Comments on: conspiracy theories about olpcnews?

By: Martin Woodhouse

Martin Woodhouse — Sun, 25 May 2008 08:02:18 +0000

I’m sorry, I’m a bit lost here. (although I’ll also grant a certain naivete). What organisation is it which is presumed to want to ‘muddy the waters’ surrounding the XO, and for what purpose?

I trust you’ll note that am continually quotable, on the OLPCNews site, as disparaging the XO. And I do of course have an alernative to propose, as can also be observed.

I wonder if that means I am part of the conspiracy which is being suggested? Eh?

Personally, if I were in Wayan’s shoes, I should be offering someone a major clack round the ear-hole for impugning my honour. But then I’m also old, and old-fashioned.

Martin Woodhouse

By: Cosmo Diskan

Cosmo Diskan — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:41:51 +0000

I’m a daily user of the OLPC news forums, and an OLPC give one get one donor. OLPCnews is fair look at what’s going on with the actual situation. The OLPC non-profit has bungled almost every step of the process so far and olpcnews is just reporting on it. If you brose the forums (which are the main portion of the site after all) you’ll see just as many positive discussions going on.

And to the writer: Are you a G1G1 participant? From the article I guess not. If you had(or as many of us are, still are) dealt with the nightmare that actually getting your XO in your hands is, and keeping it working after you do, then you would understand why the site tends to have such a negative slant.

By: Gary Goldberg

Gary Goldberg — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:45:38 +0000

When you host a themed-website, any association by the writers with an organization known for disparaging the theme of the website should be disclosed. Bottom line, ‘nuf said. It builds confidence in the source — once shaken it takes a long time, if ever, to regain the trust that was automatic before questions were raised. I had no reason to distrust Wayan and OLPCNews until now. Now that there is a question, however well- or mis-founded, it will be there in the back of my mind, each time I visit the website.

By: MrCopilot

MrCopilot — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:14:17 +0000

I’ve found the OLPC’s Wiki is a great place to get OLPC news. you should advertise it as such.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/News

Also Mirror a copy on the wiki with the title OLPCNews to help Google help you.

Keep up the good work Chris.

By: Medienkombinat Berlin » Blog Archive » Der MIT-Professor und der digitale Graben

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:47:09 +0000

[...] Auf vielen Websites, Mailinglisten und Foren wird das Vorhaben von OLPC diskutiert. Als fundierte Sammlung skeptischer Stimmen hat sich das englischsprachige olpcnews.com etabliert. Hier schreiben Leute, die selbst im Bereich IT und Entwicklung tätig sind. Ihnen wurde von einem XO-Fan vorgeworfen, von Intel bezahlt zu werden. Der Prozessorhersteller ist tatsächlich nicht gut auf das Projekt zu sprechen, das vom Konkurrenten AMD unterstützt wird. Intel selbst hat einen für Länder des Südens konzipierten Rechner im Programm, den 400-Dollar-Computer “Classmate”. Doch XO und Classmate sind nicht allein – eine Liste der Weltbank zählt 30 solcher Projekte auf. [...]

By: Kozuch

Kozuch — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 02:21:33 +0000

I also wouldn’t see any “big” conspiracy around this – much more magaziny headlines to get a buck from that news site.

By: Belly Button Window

Belly Button Window — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 01:22:02 +0000

I’m in the Blogging Big Leagues Now!

Over the last year or so, an initiative has slowly formed to change education in the developing world. Based around the idea that children need to “learn learning” and computers are the best tool to do this, One Laptop Per Child has developed a chea…

By: Ian Bicking

Ian Bicking — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 05:54:26 +0000

I find olpcnews’s sniping to be rather tedious and unconstructive. Often it is uninformed, but I can’t really blame them — it’s not easy to know all the plans for the laptop project. That they incessantly refer to their core criticisms (with extensive use of the strike tag) is where it gets tedious, and by doing it in passive-aggressive asides it makes it hard to discuss the issues honestly.

That said, they do aggregate useful news, and I find things out from that site that I don’t find by tracking mailing lists, IRC, or other parts of the community. For instance, it’s the only place I’ve seen a mention of Seymour Papert being in an accident.

By: John (J5) Palmieri

John (J5) Palmieri — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 22:50:42 +0000

Wayan,

Your integrity suffers because your reporting, rather than being critical is often inaccurate. Your integrity also suffers from lack of full disclosure. You use a look and headline which leads people to believe your site is some how connected to the OLPC project and only on the eleventh paragraph of your about page is it pointed out you have nothing to do with OLPC. You buy google ads that show up when anyone searches for olpc, and may I note those ads don’t disclaim connection to the project. Even if you are not being directly influenced by anyone it is still pretty telling that you have been hostile towards the OLPC project but have not fully disclosed your connection with an entity that feels it has a lot to lose if the One Laptop Per Child is a success. I have no problem with your views, believe me I have people who are close to me who have been critical of the project. What really is the problem is the way you present them by doing a little as you can to disclaim affiliation with the actual OLPC project.

By: wayan

wayan — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:11:31 +0000

Actually, re-reading you post, I can’t be sure if I should be offended or flattered.

Offended that you would think my personal integrity could be bought by anyone – my employer or Intel – or flattered that a small hobby of mine, blogging about OLPC, could be worthy of such attention.

I think I’ll go with flattered. Thanks for believing OLPC News, and all those that write and comment on it, matters.