gprime
Well-Known Member
Bringing Porn to the Poor (then taking it away again)
In January of 2005, MIT staffer Nicholas Negroponte announced the formation of the OLPC Foundation at the World Economics Forum. The goal of the organization is to provide one laptop per child in impoverished areas, thereby expanding their educational opportunities, and helping to remove them from isolation. To do this, they developed their own cheap computer designed specifically for the conditions of the places where it would be used. This meant including features like a manual power generator, for those areas where power is in short supply, and built-in wifi to ensure connectivity where otherwise too expensive. In order to keep the cost at or below the $100 goal, OLPC sells their laptop, the XO-1, only to governments making a bulk purchase. At present, 15 countries are supposed to be making the purchase, including Cambodia, Egypt, and Peru. Supposedly, it will make an appearance in parts of New England as well.
One country that is participating, about whom this revolves, is Nigeria. News has broken that the computers have been used by some youths to access pornography. Now, the computers, seeming on a global level, will have filters installed. But as pointed out, the practicality of that is non-existent. It is only a matter of time before the filters are beat. And, in all likelihood, much like the filters employed in US public schools, it will probably keep out massive amounts of legitimate educational content.
This outcome is really unfortunate for two reasons. First, filters never work as they're supposed to, and return large numbers of false positives thus impeding learning. Second, Nigeria is not exactly a beacon of modernity in its approach to human sexuality. In a country where frank discussion of sex isn't acceptable, and education surrounding it is largely centered around religion, these kids need more honest sources for information about sex. Now, such sites will be blocked.
In January of 2005, MIT staffer Nicholas Negroponte announced the formation of the OLPC Foundation at the World Economics Forum. The goal of the organization is to provide one laptop per child in impoverished areas, thereby expanding their educational opportunities, and helping to remove them from isolation. To do this, they developed their own cheap computer designed specifically for the conditions of the places where it would be used. This meant including features like a manual power generator, for those areas where power is in short supply, and built-in wifi to ensure connectivity where otherwise too expensive. In order to keep the cost at or below the $100 goal, OLPC sells their laptop, the XO-1, only to governments making a bulk purchase. At present, 15 countries are supposed to be making the purchase, including Cambodia, Egypt, and Peru. Supposedly, it will make an appearance in parts of New England as well.
One country that is participating, about whom this revolves, is Nigeria. News has broken that the computers have been used by some youths to access pornography. Now, the computers, seeming on a global level, will have filters installed. But as pointed out, the practicality of that is non-existent. It is only a matter of time before the filters are beat. And, in all likelihood, much like the filters employed in US public schools, it will probably keep out massive amounts of legitimate educational content.
This outcome is really unfortunate for two reasons. First, filters never work as they're supposed to, and return large numbers of false positives thus impeding learning. Second, Nigeria is not exactly a beacon of modernity in its approach to human sexuality. In a country where frank discussion of sex isn't acceptable, and education surrounding it is largely centered around religion, these kids need more honest sources for information about sex. Now, such sites will be blocked.
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