Recent Transcriptions/LCM grad featured in Wired
Sunday, March 15th, 2009Priya Ganapti, “$12 Computer: Playpower Wants to Save the World 8 Bits at a Time,” Wired (March 11, 2009)
“The Apple II computer is long gone, but its heart beats on in the developing world, where 8-bit computers sell for as little as $12. Now, computer scientists see a way of using those ubiquitous, primitive PCs to help kids learn — by playing games. “It is about bringing affordable computer learning to the 90 percent of learners in the world who can’t afford a $1,000 or even a $100 computer,” says Derek Lomas, who is leading the Playpower.org team. The project, first talked about last year, is gathering steam. Lomas and his partners are talking to manufacturing partners in China to produce the $12 systems, which are based on cheap computers already sold throughout the developing world. Some of the computers will be sold through Maker Shed, the e-commerce arm of Make magazine in the United States, while the rest will be distributed through non-profit partners in developing countries. And the Playpower team has collaborated with other groups in the 8-bit computer hacking community to help build educational software for the computers….”Rather than figure out how we can create a cultural niche for a $10 computer, we thought: Let’s identify the systems that are affordable and in demand, and put them to work,” says Jeremy Douglass, co-founder of Playpower.org.”
Jeremy Douglass (UCSB 2007; UCSD posdoctoral researcher in software studies)