Negroponte details specs on planned $100 laptop
posted September 28th 2005 2:45PM
Nicholas Negroponte has been promoting this idea of the $100 PC for the developing world for a while now, and he's now showing off the proposed prototype with specs and some more details on how to implement the plan. The design calls for a laptop with 500 MHz processor, 1GB memory, four USB ports and a dual-mode display usable in full-color or in black-and-white, sunlight-readable mode. Power will be provided either via conventional electric current, batteries, or via a windup crank attached to the side of the notebook for usage in remote regions without a power grid. The systems will be WiFi-enabled and able to connect via cellular networks, as well as including built-in mesh networking allowing multiple machines to share a single internet connection. Negroponte is working with MIT and five companies (Google, AMD, News Corp., Red Hat and BrightStar) to develop an ambitious 5 to 15 million test systems within the year, to be purchased at $100 a pop by governments in Brazil, China, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa and distributed for free to students. They're also now considering licensing the design for third parties to commercialize, with revenue cycling back into the One Laptop Per Child project.
If it takes off and changes the world, I wonder if they'll call him Saint Nick (Negroponte)?
Well I do work for a newspaper :-)
I only read the top few, not all the way. so if someone already pointed this out, my bad.
The following countries mentioned in the article:
Brazil, China, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa
Are not third world countries thoroughly stricken with poverty, famines, and droughts.
I've been to Egypt and South Africa, and they seem to be doing alright as far as I'm concerned. South Africa is doing much better then most countries in Africa too.
So according to me, I'd say laptops are in order.
Also, laptops nowadays are getting very inexpensive. I got mine, a Compaq Presario R4000 for around 800, with some very nice features. So a 100 dollar laptop wouldn't be very difficult to pull off. I wouldn't be surprised if they built one that ran at 600 MHz.
I've built a system running at 200 MHz with 128 Mb ram, 16 MB Vram that ran Windows XP professional perfectly well. and it didn't cost me a penny over 100 to build it.
Oh, and it had a 5 GB hard drive.
This project is sleazy. Think about it - it's not really worth doing. For one thing we throw away computers constantly (and most end up in poor countries for "recycling.")
The medialab had a ton of financial trouble a while back, and this is nothing more than a massive Ponzi scheme. 1 million units at 100dollars a pop? Make that 100 million dollars tax free "for the children." Maybe the project never makes it off the ground? So what! At least we "tried" and got to fly first class to a few more conferences.
Spending the cash of developing nations to finance some rich jerkoff's pet project is evil. Shame on google and everyone else for not seeing this.
This is an excellent plan. It's about time, too, that it has been put on the table. Education for every child, in ways that were unimaginable before but are now a reality. I used to be a teacher and left the job because the system (eastern Europe) was too dinosaurish and hostile to those who wanted to see some progress. And now the technology itself is enabling social change on a global scale. Great news indeed.
Wow - a $100 laptop?? I want one! It looks better than the Averatec 3250 I paid $800 for. :)
I would buy one for my children here in the U.S. and feel great that it would support the continued development of this computer for the developed world... then again, that should include all poor large urban metro schools and very underfunded rural schools. It seems there is less discretionary money to buy technology in the classroom than any other time since I have been teaching.
I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but I have some concerns:
Are Design for the Environment criteria being used in the creation of these laptops?
To what extent will these computers add to - or start - other governments' ewaste problems?
Do the designers and interested government buyers have plans - and funding - for recycling these units when they're no longer usable?
What do groups like Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition have to say about this initiative?
Could $100 per child be better used in some other way(s)?
What is the likelihood that children will be injured or killed by potential thieves for their spiffy laptops (like the New York youngster killed for his iPod)?
Give developing countries $1 of medicine per child so they don't die in infancy. Laptops this cheap are better off in a western country where most people don't wake up wondering where their next meal will come from.
Given the interest of many posters above, the manufacturers should consider selling it for USD 200 in developed countries and giving a developing country a unit free for every one sold.
I'd pay $200 if the deal was sealed that some poor kid would get his hands on one.
Given free internet access, some enterprising kids would surely get it generating $$$ from rich countries....like the Nigerian 149 enterprises.
Nicholas Negroponte's idea of the $100 PC for the developing world is fantastic. the UN, the EC and Donor nations investing in countries in post war countries in transitions should be encouraged to sponsor this project becuase in some of these countries kid 15 years old have not had the opportunity to go to school in the last ten years. A computer with internet access and a computer literate school teacher is the fastest way to recover the lost years. Besides, governments can benefit greatly if they invest in online information services in areas of ( land administration, Tax codes, etc..) and in decentralization of essential services at local government levels. People living in rural areas should no more have to travel to the capital to attend to businesses. Please send me more information on this project.