DailySpotlight

For writing my thesis, I managed to schedule some interviews with people who are working on or promoting ICT as an enhancer for development. Consequently, I had the opportunity to meet very passionate and fascinating people. My meeting with Thierry Devars, Responsible of the international relations at the Information Society and Media DG (European Commission), was one of the most informative and transparent I ever had. M. Devars was a very good educationalist and we talked almost two hours about development issues. I thank him for all his advice, and for his frankness. Listening to him convinced me more than never, that ICT and development were very relevant topics, and that the future of emerging countries, specially Africa, will be closely related to these issues.

The other meeting I would like to talk about, was the one which allowed me to touch and use the controversial XO computer, made by the One Laptop Per Child foundation. As you may know, the main mission of this NGO founded by Nicolas Negroponte (MIT), consist in bringing education to rural areas in developing countries, thanks to a low-cost computer, initially priced at US$100. Finally the XO is more expensive than expected US$180, but it is a great educative tool. I wanted to personally test it to make my one opinion on this device.

So, I contacted the OLPC Europe headquarter to plan an interview and a review of this amazing computer. It is Giulia D’Amico, Development Director at OLPC Europe, a very bright (she worked for the World Bank) and friendly person, who answered all my questions and proposed me a meeting at OLPC Europe to use the XO. I have to admit that I was impressed by this little device, which is designed to resist to dust, heat and humidity. The Graphic User Interface (GUI) was not the best I knew, but the XO educational potential is not a myth. The possibilities of learning new languages, reading books (100 ebooks in each device), expressing creative skills are huge. The connectivity seems good to me, and the performance correct. And last but not least, the XO is very, very simple. I just think that the content and all the environment around this project (teachers education, services, maintenance, etc.) should be more localized and conceived according to what final users (children in developing countries) really need.

Thanks to all the OLPC Europe team and specially to Isobel Amonoo Neizer, Africa Liaison Officer, who explain me during my guided tour how works the XO.

Most of you probably do not know him, but the man who are on this photo with me is Marc Davis, the Chief Scientist of Yahoo! Connected Life. He did a really fascinating presentation about current and future progress in the social network technologies, during the New Industrial World Forum in Paris (october 3th & 4th). I really appreciate his keynote and his californian accent. From the few I knew about him, he seems to be a nice guy and a very brilliant scientist who studied in the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Have a discussion with this kind of people is always rewarding. By the way, thanks for the coffee, Mr Davis.

Microsoft works on the "multitouch screens" technology since 2001... so as you can notice Apple is not the only company involved in this "touchy" trend. To tell the truth the Microsoft "Surface" table does not use exactly the same technology as the iPhone and obviously the applications are different. Anyway I'm rather convinced by this expensive high-tech table (more or less 10 000$) and I really think this another example of multitouch screen shows how going to evolve computers in a very closed future... Did not you find that exciting?

Microsoft Surface (Official website)

As I said it in my first post, I really like Apple. But for some complicated reasons which I won't explain here (that will take too much time), my brand new computer it's a HP laptop run by Windows Vista, and you know what? If I had the choice I would prefer to buy this pretty good PC with the old but venerable Windows XP. Without a doubt!!! Indeed, I expected to be disappointed by vista after having a tried out Mac OS X and after hearing so many good opinions about the Apple's UNIX based-system. But not quiet to this extent!

I don't know why this operating system is so slow on quite a good configuration (Core 2 Duo T5200 1,60Ghz and 1Gb of RAM, Geforce Go 7400, HDD 160 Go 5400-rpm). I don't understand why it has been so unstable ever since the first day I switched on my computer and I would like to know why Internet explorer freezes all the time. Maybe I just need to update my system, but anyway my first impressions are already negative... And now I have a question for HP : why do you install so many useless and commercial softwares which are not necessary for everyone. Mainly as some of them are just demo versions and just pollute the system.

Sorry, but as usual the Apple bundle software delivered with all Macs is much cleverer and clearly more efficient than their competitors. Indeed, the « iLife family » is the best way to make multimedia creation accessible for the majority (who can afford to buy a Mac :-) without any limitations on its functions or performance.

Now I already know what I want for my birthday. I really expect that Apple will introduce a new laptop design for next year (a brand new Macbook in aluminium would be great). If any of my good friends read these lines, they know what they have to do on the 11th April 2008...

Windows XP outshines Vista in benchmarking test

Windows Vista loin derrière XP en termes de performances

Windows Vista in the worst tech products Top ten of Crave Magazine (cent)