Iqbal Quadir and Nicholas Negroponte - Ricerca sull'intelligenza artificiale specializzata al MIT

Iqbal Quadir and Nicholas Negroponte

Phone vs. Laptop
Which Is a More Effective Tool for Development?

Iqbal Quadir, the founder of Grameenphone, and Nicholas Negroponte, IL
founder of One Laptop per Child, discuss the role of technology in development.

Q. If we assume that technology will help bring the benefits of the modern world
to developing societies, we can also assume that the resources to bring a full com-
plement of that technology to poor countries probably don’t exist. Both laptops
and cell phones have proven to have dramatic effects on populations. Which
offers more of a benefit?

Quadir. Having struggled to bring cell phones to poor communities since
1993, I of course have a biased opinion. I would say cell phones bring greater ben-
efits. There are several reasons why. Prominent among them is the fact that voice
communications do not require literacy and are thus more egalitarian and more
inclusive. While cell phones are natural devices for networking, their inclusiveness
gives rise to a profound network effect. The second important reason is that peo-
ple find an immediate payback through enhanced communications, which leads to
a willingness and capability of paying for cell phone services. Connectivity is pro-
ductivity. This phenomenon changes the economic ground realities and produces
greater traction for phones. Their benefits proliferate, organically.

Iqbal Z. Quadir is the founder of GrameenPhone, Emergence BioEnergy, and the
Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. With Professor Philip Auerswald, he is the co-founder and co-
editor of Innovations.

Nicholas Negroponte is founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child nonprof-
it organization. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of
Tecnologia, where he was co-founder and director of the Media Lab and the Jerome
B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology.

This debate originally appeared in the January 2009 issue of Good Magazine
. Innovations thanks the editors of Good for permission to reprint this
debate.

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Iqbal Quadir and Nicholas Negroponte

The question suggests that an absence of a full complement of technology is
one of the challenges. The large number of units is a way to mitigate this challenge.
For example, cell phone infrastructure in poor countries did not exist, but it
emerged through the economies of scale. We should not just worry about technol-
ogy, but how the technology is sustained and how an ecology around it can devel-
op. The points I made above speak to how cell phones, through their immediate
payback, give rise to their own ecologies. Entrepreneurs emerge to sell handsets,
charge batteries, repair devices, and find ways to supply electricity. We shouldn’t
just think about technologies and the benefits they bring. We need to think about
how they should self-sustain. The third reason is that all digital technologies
become cheaper and more powerful over time, leading cell phones to increasingly
do what computers can do anyhow. Infatti, you should see cell phones as connect-
ed computers. Over time, this will become even more apparent than it already has
been, say through today’s iPhones.

Negroponte. Which is more important: health or education? I used to ask my
father whether brakes were more important than steering wheels. To compare cell
phones to laptops has a similar ring (pun intended). Connectivity is key. It is akin
to good health in that without it the world is further compromised. There is no
question that a connected world is a better one. The wireless infrastructure that has
grown up is truly amazing in reach, growth, and pricing, all of which will get bet-
ter and better.

Learning is many things, one of which includes reading. Another is the ability
to control, create, and collaborate. Books have sizes for reasons. Keyboards have a
size, pure. Surely we are not going to force children into literary expression with
their thumbs. A laptop is a window, a contemplative experience, nomadic not
mobile. The cell phone is a point of contact, a burst medium, interruptive in both
a good and bad sense. It is a lifeline in any sense. The device itself, Tuttavia, should
not be confused with connectivity. Laptops need to be connected too. Would I
want an unconnected laptop over a connected cell phone? No; no more than I
would want to be driving a car with brakes and no steering wheel.

Quadir. I very much agree with Nicholas that connectivity is like good health;

once you are healthy, you can pursue education.

In other words, once the ground realities are more favorable, education fol-
lows. Udaia Kumar, the founder of SHARE, India’s second-largest microfinance
firm, put it this way: “If there is hunger and ignorance, which one will you address
first? D'altra parte, once a family is well fed, the parents automatically send
their children to schools.” Centuries ago, the same sequence occurred in England.
In the late 12th century, about one-third of students at the University of Paris were
English. When, around that time, foreign students and scholars were expelled from
the University of Paris, they settled in Oxford, giving rise to the university there.
For two centuries before, England had experienced a considerable boost in agricul-
tural output and families, which could then afford education, sent their kids to

innovazioni / winter 2009

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Phone vs. Laptop

France. In other words, extra income has led to the demand for education that later
gave rise to educational institutions. This is repeated in the American experience
anche. Improved technologies led to higher productivity of the farms, giving rise
to both the ability to pay for schools and a reduction in the need for children to
work in the fields. Since Nicholas and I are both involved with MIT, we might want
to remind ourselves that MIT, arguably the best known university in America with
an emphasis in engineering and science, was established in 1865, after, not before,
the industrial revolution in America. We need to identify what leads to the demand
for education.

