Given the circumstances that these poor children are in, [to me] its conceivable to create something that is of use on a budget level in the hopes the user of the technology can enhance his/her understanding of the world...but what are the chances of that actually happening?
The last thing a goldfish will think would be fresher water...and if food is the main issue of being underprivileged, its more or less likely that whoever that may be granted the technology will simply sell it back out for food or other, more dire necessities...such as money, medical supplies, or heck....a trade for a mode of transportation
I'm not saying this to be mean...but I don't understand what made the entrepreneur so confident that this investment will bring aid to those who may not want help or help of this manner
I just hope theres no mofo that decies this is the perfect opportunity to target children with viral porn....like the crisis when ipod video first came out
EDIT: thank you LuxLuthor for the link
Because it's pretty obvious that unleashing Sally Struthers and a gazillion other NGO's tossing craploads of grain is not solving their root problems of keeping them weak, worthless, and dependent.
My understanding from reading about this project is they are trying to figure out ways to have people who are totally hopeless and dependent on sporadic & political handouts be given some other ways to learn, become self-reliant, use tools to network, and to have them realize they are not mindless goldfish.
Like I said earlier, you have to spend some time reading about the results, impact, and hope for them finally having a tool to pull them out of their horrible situations. So far, the impoverished children who have gotten these laptops, and who have never been in a school value these about a million times more than little spoiled Johnny with his latest Halo-3 XBox toy.
Who knows what impact it will have....but one things for sure. This dude who started the project is a lot more engaged and dedicated than 99.999% of the monkeys staring down pitifully into a goldfish bowl...saying: "Gee, isn't that too bad...we should send them a slice of our pizza."