Nailed It! Keyboard-Less OLPC XO (Update)

It’s a strange feeling that I get fairly frequently. I dream up some tech “thing” (hardward device, software tool, service) and it’s unveiled shortly thereafter. At the risk of sounding boastful, it feels as if I have my pulse on the “industry.”

Of course, there are other explanations. One is that I dream up so many things that some of them are bound to come through at some point. Another is that I may have internalized some information about those products ready to be unveiled from some source and that I forget that I got this information. Or maybe what I’m dreaming up is so obvious that just everybody predicted it.

Still, it’s a strange feeling. I feel prescient.

Latest case in point, the OLPC’s XOXO (XO-2), will be keyboard-less, just as I dreamt about on another blog and just as I described here, yesterday. As could be expected, some people are already expressing negative opinions about the keyboard-less design. Maybe they’re just surprised. But I can’t help but think that designing the device without a hardware keyboard is an important step toward radically creative thinking. Several aspects of the XO-1 were very innovative and could be described as “creative solutions to important problems.” But the shift to a keyboard-free device is closer to “creating a new device category.” Of course I’m biased but I do think this new device category can have game-changing implications. The fact that the device is much smaller and more specifically designed as an eBook also goes with this “new device category” idea. At the risk of belabouring the point, the XOXO is almost exactly what I had in mind last night as “handheld for the rest of us.”

I’m also glad that this radical shift in design explicitly relates to cultural awareness. What I mean is, the OLPC team is actually saying that the double-screen will be used for diverse (on-screen) “keyboards.” If I hadn’t thought of the same thing myself, I would call it “genius!”

Now, to go back to the notion of feeling eerily prescient. I can wash the feeling away by myself. I’ve written a number of things about possible features for the OLPC or other devices and the lack of keyboard seems to be the only one which stuck. In fact, although I did think about a Nintendo-like dual-screen system at several points, I didn’t write it down as a prediction or even a part of my wishlist.

Keyboard-less devices are rather common, these days. Apart from the Nintendo DS and DS Lite that people are using as a point of comparison for the XOXO, there are several (multi-)touch based devices out there which may have served as inspiration for both the OLPC redesign and my own dream. In fact, some rumours seem to indicate that Apple might release a dual-screen portable at some point, maybe with double-sided panels. I, for one, would say that such a design would make the long-rumoured Apple tablet much more practical. In other words: I wasn’t prescient, in the OLPC case, I just dreamt up what was the most logical next step.

Also, it’s possible that I read or heard something which made me think specifically of a keyboard-less OLPC. I kind of doubt it and I don’t really want to look for such an occurrence, but now that I know that it was already planned, I admit that I may have seen some mention of the keyboard-less design.

[Edit, May 21, 1:20 a.m.: Apparently, the International Herald Tribune had already published a preview of the device by Friday, May 16. I'm pretty sure I had seen nothing of that IHT preview and I really don't think I was able to see any description of a dual-screen XO by the time I posted my blog entry and other comments about a keyboard-less XO. But the fact that it was, somehow, in the open makes me more suspicious of my own intuitions.]

Sheesh!

OLPC Linkfest

I’m still giving Diigo.com a try, so this is partly an excuse to try out the “send to blog” feature.
These are selected links to blogposts and articles about issues related to the One Laptop Per Child project, with my embedded annotations.

• graphpaper.com - Challenge: If You Can’t Say Something Nice about OLPC…

  tags: OLPC

  • Thoughtful and culturally aware criticism of the the top-down approach used in designing the OLPC XO and its Sugar interface. - post by enkerli

• The Fonly Institute: Problems with the $100 laptop

  tags: OLPC

  • Early critique of the OLPC project. Thoughtful, level-headed, prescient. - post by enkerli

• Create Digital Music » OLPC’s Sugar and Music Learning: Education, Not OS, is the Point

  tags: OLPC

  • Let’s use Sugar to create cool music tools which will help in learning. - post by enkerli