I fully support introducing any device that would open children’s minds to the
vast world of knowledge. Infatti, my own education has played a critical role in
everything I have achieved. Every child is better off getting an education. Tuttavia,
education’s role in extending an individual’s abilities can be quickly extrapolated
to the conclusions that a whole country, if educated, would improve dramatically.
This theory has led to the top-down introduction of education throughout the
developing world, without necessarily resulting in a corresponding increase in
prosperity. Infatti, low-income countries of today, as far as the school enrollments
are concerned, are doing better than the United States did in 1890, a time when the
United States was well past its industrial revolution.

If education is somehow made available while the ground realities remain
unfavorable for economic growth, education is abused, unused, or simply used to
escape from the country. The majority of American immigrants from Africa are
highly educated. Most corrupt government officials are educated. When the edu-
cated class in a poorer country makes up a large part of a corrupt bureaucracy that
strangles the country’s development, education is obviously used to gain a greater
share of limited resources rather than to grow them. The real damage of the myth
that education would unleash economic progress prevents us from identifying the
actual roadblocks.

The real roadblock, Credo, is the economic stagnation of the common peo-
ple in poor countries, rendering them vulnerable to their educated class who are
more capable of exploiting them. This is why it is helpful to introduce technolo-
gies that have immediate payback to the common people. Their increased eco-
nomic strength can turn the vicious cycle into virtuous one. And to this cause, cell
phones, with their immediate payback, can and do make a contribution. IL
organic emergence of cell phone networks throughout the developing world is a
testament to this immediate payback, a payback that strengthens the economic
highway on the ground over which education, jobs, health care and other goods
will arrive.

Negroponte. There is nothing “immediate” about primary education. It is a
long-term investment. Surely we would not stop teaching reading and writing
while we deploy cell phones. Suggesting that technology should not be used for
learning would be likewise absurd.

innovazioni / winter 2009

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Iqbal Quadir and Nicholas Negroponte

I doubt anybody will propose providing six- to ten-year olds with cell phones
instead of books. Think of the laptop as a book. It happens to be many other things
anche, but just as a book, the benefit is undeniable. What has happened is that a
question (perhaps gratuitous) about cell phones versus laptops has, in a way,
devolved into adults versus children.

Quadir. There appears to be a clear distinction between what Nicholas and I
are saying. He is for long-term investment for children through laptops. And I am
for immediate payoff for adults through cell phones.

If poor countries need to
climb a tall tree, they should
get their energy initially
from the low-hanging fruit.
The trick is to discover the
low-hanging fruit to be able
to climb higher.

Actually, we are both arguing
for long-term solutions. First of
Tutto, neither of us denies the useful-
ness of cell phones and laptops.
Secondo, I am arguing for the envi-
ronment in which children grow. It
is this question about environment
that brings the adults and their
productivity into the picture. If the
parents are better off financially,
they will be able to offer a better
home environment, and thus that
is the best means for providing a
better education for children.

No one in the world cares
more for children than their par-
ents. In fact, data shows that even illiterate slum-dwelling parents in India and
Africa can decipher the qualitative difference between public schools and private-
ly-run schools. According to [Newcastle University’ professor] James Tooley’s
extensive research, slum-dwelling parents choose private for-profit schools over
free-of-cost public schools. This is the case not because parents want to spend
money, but because poor parents are willing to sacrifice for the well-being of their
children.

Another piece of data illuminates why children’s environment affects educa-
zione. Michael Kremer, along with two other economists, found that treating chil-
dren for intestinal worms in Kenya lifted school performance more than updating
the school’s curriculum. Indirectly influencing the environment has a greater effect
than a direct effort on the school.

Consider the following analogy. Let’s say that we had an opportunity to
improve education by providing a poor village with one of the following: better
plant seed for farms or a planetarium. The latter has a far more obvious education-
al function, but the former would enable farming families to increase their crop
yields and thus their income would rise. With rising incomes, families could put
more emphasis on the education of their children and be less beholden to the des-
peration and short-term thinking characteristic of dire poverty. Here, I would

innovazioni / winter 2009

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Phone vs. Laptop

argue, the indirect benefits of supporting the overall environment where learning
takes place is a more effective long-term approach to improving life chances and
educational prospects. Infatti, the short-term payback from the seeds facilitates the
longer-term solution. Overall, both adults and children benefit, both in the short
and long terms.

I think it is also important to avoid separating technology from how it will
actually fit into a community. The two are inextricably linked. If we “air-drop”
technology from above, it is less likely to take hold and spread naturally. That the
cell phone penetration is far higher than the Internet penetration in developing
countries demonstrates that it is a
technology that sets roots much
more easily in poor countries.

If we are going to sow the seeds
of progress, we should not choose
the seeds just by the quality of flow-
ers we wish to produce. We must also
consider the soil in which the seeds
will germinate and grow.

