Friday, September 18, 2009
Digital Divide: One Laptop Per Child Project
World Focus Video on the One Laptop Per Child Project. in Rwanda (December 12, 2008):
Watch Nicholas Negroponte describe the One Laptop Per Child project in Columbia at the TED Conference in December of 2008.
Watch Nicholas Negroponte describe the One Laptop Per Child project in Columbia at the TED Conference in December of 2008.
Labels: Digital Divide, Microsoft, One Laptop Per Child, XO
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Free Brazil
"Brazil: Free Software's Biggest and Best Friend", written by Todd Benson is about how Brazil's President is trying to create a program where all Brazilians can have access to computers and internet in their homes.
"Looking to save millions of dollars in royalties and licensing fees, Mr. da
Silva has instructed government ministries and state-run companies to gradually
switch from costly operating systems made by Microsoft and others to free
operating systems, like Linux."
Once they have a significant number of agencies using the free operating systems, the general public will have equal access. The program is called "PC Conectado".Microsoft does not want to see this happen because they need to make their money so they are trying to work with the government to help without making it free.
"We're not going to spend taxpayers' money on a program so that Microsoft can
further consolidate its monopoly. It's the government's responsibility to
ensure that there is competition, and that means giving alternative software
platforms a chance to prosper."
The main focus of the article was to put computers into the homes of Brazilians but critics say that the focus should be to put computers in the schools. I think that there should be a combination of both but if I had to choose, I would say to put them in the homes only because it would provide more access to everyone.
Labels: Brazil, Microsoft, PC Conectado
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Current Event Blog: October 25th
In looking for a current event's article that has to do with things we have talked about in class, I was able to stumble along an article in the New York Times about the ongoing battle for a stake in Facebook and in this article, it goes on to say how Microsoft won that battle with a bid of $240 million.
In a battle staged against Yahoo and Google, Microsoft won the battle with an offer of $240 million. In spending all of that money, Microsoft will receive a 1.6 % stake in Facebook and will also get the opportunity to sell banner ads appearing on Facebook outside of the US, splitting the revenue with the previously mentioned company. This will add to the agreement already in place between Microsoft and Facebook which is a contract through 2011 which allows Microsoft to run banner ads on the site but only in the United States.
It only goes to show you how a free website, created for advertising and social networking (ala MySpace), can create such an astronomical amount of revenue by virtue of the public's reaction to the website and company, thus forcing larger and more powerful companies to get involved and expand their industry, creating more of a money making opportunity for the little, free to sign up social networking website. Just think about this. Mark Zuckenberg, the 23 year Harvard drop-out who is also the founder of Facebook, owns a 20% share of Facebook, which is valued at about $3 billion. Unbelievable.
In a battle staged against Yahoo and Google, Microsoft won the battle with an offer of $240 million. In spending all of that money, Microsoft will receive a 1.6 % stake in Facebook and will also get the opportunity to sell banner ads appearing on Facebook outside of the US, splitting the revenue with the previously mentioned company. This will add to the agreement already in place between Microsoft and Facebook which is a contract through 2011 which allows Microsoft to run banner ads on the site but only in the United States.
It only goes to show you how a free website, created for advertising and social networking (ala MySpace), can create such an astronomical amount of revenue by virtue of the public's reaction to the website and company, thus forcing larger and more powerful companies to get involved and expand their industry, creating more of a money making opportunity for the little, free to sign up social networking website. Just think about this. Mark Zuckenberg, the 23 year Harvard drop-out who is also the founder of Facebook, owns a 20% share of Facebook, which is valued at about $3 billion. Unbelievable.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Google May Fight Microsoft In Battle of Cell Phone Software
After our discussion in class about the flattening of the world by corporations and globalization i came across an old fashioned newspaper article about something similar. Newsday reports that Google may get in the market of producing cell phone software to rival Microsoft's, which of course is really the only show in town when it comes to devices like palm pilots and blackberries. This may be a welcomed change and freshening up to cell phone software that is old and past its time. The new Microsoft windows Mobile 6 is basically just a smoothed out version of the previous generation for example. Like we talked about in class, America is behind the time tech wise and we need some good competition to get back in the game. I don't want to go to India for a job.
I think this would be a good idea because going on Google's reputation, it just seems like everything they touch turns to gold. And rather then creating a whole new phone and possibly service to launch this new software, they can simply piggy back on existing phone companies or service providers. Google also stated that it would rely on Linux software, which is free and open to the public. This is an important step in creating an OS that will constantly be improved, not to mention Google would be reaching out to more people then ever. I do not own a smart phone that requires a OS but if i did i don't think i would want Microsoft software on it, i would rather have Apple but we all cant afford the iPhone, so Google create a nice piece of software and bring us into the future.
I think this would be a good idea because going on Google's reputation, it just seems like everything they touch turns to gold. And rather then creating a whole new phone and possibly service to launch this new software, they can simply piggy back on existing phone companies or service providers. Google also stated that it would rely on Linux software, which is free and open to the public. This is an important step in creating an OS that will constantly be improved, not to mention Google would be reaching out to more people then ever. I do not own a smart phone that requires a OS but if i did i don't think i would want Microsoft software on it, i would rather have Apple but we all cant afford the iPhone, so Google create a nice piece of software and bring us into the future.
"The software would challenge Microsoft Corp.'s products that run Web-browsing phones. About 1 billion of those devices will be sold by 2011, according to research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass. Google plans to let phone makers and wireless companies sell handsets based on its software, rather than creating a device like Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the Times said"(Bloomberg News)
Labels: Cell Phones, Google, Microsoft
