...five and 15 million have been ordered and paid for in advance.
As for OLPC, this is being 75 percent funded by MIT and 25 percent by its founding members, AMD, Brightstar, Google, News Corp and Red Hat, which are each believed to have put in $2m so far.
Meanwhile, the devices themselves will come with a 500MHz processor, 1GB of memory, four USB ports and a 10-inch dual-mode display that provides a full colour or black-and-white option if sunlight is strong to make it more readable and consume less power.
Hermetically sealed
Linux will be the operating system of choice with applications developed in-house by MIT. To protect the machine from damage, it will be covered with a rubber casing and will hermetically seal when the lid is closed.
To cater to children in areas where electricity is in limited supply, it will be possible to power the machines using a crank that operates on a "ten to one ratio – you crank for one minute and get 10 minutes of power", according to Negroponte.
Moreover, the laptops will be Wi-Fi-enabled and connect together using mesh networking technology. This will not only cut potential costs for networking infrastructure, but also of Internet connections for the devices.
"When you open each laptop, it becomes a node in a mesh. This means that only one or two laptops need to go to an Internet backbone and all of the kids are connected, so [a 2Mbps line] can serve 1,000 kids. If you have [a 2Mbps line] for 1,000 kids, you're in great shape, although you're not in such terrific shape if you download video," says Negroponte.
NGOs
But despite its laudable intentions, some NGOs are not convinced that the concept will deliver the results that Negroponte and his team hope. David Grimshaw, international team leader for the new technologies programme at charity Practical Action, believes that there are three key aspects to this type of project and providing access to computers addresses only one of them. Practical Action focuses on helping people in the developing world to use technology in the fight against poverty.
"MIT potentially have an excellent idea here. But to make it really work in developing countries, it needs to be well thought through in partnership with content providers, perhaps in education, and also NGOs and civil societies that are in touch with grass-roots community-level organisations," he says. "It's about working in a participative way to allow people to develop their own solutions rather than have them imposed on them."
While Negroponte claims that content is being developed by Seymour Papert, also a member of OLTP and considered a leading theorist on child learning, Grimshaw believes...
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Talkback
Sounds to me like this is a great idea for providing laptops to cash strapped education services more in the developed countries and for infrastructure providers in the rest of the world...
I'm sure these would be great cost rudcers for a lot of NGO's that already have a need for laptops, rather than just throughing them at schools in africa to be yet another peice of technology they have little use for as they lack more basic facilities, such as buildings and teachers.
Not that I imagine IT manufactures really want to see a loss of market that they already have... rather than the potenial growing of the market they don't have... lots of african children seeking to upgrade later in life.
Good idea, shame it won't be used where it can do good now rather than maybe possibily later.
Wouldn't it be nice if through the reduction in NGO costs they could help assit with the more basic aspects of getting these children an education so that they could use these devices in the future.
"The aim of the $100 laptop initiative is to provide each child in the developing world with a laptop that can also act as an e-book, a tablet PC and a TV in a bid to help bridge the digital divide."
I'm glad to see people are concerning themselves with the problems of the developing world, however, considering that £15 is enough to provide one person with enough clean water for drinking, hygeine and sanatation in the developing world, I think that there are better things to spend $100 on!
Agreed, the developing world needs food and other basic things, you cannot eat a laptop, these people are on a different planet, $100 a person can do a lot more essential things than provide tv and the internet
The OLPC project is not attempting to solve all of the problems in developing nations. They are trying to provide kids with "a window to the outside world and tool with which to think" so that they can help themselves.
This is free, but it's not a hand out -- it's a hand UP.
Also, don't assume that every kid in developing nations is starving -- it's flatly not true. Of course there are a huge number who do need adequate food, water, and sanitary accomodations -- but if you are truly concerned then you'll get involved with one of the many organizations already dedicated to alleviating these needs. They can always use the help.
Also, this laptop will do quite a bit more than provide internet access. It will allow kids to create and share, it can be used as a tool to help them learn to read and write, it will be a means of communication first locally and eventually globally... the possibilities are limitless, especially as more kids get involved, play with the code, and teach their fellows.
This is not a tool for a vague future, it's the tool of tomorrow. Putting off its implementation would postpone dealing with educational needs just as it has been done for years now.
For now, if you think it's a good idea then lend a hand in its creation and implementation, help it become a reality.