Mile
Zero

I'm working on a draft to be submitted to various outlets, should my superiors here at the Bank allow it, about the One Laptop Per Child program. Suffice to say that I think it, like the quote attributed to Marie Antoinette, is a grave and harmful misunderstanding of the development process. I'll put my draft up here if it turns out that no-one will take it, but in the meantime the following two links provide a pretty good overview of the problems involved.

First, there's a series of blog posts by NGO head Lee Felsenstein, a computer pioneer who now works in developing infrastructure. Start here and then work forward through the posts using the menu at the top. He lays out problems with the hardware and the shady implementation so far--like the constantly shifting specs for these machines. He also pitches a telecenter as a better solution, which I would endorse--although at this point it would be best to disclose that I work closely with GDLN, the Bank-funded initiative for distributed learning, which does implement some of these solutions.

Second, an article linked from the Fonly Institute blog comments, from a Peruvian professor. It talks about the humanitarian and prioritization aspects of this project, which to me are even more convincing. But then, consider that these laptops won't be given to host governments. They're to be sold, with a minimum commitment of 1 million units--$100 million dollars on machines that may or may not have any positive effect at all. Perhaps the motive here is more profit than altruism. Nick Negroponte is one of the original dot-com investors, after all. And there are far more proven ways to help people with $100 million.

Finally, I will only say that the phrase "capacity development" should be ringing alarm bells all over this project. It is almost as if it were specifically designed not to build any useful capacity for developing countries. As far as I'm concerned, that's the most dangerous aspect of the plan--that it entails tremendous expense at the expense of other initiatives, both in monetary and opportunity costs.