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September 28, 2005
Creating the $100 Laptop
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Nicholas Negroponte talks about the $100 laptop |
"It is the most important project I've ever done in my life... The reception it's received has been incredible," he said. "The idea is simple - it's to look at education. This is an education project, not just a laptop project. If you take any world problem - peace, the environment, poverty - the solution to that problem certainly includes education. And if you have a solution that doesn't include education, than it's not a real solution at all."
"In emerging nations, the issue is not connectivity," Negroponte continued. "It was the issue; it's not a solved problem, but there are many people and many systems working on it... It's happening; it doesn't need me, MIT or the Media Lab. But for education, the roadblock is the laptop."
Negroponte told the story of building schools in Cambodia. He gave students laptops to bring home, but they came back the next day, the laptops unused. Their parents would not let them use them because they were worried they'd break it. The students went back home with a note saying they didn't have to worry about the cost of the laptops; the parents loved them because they were the brightest lights they had in the home. In the first three years, only one laptop out of 50 broke (though all the AC adapters died). "Why is that? It's because of ownership. The kids polished them, made bags for them; they certainly wouldn't get broken."
Later, MIT's Seymour Papert helped persuade the state of Maine to give laptops to all middle school students. This raised the possibility of expanding the program internationally, particularly to the developing world.
"Since communications isn't the problem, can we make that laptop now cost $100?" Negroponte said that it was important to make this a nonprofit initiative, so all monies made could go into helping lower the cost of the laptop, rather than satisfying shareholders.
"Scale is important, but not for the obvious reasons. It's important because of mindset, attitude and share." When he's talked with companies about getting involved, "you're immediately dismissed, until you say you need 200 million units."
"Impossible at MIT is a code word for 'do it.'"
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Image of Negroponte's $100 laptop |
A lot of the cost of the laptop goes to supporting the operating system, he explained. "You try to download a PDF, and you're waiting and waiting; it's gotten so slow and unreliable... SO we've started over, going skinny linux, skinny open source... It lowers costs and gives you a faster experience."
"Design is important. A lot of people think low-end products need to look cheap and be cheap." He showed a picture of it, describing how it would work with a wind-up crank for power, and would seal hermetically when closed to prevent damage. The swivel for raising the display would also be a handle, which the AC cord will also serve as the shoulder strap.
At the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, they'll launch "tethered prototypes" - working demo units. The beta units, expected to come out in one year, will number from five to 15 million units, expected to be deployed in five countries and the commonwealth of Massachusetts. By year two, they hope to reach 150 million units.
He mentioned Wikipedia as an example of a major source of content for the initiative, and asked how many people in the audience use it - about 50%. "It's by far the best encyclopedia on the planet," he said. "It's so fresh, so current, if you go look up yourself, you're probably in it."
"It's the Wikipedia equivalent (of hardware)," he said, describing the spirit of the laptop initiative.
Posted by acarvin at September 28, 2005 9:10 AM
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