Telecoms, internet in Pakistan

Interview

Posted on Thu, Feb. 08, 2007
By Dean Takahashi
Mercury News

Nicholas Negroponte took some time recently for an e-mail interview with Mercury News Columnist Dean Takahashi about his low-cost laptop project.

Q How long ago did you think of the One Laptop Per Child idea?

A This work dates back to my MIT colleague Seymour Papert’s early thinking (Logo in 1968 and “teaching children thinking” in April 1970). He and I worked in developing nations with Apple IIs in 1982 in Pakistan, Senegal and Colombia.

In the 1990s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab did a great deal of work in remote regions of the developing world, bringing access through viral telecommunications and what is today called WiMax and WiFi (wireless high-speed Internet). The decision to do One Laptop Per Child was made in 2004 after careful study and realization that it can be done.

Q What sort of skepticism have you faced?

A The foremost was “great idea, but they cannot do it,” where “they” could mean either us as academics or anybody (namely, it is not possible). That vanished as skepticism when Taiwan’s Quanta agreed to do it with us. Quanta makes almost 40 percent of all the world’s laptops.

The next skepticism has been about the ability of children to learn how to use the laptop without training all the teachers of the world to teach them. Give me a break. The kids will teach the teachers, and the trick is to create enough adult self-confidence to allow that to happen unfettered. No. That does not unto itself create “education,” but it is a damn good start.

Q You’ve had some disagreements with Microsoft and Intel during the course of this project. Can you describe the nature of the disagreement and your position?

A They are very different. Microsoft has a real problem with open source — a problem with which I sympathize. Nonetheless, we are working with them. They have laptops and are determined to put Windows on it. We are helping them do so. It would be nuts for One Laptop Per Child to advocate being “open” and then being closed to Microsoft.

Intel, by contrast, is just being silly. I went to them first (note: Intel founder Bob Noyce funded me to start the MIT Media Lab in 1979). They dismissed the idea. Advanced Micro Devices by contrast leapt at it. AMD CEO Hector Ruiz has been an excellent partner, deeply committed and genuinely devoted to issues of the developing world. After Intel Chairman Craig Barrett called One Laptop Per Child a “gadget,” Intel developed their own gadget and talks of “competing with One Laptop Per Child.” Huh? We welcome them and do not compete with anybody.

One Laptop Per Child is a non-profit humanitarian project partnered with the United Nations and development banks.

For Intel to be criticizing One Laptop Per Child is a bit like Johnson & Johnson picking on the Red Cross because they use Ace bandages.

Q Why has cost been such a problem for the high-volume computer industry? Why can’t they get to the $100 price point?

A It is all about margins, not costs. In an industry where the natural tendency of costs is to go down 50 percent every 18 months, the response is to add features. Witness cell phones. The truth is that there is little corporate self-interest in very low price points.

Q How much of your time is this taking?

A Every waking hour and every moment of thought. I know. Get a life, Nicholas.

Q Is this a cause or a market opportunity? If it’s a market opportunity, how do you make a pitch to companies that this is in their own self-interest to get involved?

A It is a cause, without a shadow of a doubt. Many companies see this as a market, too, but that is not One Laptop Per Child’s purpose.

PSEB, Malaysian firm to build IT parks

By Imran Ayub

KARACHI: Pakistan Software Export Board has signed an accord with a Malaysian firm to build IT parks in†Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore in a move believed to attract foreign interest in the emerging industry of the country. Official sources said the deal was part of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s directives to the Ministry of IT and Telecom, calling for urgent steps to start the construction of IT parks in major cities.

“We have signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with MDeC (Multimedia Super Corridor Development Corporation), a government of Malaysia entity, which promotes the IT†industry,” said Yusuf Hussain, Managing Director PSEB, who returned from Malaysia last week.

“We intend to build IT parks on plots of land ranging from six to 13 acres in†Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.”

He said the Malaysian visit was aimed at meeting with developers, who were interested in building IT parks in Pakistan on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis, besides facilitating cooperation in other areas†including venture capital funds and trade in IT services.

“There is immense scope†for collaboration with Malaysia on IT. We also visited Cyberjaya, a leading IT city of the†world, to learn from their experiences,” added the PSEB chief.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in August this year asked for steps to start the construction of long-awaited IT parks in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, indicating the IT-enabled office space was a critical requirement for the development of the industry.

The August meeting resulted in recent visit of the information technology ministry high-ups to Malaysia, one of the fastest growing IT industries across the world. The authorities believe planned cooperation may prove fruitful for both countries.

“To jointly explore, wherever feasible, cooperative projects that can be accomplished through employing ICT (information and communication technology) between MDeC and PSEB, or between third parties identified by MDeC and PSEB, in the areas of ICT industries and multimedia or other areas as may be agreed upon by the parties, including but not limited to:

(i) the development of IT parks (ii) ICT in the logistics sector or e-logistics; and (iii) market entry facilitation for companies from both countries.” The accord between the two organisations also allowed exchange of information and sharing of ideas, wherever relevant, about strategies and best practices in nurturing the local IT industry and multimedia companies.

The country’s software exports have been on the rise for the last couple of years, crossing $70 million during 2005-06 for the first time, registering a growth of 50 per cent, as western firms started turning more and more towards Pakistan for IT-enabled services to cut costs and raise profits.

The IT industry emerged as the fastest growing sector in the last fiscal, mainly supported by phenomenal jump in call centre operations during the last two years.

More than 140 centres are currently operational, mainly in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad offering employment to around 5,000 people. Plans to build IT parks in major cities, IT players say, may further accelerate the industry’s growth. “For this year (2006-07), we have set $108 million software export target,” said Hussain, MD PSEB. “The target is inspired by the State Bank data, which showed our companies managed to export over $72 million worth of software during 2005-06 and with the same rate we should achieve the new target by the end of June 2007.”

Govt to consider for making low-cost laptop computers available to school going children: PM
ISLAMABAD, Nov 29 (APP): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Wednesday the government will consider the feasibility for making low-cost laptop computers available to school going children in Pakistan.

He was talking to Nicholas Negroponte, who is the head of the MIT Media Laboratory and Chairman of a non-profit organization called One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC), which promotes the production of laptops for children at low rates.

The Prime Minister asked the Ministry of IT and Telecom to form a committee to look into the feasibility of such an initiative.

He said if found feasible the selling of these laptops would be encouraged in Pakistan. “We offered Pakistan for the pilot project so that our children can take advantage of the digital age”, he added.

Negroponte told the Prime Minister that OLPC plans to run pilot projects in several countries next year.

He said that under the project children from ages 6 up to 16 would be given a laptop each. These computers can be used for listening music, reading books as well as surfing the Internet.

He said the machine has been designed to work without electricity and makes its own communication network.

Minister for IT and Telecom, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Minister of State for IT, Ishaq Khan Khakwani and Secretary IT also attended the meeting.

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Links:

The OLPC homepage

olpc news is a hysterical and incoherent voice against the OLPC project.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Urdu: note the OLPC runs Redhat Linux and the revolutionary Sugar user interface