>From the New York Times (31 January, 2005): $100 Laptop Helps Cross Digital Divide --------------------------------------
DAVOS, Switzerland - by John Markoff Nicholas Negroponte, the technology guru from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory, prowled the halls of the World Economic Forum last month holding the holy grail for crossing the digital divide: a mock-up of a $100 laptop computer. The machine is intriguing because Mr. Negroponte has struck upon a remarkable simple solution for lowering the price of the most costly part of a laptop --- the display --- to $25 or less. ...... Mr. Negroponte said that he had found initial backing for his laptop plan from Advanced Mico Devices and said that he was in discussions with Google, Motorola, the News Corporation and Samsung for support. The device includes a tentlike pop-up display that will use the technology now used in today's rear-projection televivions, in contjunction with a light-emitting diode source. Mr. Negroponte said his experience in giving children laptop computers in rural Cambodia had convinced him that low-cost machines would make a fundamental difference when broadly deployed. "You can just give laptops to kids," he said, noting that they quickly take advantage of the machines. "In Cambodia, the first English word out of their mouths is 'Google'." ...... Mr. Negroponte said he was confident that his computers, which run the free Linux operating system, would find a ready market as early as 2006. "China is important because there are 220 million students," he said. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
