TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘Wayan Vota’ Category

By Wayan Vota, Editor of the unofficial OLPC News

If you are in Boston on May 20th, may I strongly suggest you crash the invite-only “State of the State” event at One Laptop Per Child headquarters at 1 Cambridge Circle. Starting at 10 am the event sounds like its going to be a watershed moment in OLPC history. Just listen to the breathless press invite:

“Selected invitees will have the opportunity to hear Nicholas Negroponte give a “State of the State” address on the One Laptop per Child project to date and the evolution of the XO laptop. In addition, attendees will be privy to a discussion on the product roadmap for the XO along with the exclusive unveiling of the next generation of the XO.

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By David Rothman

Oh how I’d hate it if TeleRead weren’t a global e-book blog. Where would we be without posts from Branko Collin in Amsterdam or others such as Carol Jurd in Adelaide or Ficbot in Toronto—or, now, Richard Herley, the prize-winning novelist whose essays reach us from a village in the Hampshire Downs in the U.K., an area shown in the photo?

But no course requirements, no academic details, bedevil us. What about institutions? How can degrees be more similar in a number of places—not just Europe or the United States but also cash-strapped developing countries? And can open source software and the right library resources, including, yes, well-stocked national digital library systems, help? Not to mention OLPC-style computers and variants that can display e-books well.

The World in Your Library conference

Such topics will come up Friday at an all-day conference called The World in Your Library: International Users and International Librarians: Enriching the Academic Experience, and I’ll be among the speakers along with another name familiar to TeleBlog regulars, Wayan Vota of OLPC News. If you’ll be attending and want to say hello, just shoot me an e-mail. Wayan and I will be part of a 3-4:30 p.m. program and demo XOs afterwards, although we’ll be there all day. Beyond the librarians, I’m also looking forward to meeting Josh Gay of the Free Software Foundation. The event is part of the LACUNY Institute series from the Library Association of the City University of New York.

Where the TeleBlog is weak: We need more contributors from developing countries, such as David Ajao, who wrote about e-books on mobile phones in Africa. E-mail me if you’re working to popularize e-books there and want to write about successes—or challenges.

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By Wayan Vota, Editor of the unofficial OLPC News

Moderator’s note: So will MLJ do a dedicated e-book reader? In early ‘92 I predicted that we’d eventually see a $50 e-book tablet with some multi-use compatibilities. Hey, we’re getting there! - D.R.

Mary Lou Jepsen (almost) single-handedly made One Laptop Per Child’s XO Laptop a reality. She has every right to brag to Groklaw that:

“When I started in January 2005, many people thought [OLPC] was a joke, including Craig Barrett and Bill Gates. I took it from that stage—just an idea of a $100 laptop—through invention, design and partnering and to delivery.

The laptop is in high volume mass production, it’s the lowest cost laptop ever made, the lowest power laptop ever made, it’s the greenest laptop ever made, it’s the only sunlight-readable laptop on the market,”

And now it’s looking like she left OLPC just in time to start Pixel Qi, a company she founded to commercialize OLPC technology.

The self-described “hardware chick” is going to sell cutting-edge technology to rich notebook computer buyers to support better educations in poor countries:

“I’ve created a licensing structure where OLPC and the children of the world benefit through me licensing the technology. I happen to be the inventor as well, but I’m not getting access to the IP by virtue of being its inventor.”

Now guess what her first goal is with all that clock-stopping hot technology at her fingertips? Nothing more that a visual revolution across all digital technology:

Pixel Qi is currently pursuing the $75 laptop, while also aiming to bring sunlight readable, low-cost and low-power screens into mainstream laptops, cellphones and digital cameras.

Nokia, sign this woman up! I love me my N95, but I can’t even imagine how cool it would be “Jepsenized”!

My only disappointment is that without her to Jepsenize One Laptop Per Child, I expect we’ll have more Negropontisms—announcements of technology achievements proven to be fantasy.

