Jim Forster is right that $1 billion is a big bet. That is especially true given the soft spot in this concept, which is the lack of a business model for deploying the laptops. Giving them to children in schools is going to be a non-starter, for a number of reasons: theft, appropriation to income generation by adults, lack of affordable (or often any) connectivity in schools or at home, especially in rural areas; lack of suitable applications in local languages; lack of teacher training; and lack of tech support. We don't yet have a laptop for every child in US and other rich country schools, despite lots of years of serious effort by serious people. The machines will have a market, but at a higher delivered price, for small business, cyber-cafe kiosks, etc., but probably not the schools in a major way for some time.
Those interested in our work on documenting business approaches to poverty and connectivity in low income communities can access case studies and other materials, and share their comments and perspectives, at <www.nextbillion.net> Allen L. Hammond Vice President for Innovation & Special Projects World Resources Institute 10 G Street NE Washington, DC 20002 USA V (202) 729-7777 F (202) 729-7775 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.wri.org www.nextbillion.net ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
