Re:Richard Stallman on the Failure of One Laptop Per Child &...
by arebop on Tuesday November 04, 2008 @07:14AM
(#353329)
It obviously is true that there is confusion about the project's goals, but the confusion is not a simple matter of Stallman's passion coloring his perception. Even today, vestiges of an ambition and commitment far beyond delivering machines to children remain on the OLPC site.
"XO embodies the theories of constructionism first developed by MIT Media Lab Professor Seymour Papert in the 1960s, and later elaborated upon by Alan Kay, complemented by the principles articulated by Nicholas Negroponte in his book, Being Digital." --- http://laptop.org/vision/mission/
"Our commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. [...] we do not want any ceiling imposed on those children who choose to modify their machines." --- http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/software/
"XO embodies the theories of constructionism first developed by MIT Media Lab Professor Seymour Papert in the 1960s, and later elaborated upon by Alan Kay, complemented by the principles articulated by Nicholas Negroponte in his book, Being Digital." --- http://laptop.org/vision/mission/
If you read more about constructionism at http://www.papert.org/articles/SituatingConstructionism.html, you will see that it is consonant with the freedom "to improve the program" and all the rest of the Free Software freedoms.
"Our commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. [...] we do not want any ceiling imposed on those children who choose to modify their machines." --- http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/software/