One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) — The Horrible "Give One Get One" Campaign

Nicholas Negroponte is an architect and computer scientist best known as the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. Negroponte is also known as the founder of the One Laptop per Child association (OLPC). The main point of OLPC is to fund, develop and distribute tough little wireless Linux laptops to children in developing countries. It's a laudable goal. The technical accomplishment for OLPC was to design and build such a laptop at the lowest and therefore most obviously affordable price. That much was done.

The next phase in the evolution of OLPC was the launch of a campaign last August (2007) called "Give One Get One." Seems self-explanatory doesn't it? Log on to the OLPC web site, donate a laptop to a child in a developing country and buy one for yourself (ostensibly for a child near to you) at the same price. Total price? US$433.95 including shipping. That's a fine deal. Some needy kid in some far off place gets a great little laptop for learning, Internet connectivity and a thousand other things, while some kid you know near home gets a cool birthday present.

The problem is only that the OLPC laptops aren't showing up. I placed an order on December 8, 2007 and as I write this on March 16, 2008, the only notification I've received from OLPC is an email sent in the middle of January telling me there'd soon be another email containing good news about my order "next Wednesday." Well folks, next Wednesday has come and gone seven times and still no word from OLPC.

Sorry kid — whoever you are — no laptop donation from me. A couple of niece and nephew birthdays have also come and gone since I placed the Give One Get One order last year, so the occasion to give away the one I was getting has also passed. I could give it to the kids anyway if it ever arrives, but the parents of the niece and nephew are tired of waiting for the OLPC too, so they called Dell and ordered a laptop (which was delivered within a week as usual for Dell).

What is wrong with the OLPC association? Is it that they failed to anticipate the volume of Give One Get One orders? Did they bring the OLPC laptop to market too soon or before it was ready for mass production? Are the managers at OLPC just a bunch of Vegan stoners who'll get it all done as they sort of, like, um, get around to it without stress man?

Are these questions out of line or needlessly insulting? Not really, and here's why. Intel and Acer are each coming out with their own take on OLPC-type laptops. That is, ridiculously inexpensive and reasonably rugged and usably featured Linux-based wireless laptops. So in the absence of any word from OLPC, I can only guess that the newer, reportedly better OLPC-type laptops from Intel and Acer will show up long before my OLPC order arrives. Why should I let OLPC keep my money when I'll be shortly be able to do my own Give One Get One?

Some people will read this and shake their heads at what is really a negative attitude on my part. Phooey on them. I no longer have any confidence that OLPC can deliver on its promises and plans. OLPC has demonstrated no ability to communicate effectively, it can't build its laptops in a timely manner, and I am by far not the only one complaining. By the way too, there's absolutely no indication from OLPC that the donated laptop has been delivered either. From where I'm sitting, OLPC appears to take in lots of money and then gradually, over a period of many months, doles out a few laptops here and there.

OLPC? I want my money back. Now.