Quite some years ago (2006-08), we brought the #OLPC AKA the 100$ laptop to Ethiopia as pilot.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

With the mesh network built in to the OLPC, a local network that worked without needing a central access point (or the CPU), farmers used the chat function to compare prices offered for their produce and found out that merchants offered different prices. Draining the batteries while their kids were sleeping. This led to pressure on the merchants to pay better. The government was not amused. And mesh networking became a problem. Ultimately an inspiring story that was never told, IMHO. 2/8

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Decentralisation remains an underexplored field in commerce and communication, IMHO. For obvious reasons. Capitalism relies on control and centralisation. Kind of a contradiction, IMHO. A reason why decentralisation and transparency are often touted as goals, but never really implemented. 3/8

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

(In a flat and open field, the mesh network of an OLPC, that didn’t need the CPU for transmitting network traffic, so still worked when the OLPC was „sleeping“ had a range of up to 4 kilometres) 4/8

DJGummikuh

@jwildeboer this story is extraordinarily stupid (as far as the government goes) because the goal of #OLPC was to improve education, and then the government fumes because their population starts to make educated decisions...

Luke

@jwildeboer such a good idea and wished there was an equivalent item now.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@DJGummikuh It’s IMHO one of the reasons we never saw the OLPC concept being introduced in a western country. I tried at the time. But we were always destroyed by government agencies with the „it doesn’t run Microsoft Office“ argument.

DJGummikuh

@jwildeboer yeah I also remember there was a huge outcry that it would destroy the mobile devices market and people should rather pay hundreds of Euros for Hardware they don't need to "not upset the market" 🤮

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Going through my archives, I notice I might have been confused. This goes back even further. This happened 2006-08 in the pilot in Ethiopia. Rwanda was 2014. At that time the LED was already long gone. My apologies. I have corrected the original toot. 5/8

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

(Thank you all for being kind and respectful in the comments thus far. The OLPC was (and is) a defining part of my private and professional life. I was only involved on the sidelines but I met people that were so deeply invested into the ideas. Developers. Children. Teachers. But also aggressive opponents, lobbyists that did everything possible to kill the project. It teached me a lot. And I still feel sad it never lived up to its potential. Maybe it will. I'm still a believer) Me, 2007 6/8

Harald Geyer

@DJGummikuh @jwildeboer I remember back then there was a huge demand from people in Europe saying "Give me one as well! I'm paying 200$ and you can give one child one for free." I always wondered, why this never happened.

I guess, your stories of pressure explain this nicely. Thanks for sharing!

Elias Probst

@haraldgeyer this actually happened. There was a "buy one, give one" program and I bought 4 back then.

@DJGummikuh @jwildeboer

Harald Geyer

@eliasp Thanks for sharing. It's strange: Somebody (probably @DJGummikuh or @jwildeboer ) wrote the same back when I posted this originally, but it's gone now and my reply dropped from the thread.

Anyways, here is my reply from back then: https://mastodon.social/@haraldgeyer/113143036090113982

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@haraldgeyer And IIRC, I posted the links to https://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_Giving and the discussion page at https://wiki.laptop.org/go/Talk:XO_Giving @eliasp @DJGummikuh

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@haraldgeyer The TL;DR, the first G1G1 (Give One, Get One) campaign was a big success but getting the logistics sorted turned out to be far more complex than expected. The second G1G1 couldn't get close to the success of the first one and it was decided that this concept isn't the right way. @eliasp @DJGummikuh

Harald Geyer

@jwildeboer Yes exactly. I remember now reading these links. Any idea, why your post disappeared?

I now some people have automatically disappearing posts, but all your others are still present. It seems like a strange #mastodon issue.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@haraldgeyer My instance deletes my posts after 7 days UNLESS they are bookmarked by me or get more than 5 favs or boosts. I guess this one didn't make the cut

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@haraldgeyer It also doesn't happen that often that a thread suddenly comes back to life after 3 months I am pleasantly surprised and apologise for the holes in the replies due to my setup.

Harald Geyer

@jwildeboer Yes, this explains this nicely.

I wonder, why you do this? In my experience many replies in very interesting technical threads or other deep discussions between a small group of people won't make it. But random opinion bits will stay around forever. That seems to introduce quite the bias.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@haraldgeyer It's mainly a cost problem My little instance only has limited resources available so I can't keep everything I ever did here since 2018 around. I also like to think of my posts as being ephemeral and not a record of history. Threads that I find important will end up as a blog entry on my blog. Most other posts can safely be deleted after a while. Sometimes this causes bad moments, but rare enough to still be acceptable to me.

Chris [list of emoji]

@jwildeboer

How does that work?!?!? Does the mesh subsystem have its own processor with access to the keyboard and screen?

(Yes, *this* is the part I'm fixating on.)