One Laptop Per Child Project - Version 2.0

[RobRich]

Nicholas Negroponte on Tuesday unveiled "version 2.0" of the One Laptop Per Child initiative. The target price point for the next-generation XO model will be $75, yet the design as displayed would include a clamshell casing featuring two touchscreen displays instead of the traditional display and keyboard notebook configuration. Negroponte suggests the price point should be attainable based upon declining LCD displays costs, in particular as the growing portable DVD player market continues to force increasing production of affordable LCD displays.

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Another OLPC employee, former Security Director Ivan Krstic, posted an angry manifesto on his blog last week, criticizing Negroponte and accusing him of compromising the XO's original mission in his zeal to sell more machines.

"I quit when Nicholas told me--and not just me--that learning was never part of the mission," Krstic wrote. "The mission was, in his mind, always getting as many laptops as possible out there."

Negroponte fired back at those critics in Tuesday's presentation. "One person idiotically said that 'Nicholas isn't interested in learning,' or something like that," he said. "It really puzzled me, because this is an education project, it's not a laptop project. I don't think I can say it more often."

Source: Forbes