John C. Dvorak of PCMag apparently did not have too high an opinion of the OLPC, and he is not afraid to let it be be known.

In his strongly worded article last week titled: One laptop per child doesn’t change the World, he ridiculed the project with sarcasm:

This machine [The XO laptop], which is the brainchild of onetime MIT media lab honcho Nick Negroponte, will save the world. His vision is to supply every child with what amounts to an advertising delivery mechanism. Hence the boys at Google are big investors.

Dvorak questioned the point of bringing in a computer to a place like Niger, with a 13 percent literacy rate. Furthermore, he asked just how many Web sites and wikis are written in SiSwati or IsiZulu anyway.

He also elaborated at length on World Health Organization (WTO) estimates that one-third of the world is starving, and another one-third is underfed, questioning how giving the children “these little green computers” can help.

He ends off by saying, “As if this whole OLPC scheme is anything other than a naive fiasco waiting to unfold. I’ll donate my money to hunger relief, thank you.”

Is the OLPC project such a pie in the sky? What is your opinion on this matter?