issues

This page considers appropriate technology, media spin and other issues regarding ultra-low price personal computers such as the Simputer, VillagePDA and Hundred Dollar Laptop.

It covers -

• issues
• a media phenomenon?
• the development community
• security

     issues

The Hundred Dollar Laptop and similar devices embody particular expectations about the use and impact of personal computing in emerging economies and about priorities for spending by governments or aid donors. Those expectations are problematical.

Proponents have claimed different benefits, including -

• replacement of heavy textbooks and unobtainable (or expensive) pens and paper
• information delivered via an electronic device will be current and in the user's native language
• devices will be resistant to attack by moths, ants, beetles and other pests
• marking of assignments will be easier for teachers
• users will be able to communicate with other parts of the world
• users will acquire information technology skills
• users will have direct access to "the universal library that is the world wide web"
• manufacture/servicing of devices will strengthen indigenous hardware and software development and support industries, thereby strengthening human capacity while addressing macroeconomic concerns such as adverse balance of payments
• development of electronic content for devices will drive growth of indigenous multimedia industries
• use of script to voice software for the illiterate
• users will "have access to pedagogical content outside an institutional framework".

Statements by promoters also embody values, for example that every child must have a personal laptop rather than sharing access to a community device because in advanced economies we do not expect children to share a pencil. The 'one laptop per child' model predicates a low cost device.

Those outside research/aid institutions - and more broadly outside the technology community - suggested that modest expectations are desirable and less likely to result in disappointment or a waste of resources. Technology, including personal computing, is one part of a complex equation rather than necessarily the answer.

Concerns regarding conceptualisation of digital divides and appropriate responses were highlighted in the Bridges report on Spanning the Digital Divide: Understanding & Tackling the Issues. One observer commented that

computers can be part of a solution to poverty, but only if they are designed to meet the specific, stringent requirements of the poor, and only if they are combined with the other elements of a solution.

The defining characteristic of poverty is lack of disposable income. Even if infrastructure is physically present its use may not be affordable. Other constraints facing urban and regional poor in many areas are lack of -

• a stable electricity grid
• telecommunications infrastructure
• knowledge about how to best use devices
• software in their languages

Critics have explored why past HDL-style initiatives have failed, for example because estimates of cost reductions were overoptimistic or because government/donor funding did not eventuate (US$100 for a HDL is still beyond the resources of many in nations where people are known to sell children into sex slavery).

Others have responded to particular claims, commenting for example that -

• paper textbooks are more robust than an electronic device with a touch screen and are not necessarily less resistant to damp, shock, scratching and vermin
• governments and donors are in a position to ensure that printed material is current and in the user's native language - electronic devices are not necessarily more current on an ongoing basis
• 'electronic marking' or transfer of assignments, particularly on a low resolution screen, will not necessarily saving time or stress for teachers
• systemic improvements in education might be more readily and lastingly achieved by ensuring that all teachers are paid (and paid well) and that children can afford to attend school
• visions of direct access to "the universal library" are misplaced because of communication costs, even when infrastructure is available
• "access to pedagogical content outside an institutional framework" would be better achieved by ensuring that all schools have a library and allowing students to take books home
• in failed states such as Papua New Guinea, Liberia, the Solomons and Uganda people have been known to steal telephone wire - and indeed "any asset not behind bars and barbed wire" - so that crime will see forced migration of HDLs from impoverished areas to consumers who regard them as a status item and have the wherewithal to pay.

One contact told us academic performance in many African schools could be substantially improved by ensuring all students have a decent meal each day and thus don't drift off to sleep during lessons, consistent with practice in some advanced economies over the past 50 years.

in July 2006 Indian Education Department Secretary Sudeep Banerjee commented that India's national Ministry of Human Resource Development did not see pedagogical value in the HDL, sniffing that "We do not think that the idea of Professor Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage" and that "we need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools".

Banerjee criticised the "conceptual vacuum in which the scheme is being propagated". Nigeria, enriched by oil sales and income from 419 scams, concurrently announced that it would order a million of the HDL.

In the US the New York Times noted in 2007 that school laptops were not an easy fix, with educators noting that

laptops had been abused by students, did not fit into lesson plans, and showed little, if any, measurable effect on grades and test scores at a time of increased pressure to meet state standards. Districts have dropped laptop programs after resistance from teachers, logistical and technical problems, and escalating maintenance costs.

Such disappointments are the latest example of how technology is often embraced by philanthropists and political leaders as a quick fix, only to leave teachers flummoxed about how best to integrate the new gadgets into curriculums. Last month, the United States Department of Education released a study showing no difference in academic achievement between students who used educational software programs for math and reading and those who did not.

Those giving up on laptops include large and small school districts, urban and rural communities, affluent schools and those serving mostly low-income, minority students, who as a group have tended to underperform academically.

That is consistent with conclusions in some research, such as Ofer Malamud & Cristian Pop-Eleches' 2008 'The Effect of Computer Use on Child Outcomes' (PDF) regarding use of free/subsidised devices in Romania, contrasted with the 2006 paper by Daniel Beltran, Kuntal Das & Robert Fairlie on 'Do Home Computers Improve Educational Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Current Population Surveys and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997'.

     a media phenomenon?

In observing the way that announcements have been embraced by politicians and aid donors it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the HDL and similar devices are as much media phenomenon as practical solution.

They gain attention for research institutions (eg the MIT Media Lab and the Uni of Minais Gerais), individual figures and corporate partners/supporters but arguably at the expense of organisations with a lower profile (eg Bridges.org in Africa) and offering more effective solutions.

