UN to back Negroponte's $100 laptop

MIT Media Lab chief Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project has won a key backer, as the United Nations Development Program announced that it will support the program, which aims to produce laptops that can be sold for as little as $100 each for sale in the developing world. Although the agreement, announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was vague on details, having access to the UNDP's global resources could be a key factor in getting the computers in the hands of 1 million students and teachers by the end of next year. In a statement, the UN agency said it would work with Negroponte to deliver "technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries."

[garrett @ Jan 26th 2006 10:49AM]

i really wanna get one of these to try it out. when they come out of course.

[Michael @ Jan 26th 2006 11:03AM]

Didn't you report this once before?

[RS @ Jan 26th 2006 11:03AM]

Do people really need a $100 computer? Wouldn't clean water be more useful, or farm machinery or something?

[pspimp @ Jan 26th 2006 11:05AM]

This is great So while starving aids striken people are waiting to die they can be trying to find a wi-fi hot spot and then browse the web looking at blogs.
Meanwhile some UN scumbag gets his laptop kickback!
Woohoo! Aint globalism grand!!!

[jan @ Jan 26th 2006 11:14AM]

EDUCATION!!!!

That's what will get them sustained clean drinking water. We can build them a water filtration plant and if they have one of these things with internet access they can download the user manual and run it themself.

Of course they need to be able to read, which brings us back to education.

[Heyzeus @ Jan 26th 2006 11:19AM]

Interesting how the Yahoo! News article photo has a woman demo'ing the $100 laptop as she wears a huge rock on her wedding finger.

[Rob C @ Jan 26th 2006 11:25AM]

RS: It depends who you are. If you're a farmer in need of farming equipment, then yes... farm machinery is more important. If you're a school child with limited access to sources of information, then a cheap(ish) laptop will be more useful.

What a stupid thing to say.

[Keith Wakham @ Jan 26th 2006 11:27AM]

Do people really need to know how to better themselves, to learn and become educated so that they can solve their own problems.

This is only one mans project built on his own knowledge and figures the best way he can help developing nations is to provide access to technology so that they can learn and help themselves.

I think it comes down to give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime (a cliche is a cliche for a reason)

Their are plenty of projects (hundreds and maybe thousands) that are trying to get developing nations clean water and the likes and they have worked on them for years and unfortunately with slow change. As soon as someone comes along thinking that technology can help teach people their are always people yelling "clean water". What if one kid in one village figures out a way to use the enviroment around him to get his own community clean water. What if another learns some design techniques and comes up with farming equipment that can be built with available devices that costs thousands less than a tractor.

People are unique, and the solutions they come up with are unique to the person and eviroment they developed in.

Is it enough to for these people to survive day to day, or should they Live a life. Water vs education.

[Joshua Stein @ Jan 26th 2006 11:43AM]

A computer is a tool, like many other tools. Is it necessary for everyone? Obviously not, but since you can draw a correlation between computer literacy and economic advancement, teaching these kids to use computers may open up new worlds, not to mention new vocational opportunities.

Yes, clean water and cheaper aids drugs are vital as well, but clean water and drugs alone are not going to solve the worlds problems. Neither will a $100 laptop, but combined with clean water and other advancements, it is another step closer.

[Chris @ Jan 26th 2006 11:47AM]

Does anyone else find those huge baby hands disturbing? *shudder*

[Hello, dwlor! @ Jan 26th 2006 11:59AM]

Yeah, I noticed the hands too. They are weird.

[cc @ Jan 26th 2006 12:05PM]

Give a man a fish and he'll eat fish for a day, teach him how to surf the net and he'll blow hours a day downloading mermaid porn, I believe the saying goes...

[cece valentine @ Jan 26th 2006 12:10PM]

I find the comments just as interesting as the article.
The access to information is just as important as having clean water. Who know? Perhaps a young person might find out how to obtain clean water, a better way of living as a result of the laptop.

