The case against OLPC?

[Mel Wilson]

Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> I usually think John Dvorak is a headline-grabbing crank, but this
> latest column rang true with sentiments that simply won't leave my head.
> 
> Isn't the whole idea of "let's give the developing world little
> computers" a kind of rich-person's feel-good thinking, when so much of
> the world doesn't even have enough to eat?
> 
> Is the OLPC going to fix literacy rates without teachers or books?

Part of the business case for OLPC is that it replaces the printing 
and distribution of textbooks.  The cost of an XO is equivalent to the 
cost of providing textbooks for four years or so.  There are extra 
benefits like the ability to distribute up-to-date e-texts through the 
network without worrying about inventory of books, inventory of 
obsolete books, etc.

> IMO Dvorak goes too far in calling the OLPC little more than an
> ad-delivery device,

Hardly blame him.  That's the North American model for about every 
personal computer there is.

	Mel.
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