A project that aimed to bridge the digital divide between rich, industrialised nations and the developing world by providing affordable laptops to poor children has been allegedly jeopardised by the business imperatives of its chief funding partner

The head of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)  project, whose main funding and know-how partner Intel pulled out of the initiative last week, throwing the project into jeopardy, has accused the US computer chip giant of repeatedly undermining the not-for profit scheme to bring cheap laptops to children in the developing world. 

Intel has denied the charges.

The chipmaker has reportedly been promoting its own cheap laptop, the Classmate, in many of the same places as the OLPC.

In conversation with an international TV news channel, Nicholas Negroponte, head of the OLPC project and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accused Intel, which makes a rival low-cost PC, branded Classmate, of underhand sales tactics and trying to block contracts to buy his machines. The groups united in July 2007 after a series of rows, but split for good last week.

Head of Intel, Paul Otellini said the accusation that the firm had failed to deliver on promises was “hogwash”. “I don’t want to get into specifics but we met every obligation that we were committed to,” he told the same channel.

Negroponte responded: “My version of events is not hogwash. Why would I throw away the 6 million dollars they were supposed to give us yesterday? Why would I do all of these things unless I was stark raving mad,” he said.

Negroponte said the firm had left after a series of disputes. “They were selling laptops with their brand on it directly to exactly the same people we were talking to. They would go in even after we had signed contracts and try to persuade government officials to scrap their contract and sign a contract with them instead. That’s not a partnership.”

Negroponte cited an example in Peru where Intel sales staff tried to persuade the country’s vice-minister of education, Oscar Becerra Tresierra, to buy the Intel Classmate PC.

Peru has ordered 270,000 XO laptops from OLPC.

Negroponte claimed that similar events had occurred “time and time and time again”. “Each time it happened they said they would correct their ways. It’s a little like cheating on your spouse, or alcoholism, or something you just can’t eventually fix, and we had to finally part ways.”

Otellini countered: “The premise that we actually divorced over is that there is not one solution. No one company, no one solution has a monopoly on kids. Intel has invested a billion dollars over the last 10 years alone in education around the world.”

Both parties spoke to the British-based news channel at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The American computer giant pulled out of the ambitious, much-touted project to provide cheap laptops to children in the developing world citing “philosophical” differences. It said the two parties had split because OLPC had asked Intel to end “support for non-OLPC platforms, including the Classmate PC, and to focus on the OLPC platform exclusively”.

OLPC aimed to boost learning in poorer nations via a custom-built laptop intended to cost no more than US$ 100. Intel’s withdrawal is a blow to OLPC which has found few nations willing to buy large the cheap laptops in bulk.

Intel joined the OLPC in July 2007 and was widely expected to work on a version of the project’s laptop that uses an Intel chip. Many expected this laptop to be unveiled at the CES technology fair which opened in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 5.

Both firms’ laptops are designed for use by children in the developing world. The green and white XO machine, which its makers say will eventually cost $ 100, features a sunlight-readable display and open source software. It uses a processor designed by Intel’s rival AMD. It is specifically for use by children and rugged enough to cope with conditions in developing nations. For instance, it can be kept running with the use of a hand crank.

The more expensive Intel machine can run Microsoft Windows and is part of a wider education initiative by the firm.

Besides Intel, the OLPC board included 11 other companies like Google and Red Hat.

While the initial aim was for a laptop costing only US$ 100, the final versions that have been trialled in Nigeria and Uruguay cost US$ 188. Costs were supposed to be kept low by governments ordering the XO laptop in shipments of 1 million, but large orders for the XO laptop have, so far, not materialised.

In a bid to boost the numbers of laptops available, OLPC ran a ‘Give One, Get One’ programme in the US from November to end-December 2007.This allowed members of the public to buy two XO machines -- one for themselves and one for a OLPC project elsewhere.

OLPC said the success of this had helped it launch programmes in Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Mongolia and Afghanistan.

Source: http://www.bbcnews.com/, January 9, 2008
              http://www.bbcnews.com/, January 4, 2008