Thread: Vote for the N810 Winner!
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ubuntu101 is offline ubuntu101
2007-11-25 , 03:58
Posts: 6 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Nov 2007
#122
Quote from a few days ago and today:
Originally Posted by Malfaiteur View Post
Aaron, I really want to like you. Honest. It seems that you are doing great things out there in Africa and are genuinely interested in helping the people there. However, your posts and your video kind of strike me as a little self-serving. I dunno if it's a subconscious thing or what.

You're right about the ad part, that is pretty good. As an ad. But at the same time it was something that turned me off of your video. Instead of being what you would use the N810 for, it became promotional.
......
Yeah, just watched it again. Something in his cadence and pitch just says "I am making a plug" to me. Which is fine in and of itself, but it seems more like a plug instead of what he might really use the tablet for. Also some interesting problems with his arguments in the video. At one point he states that regular computers are problematic because they require maintenance, power, the internet etc. How the N810 avoids the need for any of the above is beyond me. The fact that you don't lug your desktop around probably saves it from the bush (mud, dust etc). So, while being more mobile, the N810 seems to me like it would be more prone to mechanical failure negating it's bonuses as I doubt there are any Nokia techs out there to fix a busted IT.

I don't think the N810 has much to offer that particular area as far as the internet goes. It's just a wifi device, and it sounds from his video like internet is slow and sparse. Having an N810 won't turn your 300 baud connection into a T1.

As for the commercial at the end which many seem so keen on, what's the point of it? The devices that disappear are not replaced by the N810 very well, if at all in some cases such as the phone or the camera. The camera in particular seemed kind of silly. From what I've seen the little camera on the N810 is nowhere near as capable as the camera shown in PK's vid. The laptop has other abilities that I don't think the tablet can reproduce (ability to type out pages and pages of text in one go comfortably, video editing, photo management etc.).

So after a second viewing I still don't like the video. You really ought to check into an OLPC for what you seem to be listing off in your video PK, as there you will find a better solution for your situation.

~!M
Hey,

I just thought it might be fair for me to respond to a few of these comments, only because I think that in the short time frame of the film a few points got skewed. I'll make my response in a number of points.

1) A few days ago you said my film seemed self-promotional. It's not intended to be, but this IS a contest. . . Where I'm asking people to vote for me.

2) About the power, maintenance etc comment that you made. I said that because in Tsumkwe Namibia, 10 hours from the nearest town, where there are no computer technicians, it's really hard to maintain the machines that are getting used and because they're old multi-peripheral devices they do break. Also, power is a luxury which often goes out. And the battery of the n810 would be a great resource. I don't expect the internet to improve, but it is simply easier to have one wire for power (or none when using the battery) on the n810 instead of multiple cables for keyboards, mice, phone lines, power, etc on a desktop. Why do I believe the n810 instead of even the OLPC? Well, it's really a matter of interface. For people who for the most part don't speak English and who live "in the bush," it's extremely hard to teach and explain how to use mice, trackpads...etc. The n810 is revolutionary like the iphone was because you point and click exactly how you would think to do it, without a mouse. In South Africa, there was a whole project based on giving the Bushmen palm pilots with GPS capabilities running software that was entirely an icon interface to reduce the need for translations (http://www.cybertracker.org/). That program is only for tracking and hunting information, but the n810 with that same touch-icon interface could be used for much more.

3) The N810 is more durable than a desktop. And maybe in the future the Bushmen would be taking these computers out of the main town and into their villages and onto excursions.

4) To address the comments that a few other people made along with you when you say my film seems "self-serving," and someone said I should sell the iphone and gadgets in my film or that I must be able to afford a Nokia tablet because I'm a filmmaker and such. Well, I don't own an iPhone; I borrowed that and some other things in that video (it's part of the whole resourceful film school student thing), and I don't get paid to make the films in Africa or to help out on the projects I do there. It's entirely voluntary. If I had an old Nokia tablet I'd sell that for an n810, but I don't have one. If my film seems self-serving, maybe I just did a bad job telling my story- It seems I left a lot to be misinterpreted (my fault. Maybe that's the problem with a one week production).

5) As for the short ad at the end. It was meant to be a little funny, a little creative, and a little of a copy off of the Mac + Intel Ad (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ceB-jJYeaIY).

6) I also just want to mention, now that it looks like I won't be winning, that I really never expected to even make it this far. Thanks to Toughtfix and the judges for selecting me in the top 5! I originally hoped to see what people thought about technology in developing communities. I plan to write some articles about this, simply posing the question about how technology should be used and promoted in other parts of the world. Maybe some blogs will post my thoughts and get some feedback. But also, the San Bushmen in Nyae Nyae are looking for funding from technology companies to get some of their new ethnographic online programs funded and underway. Maybe if I were to win, I would be able to get Nokia's attention about some of the work going on and some of the practical ways that the internet is being used.

So when you say it seems like my film is only self-promotional and you continue by saying, "Which is fine in and of itself, but it seems more like a plug instead of what he might really use the tablet for." Well, the examples I use in my film are not hypothetical, but are actually practices of technology going on in the San community. So for anyone questioning what I've said, I'm citing actual projects that are underway and actual problems we've run into.

I hope I've responded to some of the ambiguity in my film, and I'd love to continue this discussion. Thanks for the comments,
-PKT