Chile: OLPC and Politics 2.0

Chileans bloggers are very impressed so far with the US$ 100 laptop, OLPC. But how will the innovative device, meant to help bridge the digital divide, arrive to Chile? What do laptops have to do with politics? As Marcelo Aliaga (ES) explains:

Como en todo, hay un chileno trabajando en el proyecto One Laptop Per Child, que lidera Walter Bender y evangeliza Nicholas Negroponte. El es Eduardo Silva, quien está trabajando en el “Programa de desarrolladores de OLPC” y, como tiene que hacer pruebas, le han enviado el primer prototipo. En el lanzamiento de ChilePrimero, expuso el modelo B1.

As with everything, there is a Chilean working on the One laptop Per Child project, led by Walter Bender and evangelized by Nicholas Negroponte. He is Eduardo Silva [ES] and is working in the “Program of OLPC Developers.” Because he has to do some tests, they have sent the first prototype. In the ChilePrimero launch he presented the B1

Carlos Verdugo (ES) posts a video and also his impressions about what could happen in the Chilean education system with this tool:

¿Se imaginan si cada estudiante tuviera uno? y a esto le sumamos las redes WiMax que se instalarán en Chile este año… ¿cómo sería la educación que está a la vuelta de la esquina?

Les tengo una buena y una mala noticia.

La Mala: Negroponte ofreció en su momento al Ministro de Educación de la época (Sergio Bitar) la oportunidad de comprar estos computadores, y la visión (o más bien la no visión) del ministro se reflejó con un “no gracias”. Brasil, Argentina y ahora último Uruguay ya compraron y le llegan este año.

La Buena: Hay personas que a pesar de las malas decisiones del pasado están afanadas en que estas máquinas lleguen a Chile, por ejemplo el Senador Fernando Flores quien gracias a sus contactos y amor por Chile se ha comprometido a traer algunos miles al país.

Can you imagine if every student had a laptop? And if we added the wimax net that will be install in Chile this year… how would the beleagured education sytem be [transformed]?

I have both bad and good new:

The bad: Negroponte offered to the education ministry of that time (Sergio Bitar) the chance to buy these computers and the vision (or the non-vision) of the ministry was reflected with a “no thank you.” Brazil, Argentina and recently, Uruguay have already made purchases and the computers will arrive to them this year.

The good: There are people that, despite the bad decisions of the past, are working so that these machines can get into Chile, such as, for example, the Senator Fernando Flores, that because of the love for Chile and his contacts has committed to bring some thousands [of laptops] to our country.

The laptop introduction was made during the launch party of a new political movement, called “Chile Primero” (ES), or “Chile First”. This group seems to be very committed with technology and also politics. How are IT and politics related? The director of citizen newspaper El Morrocotudo (ES), Vlado Mirosevic (ES), explains in his blog the power of being active in the creation of projects realized with web2.0 tools.

El objetivo no es ser observadores de la realidad, sino por el contrario usar los medios de comunicación digital para hacerse cargo de anomalías sociales y hacer pasar acciones colectivas.

The goal is not to be a observers of reality, but rather to use digital media to be in charge of social anomalies and to carry through collective actions.

Of course, this mixture of technology and politics doesn’t sit well with everyone, and Diego Sepulveda (ES) comments on the impression of opportunism he had at the launch of “Chile Primero” and the presentation of the OLPC:

Hace unos dias atras lei sobre la llegada del OLPC XO a Chile, pero por alguna extraña razon me doy cuenta de que los oportunistas y los nuevos oportunistas 2.0 estan detras de su llegada aparte de la sobreexposicion del aparato, o sea cosa bastante contraria a lo que Negroponte estipula de no lucrar con el proyecto. Es extraño que ahora dos movimientos que estan al borde de las criticas se lanzen juntos a la piscina ofreciendo un proyecto de corte oportunista pero a la vez lucrando con el aparato cuando de verdad andan en otra. Me suena extraño que usen este aparato como metodo de presion gubernamental cuando en su principio el aparato mismo se iba a vender a los gobiernos sin presion, cosa que en Chile fracaso por la poca vision de entonces. ¿Me pregunto porque usar un proyecto sin fines de lucro como arma politica? De seguro buscaran votos en el 2010, pero tambien hay que pensar que detras del juguete de los geeks (y no me refiero al iPhone) hay gente que se saca la mugre por ofrecerlo como una herramienta educativa y es ahi donde caen en la mas absoluta bajeza moral.

A few days ago I read about the arrival of the OLPC XO to Chile, but for a strange reason I realize that the opportunists and the new opportunists 2.0 are behind this arrival and the overexposure of this device, which goes against what Negroponte's project stipulates about keeping the project non-profit. It’s strange that two movements that are surrounded by criticism, launch into this project, offering it as a social project and at the same time profiting off the machine. It sounds weird that they use this machine to pressure the government when in the beginning the machine was going to be sold to the governments without pressure. In Chile failed because of our lack of vision. I ask, why use a non-profit project as a political pressure weapon? For sure they are seeking votes for 2010, but also we have to think that behind these geek toys (I'm not referring to the iPhone) people work hard to offer an educational tool and that is where they fall into the worst moral behavior.

One of the politicians commited to bringing the OLPC to Chile is Senator (and veteran blogger) Fernando Flores, who recently dropped out of his former party, the PPD, (Party For the Democracy) for several reason he did not explain, however, the left wing has been inolved in several corruption scandals in recent months. He also supported the foundation launch of Chile Primero.

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