Re: [school-discuss] OLPC Trouble

[Daniel Howard <dhhoward@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Again, it's the law, we have to conform to it if our solution is to be 
viable.

Your comment about consumerism got me thinking, and look what I found 
about the OLPC:

"Hot on the heels of growing momentum signaled by Intel pledging support 
to the humanitarian One Laptop Per Child initiative, a coalition of 
software and service providers have banded together to propose a new 
group aimed at the burgeoning computer platform. By exposing these 
first-time computer users to offers preloaded onto the device's nominal 
internal flash memory, the members of Ten Craplets Per Child propose to 
significantly lower the cost of the One Laptop Per Child device."

"Only a nefarious cretin would go to the trouble of writing a virus for 
a device designed for children living in some of the most difficult 
conditions on the planet," said Russ Vai, vice president of viral 
marketing at security software company Parannoyer, "So we expect a whole 
raft of malware to be available within weeks of the OLPC device being 
distributed throughout an economy."

Daniel


Yishay Mor wrote:
> Daniel,
>
> You're absolutely right. I'm in the privileged situation of not having 
> to deal with all these 'boring details'. But for the sake of discussion 
> (and this does not in any way mean to belittle the issues you're dealing 
> with), I argue that we have deeper worries than the OS our kids use or 
> the hacks they need to learn to access nudity (and I'm sure that an 
> intelligent kid will always find a way).
>
> - If we don't trust our children (to judge the material they find on the 
> web), and we don't trust their teachers (to guide them), what kind of 
> education are we giving them?
> - Sex is taboo but violence, corruption, consumerism, and prejudice are 
> fine? (all these are found plentifully in mainstream media)
> - Why are we promoting free and open software but conforming to 
> restrictions on free and open content?

--
Daniel Howard
President and CEO
Georgia Open Source Education Foundation