The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘olpc’

I was pretty bullish on the One Laptop Per Child program for quite some time, and even participated in the ‘Buy One Give One’ program.

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One Kindle per child: who are they helping?

The One Laptop Per Child project has seen mixed success. With competition from similar, but more familiar-looking items from Intel and others, the OLPC found itself suddenly competing in a market it had no intention of entering. But they’re out there, they’ve had some serious orders, and despite some other speed bumps, has certainly lent a hand in increasing computer literacy in the developing world.

You may remember that the sequel to the XO laptop, as the OLPC hardware was actually called, was spied at Davos in January after its initial debut in May of 2008. It was noted at the time that there was some doubt as to whether it would be made, and now those doubts have come to glorious anti-fruition. The XO-2 is dead — but only because Negroponte decided it should be a tablet.

The industry is definitely making big changes to self regulate around social gaming offer scams (complete background here, with updates). Zynga, the largest social gaming company and the worst offender when it comes to scams, said yesterday that they will take steps to remove scams from games. They were quickly followed by RockYou.

Today MySpace is making a big move itself. They are instituting a “zero tolerance for app scams” policy, says CEO Owen Van Natta, and are amending their apps developer terms of use to further restrict the types of offers than can be presented to users.

The existing terms of use already prohibit many types of scams and require clear and accurate descriptions of offers. But as we’ve shown in previous posts, sometimes a clear and accurate description hidden at the bottom of a page in 8 point type isn’t all that useful.

The addition MySpace is adding a requirement to have users opt in to any specific offer or promotion that includes a renewal or subscription.

Today, we’re adding a fifth principle that clarifies a specific use case that we feel is particularly damaging to the user experience: promotions that include hidden renewals without specific opt-in will not be permitted. Because it’s our belief opt-out offers are misleading and do not have the best interests of the users in mind, we will be updating our Terms of Use this week to better clarify this for users and developers.

Rules are great, but without enforcement the scammy offers never go away (this is the Facebook problem). MySpace says they will enforce these rules and will remove applications that don’t modify practices promptly:

Principles and policies are nothing without action and we will continue to enforce our Terms of Use to put our users first. If we find or are notified of violations of our Terms of Use we will contact the application developer and require that they modify their practices and adhere to our Terms. If we do not receive a prompt and appropriate response we will, as we have in the past, remove the offending application from the MySpace platform.

The proof is in the pudding, of course. But this is yet another big company stepping up to try to put a stop to social gaming application scams. It’s time for Facebook to make their move.

Here’s the full blog post:

MySpace’s Zero Tolerance Policy for App Scams

There has been increased discussion recently about how some application developers on the Web’s major social platforms are misleading consumers with deceptive practices. It’s important that users and developers clearly understand MySpace’s policies and approach to these activities.

The MySpace Apps Terms of Use clearly state that we prohibit any deceptive, misleading, and unfair activity through developer applications on MySpace. The Terms of Use require developers to provide accurate information to users and comply with specific rules around what information is being collected, payment terms, and promotional offers. They also prohibit spam and other malicious use.

Our Terms of Use were drafted with the following four principles in mind:

1. All MySpace users are entitled to a safe, scam-free application experience.

2. All offers to MySpace users must have a clear and accurate description which is not misleading or deceptive to users.

3. All offers to MySpace users must have a clear and conspicuous explanation of cost with no hidden fees.

4. No application is permitted to incentivize a user to provide their personal information in exchange for virtual goods or currency within the application.

Today, we’re adding a fifth principle that clarifies a specific use case that we feel is particularly damaging to the user experience: promotions that include hidden renewals without specific opt-in will not be permitted.

Because it’s our belief opt-out offers are misleading and do not have the best interests of the users in mind, we will be updating our Terms of Use this week to better clarify this for users and developers.

Principles and policies are nothing without action and we will continue to enforce our Terms of Use to put our users first. If we find or are notified of violations of our Terms of Use we will contact the application developer and require that they modify their practices and adhere to our Terms. If we do not receive a prompt and appropriate response we will, as we have in the past, remove the offending application from the MySpace platform.

Developers are our partners and we want to continue our collaborative and meaningful relationship with the development community. Having recently acquired iLike we have access to some of the most successful social application developers with a wealth of knowledge to inform us how we can have a smarter, more thoughtful application strategy.

If you have any questions about these policies or principles please reach out to our Partner Relations team at partnerrelations@myspace-inc.com.

We appreciate all of the feedback we’ve received from our users and developers and look forward to more great things to come for the MySpace Application Platform.

-Owen

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One of the issues with the OLPC project has always been power. There’s just not electricity in all the parts of the world where the OLPC is intended to be used. There is a solution available, however, and it’s being tested in Afghanistan

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Pedal power in the desert: OLPC in Afghanistan

The new WikiReader is a $99 portable device from the Openmoko group that stuffs every Wikipedia article into a pocket-friendly traveling companion. While those of us entrenched in technology day in and day out may scoff at the idea of having Wikipedia at the ready (we all have smartphones, remember?), this is something that might be able to make some waves with baby boomers and/or the technically petrified

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WikiReader packs all of Wikipedia in a power-sipping portable

Got an old sack o’ crap laptop or desktop gathering dust?

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Video Demo: Sugar on a Stick turns your old computer into an OLPC

Oh, look, another limited edition Leica that none of you will ever be able to afford.

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Attack of the Hermès-branded Leica M8

While this is more a sociological issue than a technological one, it’s still interesting. Pilot programs in Ethiopia with the OLPC XO laptop have hit a major roadblock: teachers resent the device and consider it a toy. The reasons for this are complicated, but in essence it’s the nature of the educational system there

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OLPC banned in many Ethiopia classrooms for being toylike

The OLPC project, Hydra-like in its many initiatives , has given birth to a new project, focused on making an extremely versatile display with multiple modes, allowing consolidation of technology and (one hopes) reduction of total cost. After all, if a device is being used as an e-book, it shouldn’t be using TV technology to display the text; it’s both wasteful and less effective

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PixelQi’s 3Qi display is LCD, e-paper, and high-contrast monochrome all in one

Quick Version: Very few developers have pushed out games for the iPhone that are AAA titles, but even fewer developers have produced AAA iPhone titles their first time around. 2XL happens to be one of them and it’s no surprise that Supercross is one of the best selling titles for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

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Review: 2XL’s Supercross for the iPhone