Podcast dissects why OLPC's $100 laptop dream fell short
A new episode of Version History examines why the ambitious One Laptop Per Child initiative and its XO-1 device failed to deliver a computer to every child in the world.
In the mid-2000s, a group of Silicon Valley thinkers and executives pitched an ambitious idea: give every child on the planet access to a computer. That vision became the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative and its purpose-built XO-1 laptop, designed to be distributed for free. But according to a new episode of the podcast Version History, the project turned out to be far more complicated than its creators anticipated.
Host David Pierce is joined in the episode by The Verge's Adi Robertson and tech journalist David Imel. Together they discuss why OLPC didn't work out as planned, whether the XO-1's design held any lasting lessons, and whether a computer-giveaway effort like it could ever succeed today.
A season touring school tech icons
The episode is part of Version History's fifth season, which has been touring iconic pieces of educational technology found in schools. Earlier episodes featured the lead game designer behind Oregon Trail and a discussion of how much The Verge's Nilay Patel loved his TI-82 graphing calculator.
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