The One Laptop per Child project, aiming to provide ruggedized, networkable laptops built on open technology to children in the developing world, has had its share of detractors and controversies.

Slashdot carries a story today on the heated discussion surrounding the use of proprietary parts on the device, specifically the Marvell chip used to provide power-efficient mesh networking. Heated on the part of Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD infame, that is. But what I want to mention is the issue of budgeting, with Argentina as the case study.

The cost-ineffectiveness of providing a laptop to every child in a country such as Argentina, let alone the poorer developing countries, is predicated on the assumption that the central government would shoulder the entire cost burden of providing the machines. This is rather improbable. There is the financial consideration, and also the usage scenarios for these machines: Either they are provided to students on a temporary basis (during class time, perhaps) or they are assigned to students permanently.

If the former, then there is no need to provide one laptop per child, just that each child has access to one in class. Much like how "personal" computers are used in education in most K12 education system, even in the developed world.

If the latter, then surely students are expected to bear at least part of the cost. Especially if they will be encouraged to tinker with the machines, and learn at first hand how modern computers work. Encouraging this without also inculcating a sense of personal responsibility probably would not be a very good idea - most of us probably could remember taking apart the family radio, and not being able to put it back together. Or damaging dad's car while learning how to drive. (Insert your own life story here). The point is, without a sense of private ownership those assigned the machines might be a bit more reckless with them, which is bad both for pedagogical reasons and also for its effect on support cost.

Is the OLPC going to bring world peace, end hunger and stop global warming? Of course not. Does it have its uses? Yes, definitely.