Re: $10 laptops from HRD Ministry, India

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Nick Johnson <arachnid () notdot net>
Date: May 6, 2007 5:01:25 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: $10 laptops from HRD Ministry, India

On 5/7/07, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
> There is a more fundamental problem with distributing all these cheap
> laptops in various places around the world.
>
> 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?

Check out the details of the OLPC project (formerly the $100 laptop
project). These aren't standard PCs running linux or windows or macos
that they're distributing - they're running a (linux-based, IIRC) OS
that was specifically written for them. It takes care of practically
every issue you raised, from training kids to use them (in conjunction
with training by teachers etc) to preventing them from being taken
over and used as bots (by using a very robust security model).

You're not the first person to consider these issues, and the people
working on them have given them due consideration and done their best
to solve or alleviate them.

-Nick Johnson


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