By now everybody who pays attention to the UMPC space knows that the original OLPC project has had more problems with credibility and ambiguity than a mumbling insurance salesman. Every time I look into what they're doing there are yet more disclaimers, restatements, and frantic bits of spin to wade through.
Now, I recognize that they've taken on a Herculean task and I recognize that the very existence of things like the EEE PC and the MSI Wind makes the OLPC project a roaring success. But it would be a hell of a lot easier to take them seriously if they would do one thing. Add a couple of counters to their home page:
- Number of laptops delivered.
- Number currently in service (Remember, some countries tried them out and then sent them back).
- Number paid for (not pledged, not announced, the number for which cold, negotiable cash has been transferred to OLPC back accounts).
This isn't rocket science. Or at least it shouldn't be if they have actually done the kind of bottomline-oriented reorg they have several times now claimed to have done. Just give us those three numbers, updated every week or so and accurate. No disclaimers, no "well, but really you should be thinking of…", no waffling. Simply that simple measure put out there so that those of us out here can address the question: so for all the talk, how many kids out there are really using this thing?
From everything I've read, I'll betcha that not only do their decisionmakers not know those numbers but that there would be considerable hostility and obstructionism within the organization towards anybody who tried to create a trustworthy means for tracking them. Which, to me, says all that needs to be said about how much they can be trusted to ever reach anything like their potential.
After all, being a think tank is great, as far as it goes, but, as Steve Jobs said, real artists ship.
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