Such a gadget should be available to our rural-impacted children in this country. Everyone living in "the country" is not a gentleman farmer.

[Jon @ Jan 26th 2006 12:11PM]

WORD!! Goes along with showing your children how to do something on their own! If we just did it for them it wouldn't benefit their lives ... and they would go through life relying only on others, instead of themselves.

[Gordy @ Jan 26th 2006 12:42PM]

"give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

I belive the cliche ends with "he'll eat forever". I mean, hell, if I'm gonna 'feed him for a lifetime', why bother teaching his dependent a$$?

Anyway, can't wait until these hit some remote village, and a child takes on of these 'devil boxes' home. Oh, to be a fly on the tent. It'll end up on a pile with all the mirrors--erm, 'devil glass', and photos (spirit catchers).

[Matt @ Jan 26th 2006 12:54PM]

This totally changes my opinion of the device. Let's see... how could a billion of these things benefit the dirty rotten scoundrels at the UN?

Does it translate everthing you type into leftist newspeak, or just popup with a message to denounce the United Stated every 5 minutes?

[Refik @ Jan 26th 2006 1:06PM]

These things will be useful for the one in third countries, that's for sure. However they don't have the money because of the same people who produce this, they pay them like few $ a month :( which is really sad :(...

Anyways, we won't stop the problem by making cheaper computers. It is a problem in the States and EU, we force them to take loans and then charge them to pay of 9 times more. It is a true and sad fact that for every given 1$ the west makes pure profit of 8$...

[anna. @ Jan 26th 2006 1:31PM]

The "developing world" doesn't only consist of little villages with no water and electricity. Most of Asia is still the "developing" world - think about what a $100 laptop could do for kids in India, or Cambodia, Laos, East Timor, where in case you don't keep up with anything other than local news, lots of governments, hell even NGOs, could afford to spend 100 bucks a kid to help build a solid future. Whether or not computer literacy means a solid future isn't up for debate anymore.

What those countries need to get a solid footing is a skilled workforce, what better place to start than the younger generation?

I think the UN is finally doing it's job, and I'm glad

[dpinder @ Jan 26th 2006 2:59PM]

You know, some of you are seriously myopic.

This is an innovative and unique approach of helping those who need it and instead of supporting it; you bitch and moan ABOUT NOTHING!

If you don�t like what this person is doing to help those who need, get off your cynical asses and DO SOMETHING.

[alex @ Jan 26th 2006 3:23PM]

dudes. doesn't anyone see what is going to happen? all this has been tried before...

once these subsidized PCs are given to school kids in impoverished areas the first thing they (or their parents) are going to do is sell them. or worse get them stolen. most likely sold back to the west or stripped for parts and sold back to the west.

no kid will ever own one of these things. it's the hard truth and no one wants to admit it. might as well give all the kids $100 to spend on books.

[macona @ Jan 26th 2006 3:30PM]

You know, schools taught just fine before computers came around. In fact, test score were higher before computers and a schools were not bankrupt. A friend of mine work for one school and they spends extrodinary amounts of money on upgrading computers and supplies for them. C'mon, do they really need $1000 infocus projectors with $400 light bulbs that have to be replaced in 2000 hours?

[Gogh @ Jan 26th 2006 3:35PM]

Yeahyeahyeah... but when i can have one? That "one kid" inside me is screaming for more technology!

[jan @ Jan 26th 2006 4:08PM]

Hopefully none of these things will have any output ports, would make a great trigger for something that makes a big boom.

[imacomputa @ Jan 26th 2006 4:12PM]

To those who say this is a bad idea:
It get's old reading anti-technology posts from Engadget readers.
The funny thing is that these are the same posters who swear by anything endorsed by Steve Jobs and who can't watch a LCD unless it's 1080p.

