Thanks for the amazing comments  & pointers ! My $0.02 on some of the replies

1. Peripherals & true cost

A lot of people have pointed out the fact that the RPi is only 25$ just for the cpu.
Adding RAM, display, mouse, k/b will balloon up the costs.

 a. To this, i would like to argue the notion of a platform.
    once a platform becomes available, the community builds tons of awesome things (sw & hw peripherals) for the platform to make a kickass ecosystem.
e.g. when successful platforms (e.g. fb, iphone ,android,xbox,sony ps, kinect, twitter, etc) 1st came out, nobody could imagine, the massive #of community efforts (e.g. apps) that will pour in.

But as with all platforms, predicting success of a new platform is very hard & kind of a chicken & egg problem - Does the platform have to gain enough adoption for it to drive the ecosystem
OR
does enough of a ecosystem have to sprout to drive the platform's adoption ?

b. To build a PC out of RPi, at a min., you need a display, mouse & k/b.
I can imagine lets say if govt./org X decides to use RPi for a large scale project, they could build a non-profit coalition comprising display makers(samsung), k/b & mouse makers which would supply low-cost displays, k/bs & mice.

2. I completely *get* the notion that innovative & exciting techology in itself is not going to solve any of society's problems.
I find myself in complete agreement with ICTD pioneer Kentaro's viewpoints on this topic & his brilliant articulation " technology only amplifies human intent and capacity"
On education he says "Technology at best only amplifies the pedagogical capacity of educational systems; it can make good schools better, but it makes bad schools worse." [I] His TEDxTokyo talk on this issue is here  [II]

3. The Indian Aakash tablet

I am curious to know if Kentaro/others are familiar with details of the Aakash project.
One thing that bugs me is that of all the educational devices projects worldwide, the OLPC is probably the most mature & has the "best" hardware.
I read on the Aakash wiki page [III], " After the device was unveiled, OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte offered full access to OLPC technology at no cost to the Indian team."
I wonder if the Aakash could have much better design & specs, if they had truly collaborated with OLPC.


I.   http://edutechdebate.org/ict-in-schools/there-are-no-technology-shortcuts-to-good-education/
II.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxutDM2r534 
III. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aakash_(tablet)#cite_note-15


 


On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 12:50 AM, James Gray <grayje@uw.edu> wrote:
> The cognitive gymnastics are a bit easier to master if you start early, as
> with language acquisition and mathematics literacy. The skill is also
> relatively location-agnostic; even crud-level freelancing jobs correspond to
> a comfortable living in many places.
>
> But there's a lot of value to cheap computing beyond "become a programmer,"

> I don't think that's even the primary value of this trend. For example,
> Stephen Vick gave a talk recently on work they're doing to improve quality
> and traceability for coffee farmers. Just dropping a laptop into the process
> to record and track data had a big impact, but the cost is infeasible if the
> program wasn't providing it. $25(ish) computer which can do the same tasks?
> Yes please!
>
> James
>
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