Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008
Weighing in at 3.2 pounds, with a 7.5-inch screen, a battery that can last up to 6 hours and a cost of $188, the XO laptop was designed as a way to get cheap but reliable computers to children in developing countries.
But after its creator, the nonprofit group One Laptop Per Child, decided to sell a limited number in the developed world, some have found the small green-and-white plastic machines to be a great tool for children, the elderly and themselves.
Rebecca Brown, public services and reference librarian at the Takoma Park Maryland Library, bought one last month as part of One Laptop Per Child’s ‘‘Give 1, Get 1” program, in which buyers pay $400 for one laptop for themselves and a second one that is sent to a student in a developing country.
Brown intends to give hers to her 4- and 5-year-old grandchildren, but said she hasn’t been able to tear herself away from it yet.
‘‘I have to turn it over to them,” she said. ‘‘I have to. This is getting ridiculous. I have to give up my beloved green box.”
Brown has let her grandchildren and others at the library test the computer, though, and said children are drawn to many of its simple features and built-in programs.
‘‘They just played for hours,” she said.
The XO comes with a word processor, wireless capability and games and programs that range from reading and chatting to painting and making music.
It features the Linux operating system, and users can design programs. Brown and her grandchildren designed their own spelling game, for instance.
‘‘To me, it’s been very interesting to see other people sit down with this thing to see what they’ll do with it,” she said.
Brown said her 95-year-old mother found the XO’s built-in video camera to be a lot of fun.
‘‘She had never looked into a Web cam before,” she said. ‘‘To her, it was kind of a mirror.”
All the laptop’s functions were designed to be used by children who have never seen a computer and who are without access to technology, said Mike Lee, president of the OLPC-D.C. Learning Club, an organization of local XO enthusiasts who meet to discuss the machine and its many potential uses.
‘‘What’s unique about this device is that for the first time in history, a computer device has been developed from scratch for a humanitarian need,” he said.
As an example, Lee said the machine runs on only 2 watts of energy, as opposed to other laptops that require 60 or more. For children who might not have access to a power outlet, the machine comes with a charger operated by pulling a cord, and for an additional $12, a solar panel.
Lee says there are three types of enthusiasts among the dozens who have attended OLPC–D.C. Learning Club meetings: parents who use the XO to educate their own children, those who see the machine as a means of social change, and those who are just plain technology geeks. Lee, who has a 4-year-old daughter, says he straddles the line among all three.
‘‘It’s important through online forums that the few people who have these computers get together,” he said, adding that the machine’s open-source capability means parents and their children can design their own software, which could meet their specific needs and indulge their creativity.
The XO computers automatically create an Internet network with any others in a one-kilometer radius, allowing users on different laptops to draw on the same canvas or write on the same document.
‘‘The whole idea of this is for kids to explore,” Brown said. ‘‘I would love to have other people in Takoma Park who have got them to have an evening here [in the library] or somewhere else.”
Brown said she doesn’t know where her companion laptop was sent. The possible countries are Rwanda, Haiti, Cambodia, Afghanistan and Mongolia, she said.
‘‘I’m just really happy. That was my present to some kid somewhere,” she said. ‘‘It was a wonderful idea.”
