Essay #5 - Chris Bigelow - $100 Laptops Re-define Local Community

          The XO laptop calls for a re-defining of local community.  One of my initial criticisms of the OLPC project was that the language barrier would cause problems in getting remote communities connected.  The OLPC obviously heard my complaint and mobilized to come up with a viable solution.  Now, the XO laptop will be released with Wixi.  Wixi is a language learning tool that is structured and used in much the same way as Wikipedia.  It is hoped that by including this user-edited learning environment, "kids who know more language might help teach kids who know less" (Crawford, 2007, para. 6).  With this strategy, kids choose content that other kids might find interesting, and in doing so, help to teach themselves.  This broadening of language will create a sense of "local" community among people who have been traditionally excluded from one another. 
          No doubt the XO laptops will broaden the social horizons of those who use them.  More than this, however, they will broaden the experience of those who use them.  Even when people stay in one place, global experiences are brought to them through media.  In this case, the XO laptops will be bringing the global into the local, even if the users never leave their own hometown.  James Clifford suggests that "travel, or displacement, can involve forces that pass powerfully through?television, radio, tourists, commodities, armies" (Clifford, 1992, p. 103).  I would add the XO laptop to his list.  In the field of academics, the OLPC is attempting to make information available to those who previously did not have access.  According to Laurie Rowell, "Access to texts is a huge problem in many developing nations. It's important to realize that the laptop project is also a library project" (Rowell, 2007).  In this way also, the $100 laptops will change our idea of local community in areas that adopt this program. 
          We still cannot be sure, however, of how users will receive images of "others" through a medium such as the XO computers.  Sreberny-Mohammadi asks some interesting questions along these lines: "In the West, do images of remote suffering, for example, merely reinforce Western stereotypes about African 'primitiveness?' Or can such images mobilize sympathy, humanitarian sensibilities, and useful social action?" (Sreberny, 1996, p. 14).  No answer is given for these questions and there is certainly a need to explore this topic in relation to the $100 laptop.  Will people who use the laptops make strong distinctions between themselves and members of powerful Western nations, or see themselves like looking in a mirror?  If there is a strong distinction, will images of outsiders be positive or negative, and who or what will help to make that initial impression? 
          In conclusion, the XO laptops are a tool that will make it necessary to reconsider previously held notions on local community.  Using these computers will open doors to networks of different people with different languages across the globe.  There are considerable questions that are raised by this project and many unknowns as the OLPC proceeds with the vision of "One Laptop Per Child."  However, this project is one that will have great benefit for many people that formerly would not have had the opportunity to get connected in an emerging global community.  For more information or to get involved in the development, visit http://wiki.laptop.org.

Works Cited

Clifford, James (1992). "Traveling Cultures." In Cultural Studies, edited by L. Grossberg, C. Nelson and P. Treichler. New York and London: Routledge. Pp. 96-112. Electronic reserve: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/eresdocs/files2/h6048.pdf.

Crawford, Duke (2007). Test Learning Language Learning in Two Minutes. May 23, 2007 Online: http://www.olpcnews.com. Paragraph 9.

Rowell, Laurie (2007). Can the "$100 Laptop" Change the World?. February, 2007 Online: http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=43-1.

Sreberny-Mohammadi, Annabelle (1996). Globalization, communication and transnational civil society: Introduction. In S. Braman and A. Sreberny-Mohammadi (Eds.), Globalization, communication and transnational civil society, pp. 1-19. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press. Electronic reserve: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/eresdocs/files2/h6049.pdf.

Posted at 12:06PM Jun 22, 2007 by BIGELOW, CHRISTOPHER in General  |  Comments[4]