Journal of an XO in Africa

Laptop Magazine sent an OLPC XO (also commonly known as the $100 laptop) to a woman named Salimata (Sali) Fandjalan in Africa. She kept a blog of her experiences which were published on Laptop Magazine's site http://laptopmag.com/News/Notebooks/The-OLPC-XO-Goes-to-Africa.htm .

Her blog is fascinating because it talks about the complexity of using this device in a third world country. Often when we hear about the $100 laptop (now actually closer to $200) it is portrayed as a magic wand as if the device by itself will solve world problems. One of the excerpts from her blog that I found interesting was~

"All children who get an XO WILL NEED TRAINING!!!!! There is nothing OLPC can do about it; there is nothing the children or their parents can do about it. Without training, the XO is nothing more than a little pretty green-and-white box that looks like a misshaped, overgrown bunny with no teeth".

Just as in the US, technology implementation is a complex process that goes beyond the device itself.