One Laptop Per Child Computer gets the World chattering

Amberlight's Harry Brignull has found himself in the spotlight in the last week with his video of the OLPC UI in action and subsequent comments.

The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) system aka the 'hundred dollar laptop' is the much vaunted alternative computer, ostensibly cheap enough for developing countries to afford and easy enough for a kid to use. In Brignull's first post - on his website and also on YouTube - he offered a video clip of the OLPC UI that he'd put together to show the new interface in action.

'I’m amazed to see how unusual the UI is. Apps are full-screen by default, and the black border around the sides pops over when you put the cursor at the side of the screen (as shown in screen grab). And that’s just the start of it,' he comments.

A couple of days later, he has added an analysis of the system's usability.

In all, the video and blog had been viewed 48,000 times, when this story went to press. Brignull's map of hits to his site shows a lot of interest from Brazil and China, two countries that are investing in the OLPC. Europe and the US are typically also viewing and chattering over it on a variety of blogs and lists.

'The video has been featured on quite a few sites, including two or three chinese ones. It's also been slashdotted, where there has been a great discussion about it,' says Brignull. (See OLPC Project Interface Revealed.)

Comments are not wholly with Brignull, who is castigated so: 'HUH!? There’s nothing wrong with that UI! These complaints sound like little more than a bunch of people upset that they aren’t part of one of the most important computer-related initatives to-date ... You have to look at this UI from the perspective of those children that will infact be using it, and in the different languages - people who have never seen Microsoft Windows and if they are lucky, will never have to.'

Brignull's dispassionate evaluation mostly leaves the sentiment associated with the mission of the computer out of the discussion. For instance, in a section asking: 'Are the collaborative concepts half baked?'

'The community features of the OLPC seems to re-invent some of the tried and tested techniques we already have. Traditional list style presence indicators and discussion boards are very effective. The graffiti wall ‘do anything’ style discussion board offered on the OLPC has popped up many times in the past but never caught on. The concept is quite lovely but in practice the result is often very messy and anarchic.'

Associated Link: 90 percent of everything: Why the OLPC needs lots of usability work

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