$100 notebook in Thailand finds its end

Thannews covers a story about the plan to cease $100 notebook (or One Laptop One Child – OPLC) in Thailand. The new ICT minister of the junta government said he doesn’t believe that the project would work. If the government would want to buy a computer for kids, the quality/performance should be better than that, not just like a “toy“.

The $100 notebook deal was done during Thaksin’s second term. The plan was the government will subsidize the computer and distribute to students throughout the country. However, the new government still has an idea to develop its own scheme for low cost computer.

Based on Kamthorn, a Thai OLPC team member who has been working on localization of the laptop, claimed that the team has not had a chance to explain about the project to the new minister. He also discusses about the myths about the project based on the article from Thannews (which sources are primarily commercial vendors).

For instance, the OLPC computer is just a thin client, not fully function computer. They lack of content to put in the laptops. It seems likely that the laptop does not increase productivity, etc.

Welcome to Thailand, a land of egonomy.

[via Noi’s Life and Thought]