[Juice @ Jan 26th 2006 4:34PM]

What is the big deal about the 100 dollar laptop? I just saw an add in the paper for a 299 compaq with WINDOWS for 299 after rebates... Is it worth all this effort to try and produce a soso "laptop" for a hundy? I mean you can buy a pocket pc for about a hundred bucks already, sure it's got no crank but it's a computer no?...

[aws910 @ Jan 26th 2006 5:05PM]

The fish cliche reminds me of this one:

"Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

[Rahul @ Jan 26th 2006 7:17PM]

#24 (Juice)
In contrast with that Compaq laptop, this $100 laptop has the ability to produce its own energy via cranking the lever. This is helpful because the places where this laptop will be used might not have access to electrical current in the wall. The $300 compaq probably doesn't have that functionality.

Aside from that, I completely agree with #18. This sort of myopia is becoming pandemic (at least, where I live, in the United States).

[Ptrix @ Jan 26th 2006 7:54PM]

To #26 (Jan)

so, exactly who will be turning the cranks that connect to the wireless access point(s) which will allow the users to connect their laptops to a network? Or for that matter, who will be cranking the generators at the ISPs that will connect them to the internet?

Recall that the premise for the cranks on the laptops is because they might be deployed in areas without a suitable external electrical supply, and if that's the case, i hope their hard drives are preloaded with educational software, or that they'll have a contract to supply software updates to each laptop on a regular basis. (wait, do they have usb ports, cd-rom drives, or even floppy disk drives for that purpose?)

(another quick question - how large of a hard drive will those $100 laptops have anyway?)

[Ptrix @ Jan 26th 2006 8:01PM]

i'm an idiot ^_^

that first line should say: "to #26 (Rahul)"

my apologies.

[farkel @ Jan 26th 2006 9:33PM]

um, a hand crank?

Didnt they have solar powered calculators back in the 80's?

Do they have cars with the floor cut out so they can use foot power too?

[Morgan @ Jan 26th 2006 9:39PM]

Just get them an Infinium Labs Phantom, it's more real. And he's not doing anything for anyone but himself, everyone thinks he's a hero for spending other people's money. Whether he's successful or not.

[Alex @ Jan 26th 2006 9:48PM]

IIRC, the $100 laptop will have flash memory, no hard drive. And their wireless connection is more of an ad-hoc style.

Read up about it at the official site:

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

[ashmist @ Jan 27th 2006 3:44AM]

Can it play Doom?

[everythingisok @ Jan 27th 2006 9:00AM]

Our technologies work us over completely. They reshape every part of our lives.

If MIT wants to drop 100 million laptops from the sky then they have a responsibility to research the entire range of possible affects (both good and bad). The current MIT FAQ doesn�t even hint at how the poorest countries in the world will be impacted by a sudden injection of technology on this scale. Handfuls of questions need to be added �

more here:
http://www.everythingisok.org/archives/20051220/66/100-questions

[Elias @ Jan 27th 2006 9:12AM]

I wonder if these will correlate with a rise in 419 scams?

[Tom @ Jan 30th 2006 1:04AM]

Thanks #32 for the MIT link.

Why are the keyboards not a membrane type? Wouldn't it cost less? Membrane keyboards may be awkward, but they would keep dirt and water out of the circuits. The laptop should definitely be sealed from adverse environments.

Are all the laptop recipients to learn English as a second language in-order to use these machines? If not will there be enough keys to represent all of the alphabets of each dialect? Is the machine going to have a spell checker for each dialect?

Are these laptops environmentally friendly, i.e.: will they pollute their water supply when the laptop stops working and then gets tossed in a field? What is the life expectancy of the plastic crank? Is there a recycle policy such that the manufacturer will dispose of them properly, like tires?

Since these units will have wireless communication, it seems that the users will have a text messaging cell phone system (walkie-talkie ish).

What is the target age range for the laptop? What types of software will be loaded? And, what specifically are these kids to learn that they cannot currently learn?

If math is of a concern, Walmart sells calculators for $1.00.