They reflect perceptions that it is enough to "fix the technology" (particularly with a device that has the aura of consumer favourites such as an iPod and that leverages the political correctness of Open Source), obviating a discussion of perhaps intractible issues such as gender relations and systemic poverty in parts of the third world.

They are an echo of past high tech extravaganzas such as the Little Intelligent Communities (LINCOS) initiative developed by MIT and a Costa Rican institution.

LINCOS centred on airlifting shipping containers that include

a computer science laboratory, a telemedicine unit, a videoconference centre, an information center with electronic trade possibilities, and communitarian electronic mail and newspaper

to remote South American regions.

Like a 'concept car' or internet fridge it gathered suitable headlines. Critics however noted concerns about sustainability and operating costs, asking whether more appropriate technology might include a simple printing press and a stipend for several doctors rather than paying for bandwidth for videoconferencing.

Others more drily noted that rainforest tribes in the Amazon might prefer free antimalaria tablets and protection from 'colonists' rather than opportunities to explore Baudrillard's thoughts on the Media Lab.

     the development community

Responses among the development community have been mixed, extending from chiliastic enthusiasm through 'nice idea but not for us' and 'our priorities are different' to 'lack of technical support in the field means it is not viable' or outright derision and even accusations of fraud.

Some NGOs indicated that they would prefer to invest in basic sanitation or tools for local acquaculture. Others offered a more parochial response. Governments and NGOs have, understandably, been more positive when there was some expectation that another entity would fund acquisition and support of the devices.

There has been disappointingly little published evaluation about usability aspects of the devices and independent appraisal of the projects, in contrast to the volume of debate in development fora.

Simputer critic Scott McCollum provoked responses that were often more vehement than persuasive when he commented

Okay, let's cut past the touchy-feely benefits of the Simputer and look at it realistically: It's a cheap handheld that runs non standard software which will not help to bridge the digital divide. If anything, having tribal peoples use software with pictures of goats and huts on the interface rather than will dig the trench deeper. The Simputer is specifically designed to have illiterate users hunt and peck on the interface; using the Simputer will be an exercise in frustration and trial by error.

A rejoinder was that

it is rather presumptuous to think that the Simputer is only aimed at the illiterate, and further that all illiterates are nomads. What the Simputer does do, is to enable even illiterates, and yes, even the nomads among them, to use information technology as a tool to do things that matter to them, including accessing the internet for information at least in their own language, which the Simputer speaks to them using its built-in local-language text-to-speech facility. Admittedly, since they may not know English which you probably consider the only standard language, the Simputer may not just yet be able to teach them everything about how the rest of the world works, as some of that information content may not currently be available in their local language. But I dare say that there is a lot of material already available in many non-English local languages, in India as well as in other developing countries, which is still accessible to them. This we consider a good first step in bridging the digital divide. Besides, aren't use of handheld devices and internet access part of "how the rest of the world works?"

By the way, hunt and peck is also how many in the "rest of the world" work, but I dare say that the illiterate nomads touching pictorial icons is hardly hunt-and-peck. In any case, a not-too-distant version of the Simputer will allow these illiterate nomads to use spoken commands in their own language, obviating the need for hunt-and-peck.

Intel Chairman Craig Barrett argued in 2005 that users would not be satisfied with the HDL's small range of programs, claiming

It turns out what people are looking for is something is something that has the full functionality of a PC. Reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown up PC ... not dependent on servers in the sky to deliver content and capability to them, not dependent for hand cranks for power.

One critic of the HDL took issue with the claim that the Nigerian government could - or would - by a laptop for every child, claiming that

An OLPC purchase for all its students would absorb 73% of its entire government income while supplying laptops for each cohort of students and replacing worn out computers would be 13% of the government income per year.

Others more darkly fretted about "one online predator per child". Australian scholar Denise Rall modestly and cogently commented that

Those donating laptops to Africa should spend the time
to understand the micro-climates and entomology of the
sites where they expect to donate. It's easy to
discuss the theory, the hard facts are the insects.

     security

Sceptics have been quick to highlight potential security problems with the notion of ubiquitous wireless devices.

US academic Gene Spafford for example asked

Where is the investment to educate the new users about proper use of the technology? About security? About avoiding dangerous activities? Does anyone seriously believe that these machines - whether $100 from Negroponte's group or $10 from India, or anywhere else - won't quickly be assimilated into bot networks? Or serve as virus/worm reservoirs, if not breeding grounds? How many of the recipients are going to be victims of identity theft, or regional pedophiles, or phishing attacks taking their meager resources because they don't have either protection mechanisms or education about how to safeguard themselves? ...

And are the machines being distributed into countries that have the resources for good law enforcement for IT-related crime? We can't defend against the threats we are facing now. If these mass computer giveaways succeed, shortly we will have another billion users online who are being raised in environments of poverty, with little or no education about proper IT use, and often in countries where there is little history of tolerance (and considerable history of religious, ethnic and tribal strife). Access to eBay and YouTube isn't going to give them clean water and freedom from disease. But it may help breed resentment and discontent where it hasn't been before.

Gee, I can barely wait.

The metaphor that comes to mind is that if we were in the ramp-up to the Black Plague in the middle ages, these groups would be trying to find ways to subsidize the purchase of pet rats.

Economics matter. In 2010 for example the NY Times reported that spammers were paying people in developing economies between 80 cents and US$1.20 per 1,000 deciphered captchas (rewarding in places where the daily pay for an unskilled agricultural labourer might be around US$2).

 



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