Re: $10 laptops from HRD Ministry, India

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Sid Karin <skarin () ucsd edu>
Date: May 6, 2007 5:17:07 PM EDT
To: spaf () cerias purdue edu
Cc: dfarber () cs cmu edu
Subject: [IP] Re:    $10 laptops from HRD Ministry, India

Spaf,

I recall the Newsweek issue of a few years ago focused on education.
There were two full page opinion pieces on facing pages.  Al Gore
strongly urged putting lots of computers in the elementary schools.
David Galernter  (I think) urged teaching the kids to read.

I'm not quite as worried as you are about the security problems,
but I don't discount them either.   I'd like to see a study of where
to put the first $100 in an attempt to educate the impoverished.
I doubt that it would be in acquiring hardware,  particularly in
acquiring hardware that tends to grow obsolescent rapidly.

        Cheers,

                ........Sid





> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Gene Spafford <spaf () cerias purdue edu>
> Date: May 6, 2007 11:26:20 AM EDT
> To: ip () v2 listbox com
> Cc: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Re: [IP] $10 laptops from HRD Ministry, India
>
> 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?
>
> Over the last couple of decades, when law enforcement would make  
> one of its (infrequent) arrests for hacking by a young person, the  
> parents would always say "We had no idea!  He was working with the  
> computer and we thought he was learning something -- we don't know  
> computers!"  (The suspects were almost always male here in the US.)  
> When parents don't understand the dangers or the technology, they  
> sometimes don't supervise closely enough.  Will that problem  
> translate to other cultures when children are recipients of all  
> these cheap laptops?
>
> 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.
>
> (If that didn't register with you, the Black Plague was a series of  
> bubonic plague pandemics over several hundred years in Europe and  
> Asia.  Over 100 million people are believed to have died from the  
> disease, caused by the bacterium yersinia pestis, and transmitted  
> by fleas...carried largely by rodents.)
>
> --spaf
>
>
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--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
     Sidney Karin, Ph.D., P.E.       858-534-5075 (voice)
                                        858-822-5443 (fax)
                                       	 
skarin () ucsd edu                                             Professor,
     Department of Computer Science and Engineering
     Director Emeritus
     San Diego Supercomputer Center
     University of California, San Diego
     9500 Gilman Drive
     La Jolla,  CA  92093-0505




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