John Watlington, CTO of OLPC shares the secret behind the technology that allows thousands of people in the developing world that have access to computers.
The Technology Behind OLPC – John Watlington at TEDxTaipei 2011
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Tag Archives: TEDx
Learning how to learn – Rodrigo Arboleda at TEDxCMU
Rodrigo Arboleda is Chairman and CEO of One Laptop Per Child Association (OLPCA), a not-for-profit entity seeking to provide equal opportunity of access to knowledge to small children in Developing Nations and in some communities within the USA. OLPCA’s mission focuses on socio-economic and cultural change via education, with primary interest in children of 3 years and up. Arboleda is in charge of worldwide operational issues related to the project. More than 2,700,000 laptops have been distributed so far to children in 41 countries and in 21 languages including many indigenous languages. Arboleda has been also a Visiting Scholar at the Media Lab of MIT, where he worked on the Digital Nations Consortium project and on the Education for Peace initiative, E4P. He has served also as a Board Member of the 2B1 Foundation, which made possible some of the projects developed at the Media Lab. He was born in Medellin, Colombia and completed his Bachelor Degree in Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1965.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Rodrigo Arboleda at TEDxCMU
Some of the brightest minds at Carnegie Mellon University and beyond gathered together on campus recently, ready to take their turn on stage. More than 450 attendees appreciatively took it all in, at the fourth annualTEDxCMU event.
This year’s theme was ‘Spark.’
“Our goal is to inspire each and every one of our 450-plus attendees — to create a spark of ideas that will spread, and ignite people’s minds with brilliance,” said Ketaki Desai, master of public management student at CMU’s Heinz College, and president of this year’s event. The team built their list of speakers based on several factors, including subject matter and passion. They assembled both men and women from diverse fields that would best represent the CMU population.
Rodrigo Arboleda: chairman and CEO of One Laptop Per Child Association, a not-for-profit that has distributed more than 2.7 million laptops to children in 41 countries, was one of the featured speakers. At the end of his presentation he received a standing ovation.
Rasha Hussein shares her journey with OLPC in Ramallah
Rasha Hussein writes on the TEDx Ramallah blog about her journey with OLPC and PaleXO over the past year in Ramallah, and how she was welcomed to the group by Noura Salhi and found friends and collaborators, and inspiration to join a new startup (Bazinga) with others from that group.
I learned the true meaning of voluntary work, and I felt awesome about what I do. It’s been a year now, and it was the best year of my life!
Kudos to her for sharing this experience. For more about the Bazinga technology hub, you can also follow them on twitter.
If you have been involved with an olpc project in your community, let us know what it was like — we would love to hear from you.
TEDxRio : Rodrigo on OLPC and viewing children as our future
Rodrigo Arboleda spoke about OLPC at TEDxRio this week to a crowd of 800, with 7000 people watching online. The conference was a big hit in the Brazilian blogosphere, and one of the top trending topics in the world that day. TEDx has really captured the essence of TED without much of the overhead, and it’s great to see it flourish. Everyone there felt they were discussing how to contribute to human knowledge and development, and they left wondering how they could follow up on the event in more rural parts of the country – a great audience for an olpc talk.
The session will be up online soon, and you should watch it; for now, an image from the floor:
"Children are a mission, not a market"
Schools without schools
Nicholas talked about Schools without schools and children as agents of change at TEDx Brussels in 2010. Children can grow up with a wealth of learning and skills that we cannot imagine today.