• OLPC News: OLPC Unveiling of the Next Generation XO Laptop

  tags: olpc

  • Will we see major changes in the XO-2? - post by enkerli

• Thoughts from Tomi: Getting the right attention

  tags: OLPC

  • Thinking about the OLPC legacy. - post by enkerli

• The OLPC project and competition | John Carroll | ZDNet.com

  tags: OLPC

  • Did the OLPC project welcome competition, or not? Depends on which OLPC person you talk to. - post by enkerli

• Perspective 2.0: The emperor has designer clothes

  tags: OLPC

  • Discussion of the relationship between the design approach used and the lukewarm adoption of the OLPC XO. - post by enkerli

• Literacy before laptops | Comment is free - Annotated

  tags: OLPC

  • The tone of the main article seems fairly appropriate, in my mind. Take home message of “let’s move on to the more important issues?” - post by enkerli
  • collapse of a well-meaning computer scheme
    • Sounds harsh but is actually quite realistic. In fact, the “well-meaning” part depends on individuals’ actual intentions, a tricky subject. - post by enkerli
  • implosion
  • great masters of technological hype
    • Though partly sarcastic, a recognition of Negroponte’s talent. - post by enkerli
  • endorsed
  • constructionism
  • expensive gimmick
    • OLPC members keep getting defensive at comments like these but the fact that the Indian government found the device expensive points to a disconnect in the ways the device has been perceived in different parts of the world. - post by enkerli
  • no evidence at all that they will actually help
    • Even if evidence is available to OLPC members, it has not been presented publicly. Evidence-based research needs not be incompatible with non-profit efforts. - post by enkerli
  • article of faith
    • Addressing the religious fervor with which some technology enthusiasts have been defending their ideas. “These effects are real because we say they are.” - post by enkerli
  • learn about computers
    • Though it’s not always a well-acknowledged point, the OLPC project’s goal was, in a way, to transform children abroad into something which could serve in “our” workforce. “Neocolonialism” is one way to put it. - post by enkerli
  • don’t try to bypass the adult world
    • Probably because of a “childhood is sacred” ideology, the OLPC project effectively sought to widen the generation gap in communities where they have been active. This seems quite detrimental to community-building but may, in fact, help in turning group solidarity into socially mobile individuals. Neo-liberals and neo-conservatives tend to like these types of social changes. - post by enkerli
  • end up back in the mainstream computer industry

• ScribeMedia.Org | This is Not a Toy: The Little Computer That Could

  tags: OLPC

  • Behar’s enthusiastic presentation of some of the OLPC XO-1’s neatest features. The enthusiasm may be communicative but is it as strong as the Reality Distortion Field? - post by enkerli

• Lounge: OLPC and Constructionism

  tags: OLPC

  • Moodle thread on constructionism motivated by my knee-jerk reactions to what I perceived as dismissive anti-constructionist and anti-constructivist backlash in comments about the OLPC. - post by enkerli

• Twenty-four hours with my OLPC « Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird

  tags: OLPC

  • Allegedly a harsh criticism but more of a thoughtful review of design issues with the OLPC. - post by enkerli

• Asustek’s move to rival OLPC a ‘poor strategy’ | Mobile Handset DesignLine

  tags: OLPC

  • Maybe a poor strategy, but it seems to have worked better for Asustek than for OLPC. - post by enkerli

• OLPC News: When Constructivism Hits the Road

  tags: OLPC

  • Despite the snarky comments about “constructionism”/”constructivism” being “mixed up,” Ploskonka’s piece comes from an interesting perspective. Just noticed Ploskonka lives in Austin, where I was living until recently. Just - post by enkerli

• The Face of the $100 Laptop

  tags: OLPC

  • Some relatively early statements defending the top-down approach to design. (”You just do it right.”) - post by enkerli

• Perspective 2.0: Education and mobile phones: a whole world in your hands

  tags: OLPC

  • Cellphones, leapfrog, and education: the more you think about it with a fresh perspective, the more you imagine possibilities. Why is it that so many people dismiss cellphones as learning tools? - post by enkerli

• What’s in the Water at OLPC? | Linux Journal

  tags: OLPC

  • Straightforward summary of recent events surrounding former members of the OLPC team. - post by enkerli