[Microsound-announce] The Zero Dollar Laptop

[jakeharries at aol.com]

 Hi
This might be of interest

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


 


 _______ _ __ ___    | |  | |    __ _ _ __ | |_ ___  _ __
|_  / _ \ '__/ _ \  / __) | |   / _` | '_ \| __/ _ \| '_ \
 / /  __/ | | (_) | \__ \ | |__| (_| | |_) | || (_) | |_) |
/___\___|_|  \___/  (   / |_____\__,_| .__/ \__\___/| .__/
                     |_|             |_|            |_|
                 __ _ ___  __ James Wallbank, Sheffield, September 2007

The zero dollar laptop is here!

The  zero dollar  laptop is  widely  available to  individuals in  the
developed  world.  It's  also  available to  businesses,  governmental
organisations  and  NGOs.  It's   also  available  in  the  developing
world. Distribution is ramping up.

The zero dollar laptop comes in a variety of specifications.

The current typical specification of  the zero dollar laptop in the UK
is around 500mHz,  with 256mB RAM, a 10 gigabyte  hard disk, a network
card, a CD-ROM, a USB port and a screen capable of displaying at least
800×600 pixels in  16-bit colour. Many zero dollar  laptops are better
specified. (Its close cousin,  the zero dollar desktop, typically runs
at 1000mHz or faster.)

The zero dollar laptop is constantly  being upgraded - so by next year
its specification will be even more powerful.

The   zero  dollar   laptop  is   powered  with   free,   open  source
software. Users can get involved as deeply as they want - the software
packages available  include easy  to use graphical  applications, more
complex  professional  applications,   and  expert  level  programming
languages.

Free software upgrades for the zero dollar laptop are constantly being
made available, from a huge variety of software producers.

The  zero  dollar  laptop   is  not  intended  simply  for  multimedia
entertainment. Though it can an educational playground, it can also be
a genuinely useful production platform.

The  zero   dollar  laptop  allows   kids  to  learn  and   adults  to
produce. (Only when people are  able to use computers to produce their
own  data does information  communication technology  become genuinely
empowering.)

The zero dollar laptop has already been distributed. (You weren't told
about it at the time of distribution.)

Individuals, businesses  and non-profit  organisations can all  have a
say  in how  the  zero dollar  laptop  is rolled  out  in their  local
area.  It's not up  to government  think-tanks, multinational  NGOs or
national policy boards.

The  zero  dollar  laptop   is  available  to  individuals,  education
organisations, NGOs and businesses alike.

The carbon footprint of the zero dollar laptop is zero.

You, as an individual, may already own a zero dollar laptop.

What's it doing? Sitting on your shelf, unused, because you've already
upgraded?

Your employer  or your school  may own a  large number of  zero dollar
laptops.

What   are  they   doing?  Are   they  getting   recycled  responsibly
(i.e. destroyed) by the company  that supplied them? (That's often the
company  that just  happens to  be  supplying the  next generation  of
laptops.)

Perhaps surprisingly, you  may not know how to  install or operate the
zero dollar laptop.

You may never have installed a free, open source operating system. You
may never have installed any operating system.

Nowadays it's quite easy. You can  download  a  full  version  of  the
GNU/Linux operating system appropriate for the specification  of  your
zero dollar laptop for free. It's entirely legal.

Many versions of GNU/Linux are user-friendly.  There are lots of  help
resources online, and there are likely to be local  people  who'll  be
happy to give you advice.

You may be unaware of lightweight window-managers that use memory more
efficiently. You may never  have used powerful, compatible free office
and productivity software.  It may surprise you to  discover that free
software can be better than software you can buy.

You may  be reluctant  to invest time,  of which  you may only  have a
little, rather than invest money - of which you may have plenty.

Think about the longer-term consequences: buy software and you'll have
to pay again and again.  Invest time learning about free software, and
you'll never have to pay for software again.

For the  sake of the  planet, and  for the sake  of a fair,  just, and
cohesive  society, isn't  it about  time you  learned? Then  maybe you
could teach someone else.

You may ask,  'Why isn't someone doing something to  roll out the zero
dollar  laptop'?  In  developed-world  economies  and  cultures  we're
familiar  with   centralised  solutions.  We're   less  familiar  with
localised, decentralised, do-it-yourself solutions. In this case, that
'someone' is you.

Decentralised solutions like the zero dollar laptop may not seem to be
as  efficient  as  centralised  solutions. However,  efficiency  isn't
everything.  Solutions  of  this   character  are  more  robust,  more
responsive to  local circumstances,  greener, more flexible,  and they
encourage local skill development and independence.

You may have to spend  unpaid time learning about and implementing the
distribution of  a few zero dollar  laptops in your  area. Think about
the contacts you'll make and  the skills you'll learn. Think about the
skills you'll  help to develop, the  lives you may  transform, the fun
you'll have.

The emergence  of the zero dollar  laptop as a  key computing platform
for empowering individuals, stimulating creativity, overcoming poverty
and  enriching our  shared culture  is entirely  feasible  without any
additional research, design, or manufacture.

We already have all the tools we  need - all we need to manufacture is
the will to act locally; all we need to replace is the software on our
hard drives; all we need to develop is the content of our minds.


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

best
Jake


________________________________________________________________________
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://or8.net/pipermail/microsound-announce/attachments/20071113/05830c97/attachment.htm