OLPC and Free Wireless
I was glad to hear mention of OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) in a podcast I listened to early this week. OLPC (a.k.a. the $100 laptop) is an organization whose goal is to provide inexpensive laptops to children for education.
Integrated collaboration is one of the key features offered in these laptops. The belief that information and ideas are meant to be freely and openly shared is a core principal of open source software... and it's revolutionized the software industry. Allowing children to learn the value of this openness firsthand, will hopefully lead to a more open and collaborative environment in other fields (government for one) when these children enter the workforce as adults.
To help foster these ideals away from school, children will need access to the Internet at home. Fast and cheap, widespread Internet penetration needs to improve. In the neighborhood I live there is one broadband provider and it's rather expensive - making it out of reach for many lower income families. I'm sure my neighborhood is not unique. Another podcast talked about Google and it's success installing a free Wi-Fi network in Mountain View, California.
The barrier to both OLPC and more free Wi-Fi Internet access in the US is, of course, Government. OLPC will only sell laptops to governments (state or federal) and installing free Wi-Fi (even when Google is footing the bill) requires cutting a lot of red tape. In the upcoming Presidential election, I'm looking for a candidate to address these issues and propose a plan to keep our kids on the cutting edge of innovation and education.
Integrated collaboration is one of the key features offered in these laptops. The belief that information and ideas are meant to be freely and openly shared is a core principal of open source software... and it's revolutionized the software industry. Allowing children to learn the value of this openness firsthand, will hopefully lead to a more open and collaborative environment in other fields (government for one) when these children enter the workforce as adults.
To help foster these ideals away from school, children will need access to the Internet at home. Fast and cheap, widespread Internet penetration needs to improve. In the neighborhood I live there is one broadband provider and it's rather expensive - making it out of reach for many lower income families. I'm sure my neighborhood is not unique. Another podcast talked about Google and it's success installing a free Wi-Fi network in Mountain View, California.
The barrier to both OLPC and more free Wi-Fi Internet access in the US is, of course, Government. OLPC will only sell laptops to governments (state or federal) and installing free Wi-Fi (even when Google is footing the bill) requires cutting a lot of red tape. In the upcoming Presidential election, I'm looking for a candidate to address these issues and propose a plan to keep our kids on the cutting edge of innovation and education.
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