Ala. city eyes developing-world laptops

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: March 6, 2008 9:13:17 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Ala. city eyes developing-world laptops

[Note:  This item comes from friend Ken DiPietro.  DLH]

Ala. city eyes developing-world laptops

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press WriterWed Mar 5, 3:13 PM ET
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/health/research/05placebo.html?ex=1362373200&en=7ce7bfab78a478d4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all 
>

If $200 laptop computers are good for kids in Peru and Mongolia, why  
not Alabama?

Birmingham's City Council has approved a $3.5 million plan to provide  
schoolchildren with 15,000 computers produced by the nonprofit One  
Laptop Per Child Foundation, which aims to spread laptops to poor  
children in developing countries.

The foundation says the deal marks the first time a U.S. city has  
agreed to buy the machines, which also are headed to such countries as  
Rwanda, Thailand, Brazil and Mexico in addition to Peru and Mongolia.

Birmingham's school board still must agree to the deal, and some  
members have reservations. They want more evidence that computers  
designed for the African bush or the mountains of South America would  
be a good fit for an American city.

Reviews of the foundation's green-and-white "XO" laptops have been  
mixed, with praise for their simplicity, ruggedness and low price but  
complaints that U.S. children may be turned off by the machines'  
particular configuration. The user interface is built on the Linux  
operating system rather than the more familiar Windows.

In hopes of getting past such objections, the City Council agreed to  
spend $3 million buying machines from Cambridge, Mass.-based One  
Laptop Per Child and to give schools $500,000 to sort out technical  
issues. A laptop will be available for every child in grades 1 through  
8.

[snip]


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