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By Paul Biba

I just received this email from Fictionwise a few minutes ago:

Fictionwise is committed to supporting every major eBook device, and this week we’re proud to announce that all MultiFormat eBooks at Fictionwise are now available for the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader. This is even true of MultiFormat eBooks you bought in the past!

For Sony Reader just select “Sony Reader (LRF)” and for Kindle select “Kindle (AZW)” from the MultiFormat download menu!

Kindle customers can even register their Kindle email address at Fictionwise and upload wirelessly with a single click from their bookshelf! (Amazon’s 10 cent wireless charges apply.) For complete details on how to set this up, click here.

Here are a few items from the FAQ mentioned in the last link:

Which eBooks From Fictionwise Work on My Kindle?

All of our MultiFormat eBooks work on Kindle, other than a small number marked “Limited MultiFormat”. Check the Available eBook Formats section of any MultiFormat eBook description page to be sure. As of December 2007, over 15,000 MultiFormat titles are available for Kindle.

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By Wayan Vota, Editor of the unofficial OLPC News

Well, it only took one day and we already have OLPC eBay sales. Overeager eBay seller Galactic Merchant is hoping that foreign buyers will pay him $500+ for an XO laptop:

This is to make the laptop available to other people around the world that cannot get the laptop from www.laptopgiving.org. I will be accepting orders until Nov 26 or as long as I see it feasable for me to fulfill the orders. The extra cost is to pay for my expenses (shipping % handling) and my time.

Now I personally think a $100 markup on top of the tax deduction Galactic Merchant will get is a little cheeky, even for me. Especially since overseas buyers can use the OLPC News international orders workaround for just $20+ shipping extra, and get my personal help if there is a problem.

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By Wayan Vota, Editor of the unofficial OLPC News

Just as I predicted, One Laptop per Child’s G1G1 donation/sale of XO laptops is selling out fast by the looks of the day’s left countdown difference on the Give 1 Get 1 main page:

That’s right, in less than 12 hours, OLPC has already sold three days worth of CO computers to geek enthusiasts all across the USA and Canada. While North Americans have Give Many experiences to tell, smart Europeans and Asians, and many other “cans” are taking G1G1 globally with OLPC News.

No matter where you are, you better Give One Get One while you can. And OLPC News recommends you skip the telemarketers and order directly from OLPC via the web.

More Give One Get One links:

• My OLPC XO is Ordered - The Buying Experience
• OLPC G1G1 Telephone Order Confusion Backup Plan
• How to G1G1 XO-1 in Europe, Asia, Africa & Americas
• Give One Get One Has Started!!
• OLPC XO-1 Give One Get One Gets Better!
• My Unanswered Questions About OLPC’s Give One Get One
• Unintended Consequences of OLPC’s G1G1 Sales of XO Laptops
• Why Give One XO-1 When You Can Donate 1,000 or 10,000?!
• Why OLPC’s Give One Get One Will Sell Out Fast!
• One Laptop Per Child’s G1G1 XO Plan is Punting to the Pilots
• G1G1 Backstory: Negroponte Admits Sales Defeat & Rebounds
• OLPC Give 1 Get 1 Program: XO-1 Laptop USA Sales!!!
• Americans Want to Help One Laptop Per Child

Moderator’s note: The TeleBlog welcomes Wayan Vota of OLPC News—former director of the Geek Corps—as a contributor. In the other direction, some TeleBlog items will start showing up in Wayan’s publication. The XO, which Wayan follows closely enough for 60 Minutes to have interviewed him on the topic, is of special interest to Robert Nagle and me because of its promise as an e-book machine that can help bridge the Digital Divide—both globally and domestically. Robert, too, will be writing on OLPC and is starting an XO-related club in Houston. We’ve both ordered XOs, and I’ll be selling my Sony Reader and Nokia 770 to stay solvent (details to come in a separate post; prospective buyers welcome to make inquiries). No reflection on either machine! Sooner or later I’ll be buying newer models of both. Robert is keeping his Sony and Nokia. - DR

Technorati Tags: XO , OLPC , One Laptop Per Child , Give One Get One

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