RYNSA: WORDS

This coming Sunday, June 1st (which is tomorrow), the newly-established One Laptop Per Child, Australia crew will be hosting a conference in Sydney. I’ve got another volunteer opportunity this weekend (more on that in another post), which makes getting to New South Wales virtually impossible. Otherwise, I’d probably be there. Maybe. I don’t know… meh.

My hesitancy stems form the fact that OLPC News (among others–TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Engadget), has been reporting on what appears to be a major shift in OLPC values. It seems that Nicholas Negroponte–the co-founder of the MIT Media Lab and the proverbial grandfather of the OLPC project–has agreed to align himself and the initiative with Microsoft. The new generation of OLPC laptops will all include simplified versions of Windows XP.

The problem here, of course, is that this will happen at the expense of Sugar Labs, the newly-formed company that created the educational, open-source, GNU/Linux-based operating system that currently lives, albeit temporarily, on the OLPC XO 1. Moreover, this is a relatively clear departure from the stated constructionist mission of the whole OLPC project in that the use of proprietary software (Windows XP) subjects children, it is sometimes said, to “a regime of social control.” Windows, which makes up over 90% of all operating systems in use worldwide, represents a more hierarchical, capitalistic, top-down instructionism. Or at least that’s what the OLPC fans are saying online. 

Honestly, I’m on the fence about all this. The idealism behind Sugar, etc., is certainly admirable, but it may be a little foolish in the face of global poverty. There’s a tendency in the privileged world (ie, the United States) to confuse techy, middle-class intellectual discussions with reality. I would venture to suggest, however, that the heated debates taking place online now have very little to do with the impoverishment experienced everyday in the ‘developing’ world. Trying to choose between constructionism and instructionism, for instance, is a radically different bargain than choosing between your child’s education and food for the family.

My understanding here, also, is that the OLPC project moved towards XP precisely because poor countries were demanding it. Whether correct or not, government and community leaders in the ‘developing’ world felt that independent, open-source software like Sugar’s wouldn’t be as useful as XP. They wanted their youth to learn on an operating system that was considered ’standard’ around the globe, and common to practices within business, government, education, NGO, etc., of wealthier countries.

Despite the fact that it emboldens Microsoft’s monopoly, and contradicts the premise of the open-source OLPC project, I can’t blame the disenfranchized and impoverished for wanting XP. They are making pragmatic decisions that reflect difficult, real-world circumstances. In this regard, I suppose I would rather protect and promote the rights of marginalized people to make (potentially) bad decisions, than force-feed them an idea that may not be useful. I mean, the technology isn’t as important as the people.

However this conflict is resolved within the OLPC community, I do think it behooves social justice activists to educate themselves simultaneously about technological alternatives and real-world contexts. Not every good idea is a workable one. Were it so, we’d have discarded with neoliberalism a long damn time ago.

Today I started a week-long volunteer gig at the North Richmond Community Health Centre (notice the inverted the ‘er’), a well-known free/inexpensive health clinic in a predominantly low-income and minority neighborhood.  It’s a temporary position whereby myself and a handful of other civic-minded locals, including Xu Yan, donate our personal time to distribute and administer questionnaires to clinic patrons.  Ostensibly, the surveys are intended to serve as a kind of quality assurance review against poor public health care; it’s a series of questions, required by the state, which try to gauge user satisfaction, knowledge, etc.  According to my supervisor, however, there is an ulterior motive: to prove to certain unnamed governing bodies–in real, quantitative terms–that there is indeed a value for this sort of social welfare program in North Richmond. 

Given the close proximity of the center to our house, Yan and I figured it wouldn’t be such a burden to throw a few hours their way.  I’ve been encouraging Yan (and myself) to think of our current unemployment as an opportunity.  My professor at the VCA has said on a number of occasions, “You’re time rich, if not money rich.”  Admitedly, this kind of thinking only goes so far in capitalistic societies like Australia (you gotta pay the rent), but I appreciate the sentiment none the less.

It turns out, I really like hearing people’s stories.  Asking questions, soliciting survey participants, etc., it was all very exciting and invigorating.  My Spanish and Mandarin leave much to be desired, of course, and my Aussie-English is weak, but generally speaking people responded kindly to me and my American sensibilities.  Every now and then we’d come across a guy with a terrible tooth ache or something, get rebuffed, and then have to slink back to our corner of the lobby.  But that was definitely a rarity.  Most folks, regardless of their background, like having their voices heard, if even through a three-page questionnaire.

Also, the NRCHC serves an especially diverse group of people.  The clinic is situated in a series of high-rise projects (what the Aussies antiseptically call ‘public housing’), and its inhabitants naturally reflect a wide variety of ages, languages, cultures, and nationalities.  Most come from East-Asia (China, Vietnam, etc.), but I also ran across some Italians, Greeks, Timorese, Indonesians, Sudanese, all kinds of Aussie natives, and one single-mother from Syria–a vibrant young woman who, upon hearing my accent, promptly disparaged president Bush and then implored me to visit Syria whenever possible.  ”We’re good!  We’re good people,” she said while nursing her young son.  

Yes, ma’am.  You are good people.