Negroponte. Hard to imagine
how advocating child-centric learn-
ing, seamless education, and con-
necting the most remote and poorest
children is akin to a planetarium.
Nobody argues for crummy soil or
poor infrastructure.

In countries where we have
done One Laptop per Child,
the kids use Skype, having
never seen a telephone.
Asynchronous and high-
latency communications are
very inexpensive. Several
hundred children can share
a megabit per second.

The best testimonial of bottom-
up and viral growth is the Internet
itself. Bringing children into that equation is crucial and will change the role of
children, engaging them in the change, making them the agents of change. Think
of it this way. The cell phone industry is moving slowly from voice to data. During
this transition, Internet access is costly, clumsy, and sometimes impossible. In
countries where we have done One Laptop per Child, the kids use Skype, having
never seen a telephone. Asynchronous and high-latency communications are very
inexpensive. Several hundred children can share a megabit per second. People
shipping voice technology do not understand that.

I love the growth of cell phones. As a long-standing board member of
Motorola, I have followed it carefully. But I also see an industry glued to average
revenue per user, counting minutes of voice, and uncertain about data. By contrast,
those who invented WiFi, the computer community, have brought a far more viral
communications medium, one that can be built by the people, for the people.

Quadir. Perhaps an anecdote can illustrate my point. I once ran into a barber
in Bangladesh who, after confronting the exorbitant up front cost of renting a

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Iqbal Quadir and Nicholas Negroponte

street front store, abandoned the idea of renting space for his barbershop. Invece,
he purchased a cell phone and a motorbike. He used the phone to schedule
appointments with his clients and rode to their homes. He was able to increase his
fees for the convenience of in-home service. Customers also saved time. The bar-
ber was able to serve a larger area with a greater customer loyalty. It is through
these and countless other examples that economic empowerment takes hold for
people in poor countries, who can then make their own choices to increase possi-
bilities for prosperity for future generations.

While laptops are an important
learning tool, the economic realities—
despite Nicholas’s efforts to reduce
their costs—limit their distribution.
Cell phones, on the other hand, Ottenere
widely dispersed because of
their
immediate economic payback. Their
scale enables greater utility and cre-
ativity, ultimately leading to factors
like improved education, enhanced
health care, and others to organically
emerge. Today there are at least one
billion cell phones in the poorest
countries. If each of these phones
increases economic activity by one
dollar per month after paying for the
services—an extremely conservative
estimate—the poorest people of the
world have increased economic wealth
by $12 billion per year, without any further help for distributing this wealth. If only one percent of this money is ded- icated to buying laptops, they can buy $120 million worth of laptops every year on
their own.

In introducing a technology, we cannot ignore economics. Within that eco-
nomic calculation, we cannot ignore an important resource already well distrib-
uted and caring for children: the brains of parents.

Negroponte. Cell phones are low-hanging fruit. In parallel with picking, it is
time to plant trees of the future. That is not by asking kids to explore literature on
a postage-stamp-sized display or write with their thumbs. Likewise, it is not to
make parents rich enough to send their kids to private schools. It is by enabling
children to engage in collaborative, creative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

Something else is happening. Ten years ago, most students at MIT and Harvard
wanted to start companies and make money. Today, those students want to be
social entrepreneurs. They are more interested in changing the world and doing
good.

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Phone vs. Laptop

In that same spirit, I will argue that Iqbal is self-projecting too much, as a great
entrepreneur himself. There is no question about the need to drive economies, IL
importance of cell phones, or the need for telecommunications infrastructure. IL
correlation between wealth and connectivity clearly indicates the importance. I am
fond of telling ministers of communications around the world that they are in fact
ministers of education.

But we also have to take a deep breath and remember that education is a
human right and civic responsibility. Paper books make no sense whatsoever.
China and Brazil both spend over $20 per year per child on books. OLPC’s XO lap- top now has one million free books available on it. When we ship 100 laptops into a village, each can have 100 different books. That means 10,000 in the village, con- out any connectivity other than to each other. Sure, they are also connected to the Internet, but not very fast and by no means in a way to browse. Our laptops cur- rently cost $187 and we have shipped over 100,000 of them, free, to countries like
Rwanda, Haiti, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

Are you really going to give those kids cell phones instead? If your answer is

yes, you have got to be joking.

Quadir. I agree with Nicholas; cell phones have turned out to be the low-hang-
ing fruit. This was far from obvious when I started in 1993, when about four per-
cent of Americans had cell phones. I registered Gonofone (meaning “phones for
the masses” in Bengali) in New York in 1994 to memorialize my dream for the
masses in poor countries getting phones. Gonofone was the launchpad for what
later became known as GrameenPhone. If poor countries need to climb a tall tree,
they should get their energy initially from the low-hanging fruit. The trick is to dis-
cover the low-hanging fruit to be able to climb higher.

innovazioni / winter 2009

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