One Laptop Per Child Project Launches after a Rough Journey

NEW YORK — Providing the world's poorest children with cheap, rugged and educational computers has been a rocky mission for the One Laptop Per Child project, full of hard lessons about new technology, business realities and the twists of global politics.

But the little green "XO" laptop, for now costing $188 to produce instead of the intended $100, is about to have a milestone week. The first mass-produced models are shipping to kids in South America, and starting Monday, people in the U.S. and Canada who pay $399 can get one laptop and donate another to a child in a developing nation.

Buyers also will get a year of free T-Mobile Wi-Fi hot spot access, worth about $360.

This limited "Give 1 Get 1" offer, as well as a "Give Many" program encouraging larger gifts from companies and wealthy donors, signal a major strategy shift for the nonprofit OLPC project, based in Cambridge, Mass.

While it originally sought to persuade governments to buy millions of laptops for schoolchildren, many early promises evaporated. The project also faces more competition from low-cost computers made by commercial companies, leading skeptics to question OLPC's mission.

"The goals of learning and education have not changed. Low-cost laptops have always been a means, not an end," said Nicholas Negroponte, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who founded the project. "What has evolved significantly is the strategy to achieve widespread dissemination."

Negroponte said OLPC still pursues government deals, including recent national commitments from Uruguay and Peru where the first laptops are headed, but the donor campaigns add momentum with new avenues for getting computers to kids. He said Give 1 Get 1 will provide laptops to the world's poorest children in countries such as Rwanda and Haiti.

"Suddenly, the laptop does not cost $100 or $188, but $0," said Negroponte, who answered questions by e-mail while traveling in Seoul, South Korea.

"You might say, we have done the right thing for the wrong reason," he said. "I consider it a bit like starting an avalanche, for which very little snow needs to slip to start a massive event."

But some analysts see OLPC as a troubled and naive project that has failed to live up to ambitious goals and still struggles to navigate the worlds of politics and high-tech commerce.

"It started off from a kind of moral, philosophical plateau and has now descended into the world of business. Their issue is they really didn't know what sort of business they were getting into," said Roger Kay, president of the Endpoint Technologies Associates research firm.

"As they've gotten into the realities of computer design, manufacture, distribution, they've realized the original plan wasn't going to work," he said. "The organization is twisting and turning and trying to fit its model into something that's going to work. If this were a commercial venture, I'd be throttling back my investment right now."

Kay said the Give 1 Get 1 campaign, despite the holiday season, will likely get an "abysmally poor reaction," and getting donations of 10,000 or 20,000 laptops would be surprising.

Others disagree, saying the program has momentum and people will respond to combining charity with the purchase of a gadget ideal for kids.

"It's the best deal this Christmas," said Wayan Vota, editor of the OLPC News Web site, which is not associated with the project.

Vota said that people who expect just a cheaper laptop will be disappointed.

"The OLPC is not an Xbox or a MacBook replacement," he said. "The OLPC is a learning device for children."

Even at its best, the Give 1 Get 1 effort will "barely scratch the surface of the need," said Walter Bender, OLPC's president of software and content. But, he said, it will help spur larger government deals by proving the laptops help children.

OLPC also has been bombarded with interest in the Give Many program, where donors can pay for hundreds or thousands of laptops and choose where they go, Bender said. Many inquiries are about donating to schools in the U.S. or around the world.

OLPC designed the XO specifically for use in harsh environments by kids unfamiliar with computers. It includes a tough body, an easy-to-use Linux-based operating system, a video camera, wireless antennas and flash memory instead of a hard drive. It also uses very little energy and comes with manual charging options such as a string pulley.

However, the XO is not the only option for a tiny, low-cost computer.

Intel Corp., which agreed to work with OLPC in July, also has its own Classmate PC intended for children in emerging markets. Intel plans to have run Classmate pilot programs in more than 30 countries by year's end.

Taiwanese PC maker AsusTek Computer Inc. started offering its 2-pound Eee PC for as little as $299 last month and has reported brisk sales. The tiny laptop, which also runs Linux and is expected to later use a version of Microsoft Windows, is viewed as a market pioneer that could spur other PC makers to sell their own ultra-cheap machines.

Negroponte said it would be wonderful if millions of children get Classmates and Eees, but they serve different purposes than his XO.

"They are cost-down solutions to a laptop. OLPC is a bottom-up rethink of the laptop, totally child-centric and open source," he said. "Kids are not office workers."

Negroponte said he is confident the XO will eventually cost $100 and even less.

Mass production of the XO began Nov. 5 in a new Quanta Computer factory outside of Shanghai, China, Bender said. He said about 5,000 laptops are being built in the first week and the numbers are expected to rise, which in time should bring down prices.

Bender said the project had to make hard choices that made production more expensive, such as choosing a newer and initially pricier LCD screen technology that is expected to be cheaper in the long term.

While the "$100 laptop" moniker made for great publicity, it also harmed the project by causing people and the media to focus on the price rather than the educational purpose and potential, Vota said. He said the price also created false expectations.

"By focusing on a fanciful price, Nicholas Negroponte has reduced his credibility dealing with government ministers," Vota said. "People are thinking of it as a failure because it's $200."

Negroponte conceded that he has learned "there is a huge gap between the president of a nation agreeing and that country executing."

Bender said OLPC has received immense criticism, but most of it has been constructive, helping the project to improve its hardware, software and distribution strategy.

"All of our process has been very public so that all of our warts and blemishes are there for anybody to see," Bender said. "If you do things in the darkness of night, you're not going to get the feedback you need to get it right, and this is important enough that we want to get it right."

On the Web:

OLPC: www.laptopfoundation.org

Give 1 Get 1 program: www.xogiving.org

Give Many program: v

Classmate PC: www.classmatepc.com

Eee PC: eeepc.asus.com/en/