XO laptop computer from One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project
Object No. 2011/40/1
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project began in 2005 with the aim to empower the world's poorest children through education by providing each child with a rugged, low cost, low power, connected laptop. Designed by a large collaborative team, the XO was the first large-scale attempt to design, manufacture and supply robust, low cost laptops to developing communities around the world. By 2011, two million children in 31 countries were learning with XO laptops. The largest national partners included Uruguay and Peru. The OLPC project received widespread publicity and praise for its innovation and social impact. It also received some criticism for its design imperfections, distribution problems and for promoting western 'leapfrogging' technology in developing countries rather than addressing basic needs. While it didn't quite meet the original US$100 aim for cost, the XO did inspire a new category of computers - the low-cost notebook - with limited features and built in connectivity for the consumer market. The XO laptops were primarily distributed by government purchases for schools. They were only available to consumers through the Give One Get One (G1G1) campaigns of late 2007 and 2008. This XO laptop was purchased through the original G1G1 campaign and was one of the first consumer-purchased XO laptops to arrive in Australia. The OLPC project has been credited as a pioneer of the humanitarian design movement, or design for the 'bottom of the pyramid' or 'emerging markets'. It has also been criticised as an example of western 'design imperialism' delivering inappropriate technology without sufficient local cultural understanding. Regardless of the success of the OLPC project, this XO laptop represents the recent growing interest in humanitarian, socially-responsible design. This evolving movement challenges the traditional roles of designer, producer and consumer and promotes participatory, co-creation principles and designing for good. Angelique Hutchison Curator May 2011
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Summary
Object Statement
Laptop computer, XO from One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, plastic / metal / electronic components, designed by One Laptop Per Child, fuseproject, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, United States of America, 2007, made by Quanta Computer, Taiwan, 2007
Physical Description
The XO laptop computer consists of a white and green rectangular plastic case, designed in a briefcase style with carry handle. The hinged top of the case can be opened to reveal, a QWERTY keyboard, function keys and touchpad at the bottom and an LCD screen in the lid section. The screen can be rotated 360 degrees, or folded flat to form a tablet computer. Two antenna can be folded out from the top sides of the screen, revealing USB inputs and other audio ports. On the exterior of the case, on both top and bottom, are several stickers advertising the 'Eyesaw Project', which was part of the 2008 Sydney Design Festival. The machine also comes with a green power supply cable which can be plugged into the right hand side and features a two prong power plug suitable for use in USA and Canada.
DIMENSIONS
Height
240 mm
Width
225 mm
Depth
245 mm
PRODUCTION
Notes
Designed and developed in the USA from 2005-2007 by a collaborative team including: Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop Per Child founder, developer original concept and founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) media lab; Mary Lou Jepsen, One Laptop Per Child chief technology officer; Yves Behar and Bret Recor at fuseproject (designed the external form); Pentagram (graphic interface). Made by Quanta Computers in Taiwan, 2007 The laptop is designed to be durable, functional, energy efficient, responsive and fun. Its design is flexible and due to the 'transformer' hinge can be used in several configurations: standard laptop, e-book reading and gaming. It has rounded edges, a kid-sized handle and a sealed, rubber membrane keyboard. The screen can adopt two different displays - in colour or a black and white sunlight-readable mode. The XO is designed for constant wireless connectivity. Using the in built 'mesh' network, groups of students can collaborate on activities and connect to each other without the need for any other hardware. Designed for extended battery lifetime, the XO was originally paired with a hand crank for manual battery charging. It is compliant with the EU ROHS directive, containing no hazardous substances. The robust design of the XO does not contain a hard drive, it uses flash memory, and has only two internal cables. The antennas protect the USB ports and the display is cushioned internally to help durability. The estimated product lifetime is at least four years. OLPC redesigned the laptop and released the XOXO tablet in 2010. Source: Hardware - One Laptop Per Child http://one.laptop.org/about/hardware Accessed 16 March 2011
HISTORY
Notes
This object was purchased by the donor as part of the Give One Get One (G1G1) program in late 2007. He ordered the laptop using the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) G1G1 website. The donor suggests this object was one of the first XO laptops to be brought into Australia. The laptop was used by his young daughter Grace from 2008-2010 for playing games and using the internet. By early 2010 the XO was no longer suitable for use with many childrens websites of the time, and the family replaced it with an iPod Touch and an iPad. Seb describes how this XO laptop was purchased and used: 'The OLPC was ordered on November 18 2007 through the first Give One / Get One programme run by the OLPC Foundation. Orders were only accepted from American addresses so I placed mine through a friend and former Powerhouse web developer who was living in San Francisco at the time. Through the wonders of PayPal, an internet-based money transfer and payment system, I paid the amount directly into his account and then he paid for the order. The total cost including shipping was US$423.95. The order arrived in the first week of January 2008 when my daughter was 3 & 1/2 years old. I blogged about it in my work blog at the Powerhouse here - http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2008/01/07/playing-with-the-olpc-xo-laptop-and-the-museum-possibilities/ Grace used the laptop regularly over the next 2 years, and we continued to download updated operating systems for it until the OLPC Foundation stopped supporting it. She added stickers to the casing after she noticed that I had stickers on my laptop.' 'Although the OLPC was aimed at young children, Grace was too young for most of the applications available for it. Her favourite applications were the simple maze generating game, the music makers, and, as she started to learn to read, the text-to-speech tool. There were many hours of pitch shifted voices and sentences copied from books typed into that speaking tool. The web browser was not very good and after hacking it to allow the loading of Flash content the CPU was just too slow to be any good for Flash games. This ruled out most of the children's websites of the period - including the Powerhouse's own children's website. In May 2010 Grace got a 4th generation iPod Touch for her birthday and I had returned from the USA a month earlier with a 1st generation iPad. Both of these replaced the portable computing element of the OLPC and whilst still not allowing access to Flash-based web content they more than made up for this in downloadable Apps and also CPU power. By this time, Grace was also more than happily using the main home computer, an iMac, for her school work including Mathletics (which, being Flash, would never load on the OLPC). By 2011 the OLPC had become an artefact of a pre-iPad era - especially as Grace started using the iPad to timeshift her favourite TV shows using ABC iView and was using the main home computer to tend to the digital pets that wouldn't work on her iPod Touch.' Sebastian Chan, April-May 2011
SOURCE
Credit Line
Gift of Grace and Sebastian Chan, 2011
Acquisition Date
8 June 2011
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