisition -07/08/2007 Motorola Nudged Out Of Second Place -04/08/2007 Older news items Changing Fortunes For Smartphone Makers -03/07/2007 Motorola Conquers Everest -23/05/2007 New Motorola Phones Announced -15/05/2007 Microsoft Reports Record Profit -29/04/2007 Is A Palm Sale Imminent? -20/03/2007 Tag This Now: