{"id":990,"date":"2007-01-04T08:50:57","date_gmt":"2007-01-04T16:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2007\/01\/rethinking_a_window_to_the_wor\/"},"modified":"2007-01-04T08:50:57","modified_gmt":"2007-01-04T16:50:57","slug":"rethinking_a_window_to_the_wor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/rethinking_a_window_to_the_wor.php","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking a window to the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are so many fascinating things about the One Laptop per Child<\/a> project, which is working to bring durable, wireless, portable computers to millions of children in the third world. These new machines can only be ordered in quantities of one million or more, usually by governments (like Rwanda<\/a> or Libya<\/a>). And the nonprofit project is ready to begin mass production as soon as their orders reach 5 to 10 million.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>The challenge of constructing a cheap and durable computer<\/a>, designed for harsh conditions and continued use in places that often lack reliable electrical power, is fascinating enough. The implications if the project succeeds could be transformational.<\/p>\n

Of particular interest to the cultural world, however, is the machine’s operating system (trust me on this one). Instead of using Windows or Macintosh software, the developers of the laptop are designing an entirely new user interface, with their audience in mind — third world children and their teachers. Where most of us shuffle around our ‘desktop’ and through our ‘folders’ and ‘files’, the XO system (as it is now called) is designed around the user and his or her ‘friends’ and ‘neighborhood,’ facilitating collaboration and shared experience at every step (there’s an article on the new system<\/a> in the Washington Post<\/i>, and an interesting video demo<\/a> on YouTube).<\/p>\n

Why is an operating system for third-world children interesting to arts and cultural managers? Consider this: The computer operating system is becoming the predominant way many of us interact with the world — through e-mail, through the web, through our spreadsheets, word processor files, and graphics. In essence, operating systems define the metaphors we use to access and organize our thoughts, our expressions, our relationships, and our connections to the thoughts and expressions of others.<\/p>\n

While the ‘desktop’ has been the default metaphor for the past 20 years (since Apple swiped an original idea from Xerox<\/a> for the first Macintosh computer), it’s an increasingly odd and anachronistic one. How many of our kids use file folders anymore..especially nested folders? And, in the age of instant messaging and live chat, what proportion of their computer time is related to documents or files, or to work they do alone ”at their desk”?<\/p>\n

In essence, the current computer operating systems reflect a past generation’s way of being in the world, and a traditional view of what computers are intended to do. The fact that at least one company is radically rethinking this interface is massively important to anyone involved in arts and culture. The thought that the new system could be in millions of young hands around the world should only underscore the point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are so many fascinating things about the One Laptop per Child project, which is working to bring durable, wireless, portable computers to millions of children in the third world. These new machines can only be ordered in quantities of one million or more, usually by governments (like Rwanda or Libya). And the nonprofit project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}