Worldwide distribution of XO laptops.
X
X
X
X
X
XX
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Date of actual Deployment
information/Detail
november 2008b
100,000 in distributionc
starting to be shippedd
Pilot began in summer 2008e
expected to rise to 2010f
g1g1 laptops beneficiaryg
arrived, not deployed;
infrastructure issuesh
6,000 6,000 Delivered april 2007i
5,000 5,000 three schoolsj
4,000 150 4,000 planned next quarterk
3,200 1,040 January 29, 2009l
3,000 — Planned before
third quarter 2009m
colombia 2,600 1,580 January 25, 2009n;
agreement to buy 65,000 xoso
brazil 2,600 630 february 6, 2009p
india 505 31 January 20, 2009q
a oLPc numbers include “xo’s delivered, shipped, or ordered” but do not
distinguish between these categories; wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments
b tabare, V. uruguay: When education meets technology. Miami Herald (nov. 22, 2008), a21.
c Peru on the up and up, lessons to be learned. Business News Americas (Dec. 18, 2008).
d
www.bnamericas.com/story.xsql?id_sector=1&id_noticia=431002&tx_idioma=i&source=
e
www.olpceu.org/content/xo_stories/haiti/haiti.html
f
www.olpcnews.com/countries/afghanistan/olpc_afghanistan_first_school_day.html
g
www.olpceu.org/content/xo_stories/mongolia/mongolia.html
h
www.olpceu.org/content/xo_stories/rwanda/rwanda.html
i
www.olpceu.org/content/xo_stories/nepal/nepal.html
j
http://www.olpceu.org/content/xo_stories/ethiopia/ethiopia.html
k bucaramanga computers, oLPc, gemalto. Business News Americas (feb. 9, 2009).
l
wiki.laptop.org/go/oLPc_cambodia
m
wiki.laptop.org/go/oLPc_guatemala
n
wiki.laptop.org/go/oLPc_colombia
o Pilar saenz, oLPc Volunteer in colombia (email)
p
download.laptop.org/content/conf/20080520-country-wkshp/Presentations/oLPc%20country%20
meeting%20-%20Day%204%20-%20may%2023rd,%202008/brazil%20-%20Jose%20aquino% 20
-%20govt%20of%20brazil.ppt#266, 8,slide 8
q
www.olpceu.org/content/xo_stories/india/india.html
Country
uruguay
Peru
mexico
haiti
afghanistan
mongolia
rwanda
OLPC Web sitea
202,000
145,000
50,000
13,000
11,000
10, 100
16,000
actual
Deployments
150,000
40,000
50,000
Dozens
450
3,000
10,000
nepal
ethiopia
Paraguay
cambodia
guatemala
being widely distributed in places the
industry sees as emerging markets for
its own products.
The case of OLPC can be seen as a
study in the general diffusion of innovation in developing countries. Our
analysis draws on diffusion-of-innova-tion theory, exemplified by Rogers,
18
and illustrates the difficulty in getting
widespread adoption of even proven
innovation due to misunderstanding
the social and cultural environment
in which the innovation is to be introduced. We also bring to bear specific
insights from the literature on adoption of IT in developing countries,
2, 25
using them to analyze the OLPC experience and draw implications for developers and policymakers.
The original OLPC vision was to
change education through the development and distribution of low-cost laptops embodying a new learning model
to every child in the developing countries. Despite shifting over time, it can
be characterized by the following text
from the OLPC charter: “OLPC is not,
at heart, a technology program, nor is
the XO a product in any conventional
sense of the word. OLPC is a nonprofit
organization providing a means to
an end—an end that sees children in
even the most remote regions of the
globe being given the opportunity to
tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and
to contribute to a more productive
and saner world community” (www.
olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/
new_olpc_mission_statement.html).
Conceived and led by Nicholas Negroponte, a former director of MIT’s
Media Lab, OLPC aimed to achieve its
vision through extraordinary innovation in hardware and software that
fosters self-learning and fits with the
often-harsh environment in developing countries. The hardware was to
be a $100 laptop that would make affordable the large-scale deployment of
computer networks in their schools.
The XO laptop developed by OLPC
reflects hardware innovation in the
power supply, display, networking,
keyboard, and touchpad to provide a
durable and interactive laptop (see the
figure here). The shell of the machine is
resistant to dirt and moisture, with all
key parts designed to fit behind the display. It contains a pivoting, reversible,
