i saw this in the WSJ, this project has been going on for some time,
but this was the first i had heard about it. wonder what they will use
for word processing and spreadsheets?
---------------
The $100 Laptop Moves Closer to Reality
By STEVE STECKLOW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 14, 2005; Page B1
A novel plan to develop a $100 laptop computer for distribution to
millions of schoolchildren in developing countries has caught the
interest of governments and the attention of computer-industry
heavyweights.
First announced in January by Nicholas Negroponte, the founding
chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, the
initiative appears to be gaining steam. Mr. Negroponte is scheduled to
demonstrate a working prototype of the device with United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday at a U.N. technology
conference in Tunisia.
Mr. Negroponte and other backers say they have held discussions with
at least two dozen countries about purchasing the laptops and that
Brazil and Thailand have expressed the most interest so far. In
addition, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently proposed spending
$54 million to buy one of the laptops for every student in middle
school and high school in his state.
[Design Continuum's prototype of a $100 laptop with hand crank, for
students in developing countries.]
Design Continuum's prototype of a $100 laptop with hand crank, for
students in developing countries.
Although no contracts with governments have been signed,
Mr. Negroponte says current plans call for producing five to ten
million units beginning in late 2006 or early 2007, with tens of
millions more a year later. Five companies -- Google Inc., Advanced
Micro Devices Inc., Red Hat Inc., News Corp. and Brightstar Corp. --
have each provided $2 million to fund a nonprofit organization called
One Laptop Per Child that was set up to oversee the
project. Mr. Negroponte says five companies are bidding to make the
laptop, although he declined to name them.
Mr. Negroponte remains eager to place the laptop in the hands of 100
to 150 million students. He says he has learned in educational
projects in Cambodia and other developing countries that computers
spur children to learn and explore outside the boundaries of a
classroom, and share their discoveries with their families. "I do not
think of them only in classrooms, but part of an integrated and
seamless experience for kids and their families," he says.
Still, the project would require governments in the developing world
to come up with $15 billion to supply 150 million laptops, and it
isn't yet clear how many countries can afford even a $100
machine. Technical hurdles also remain.
The device that will be shown in Tunisia is still an early version;
Mr. Negroponte says the screen alone will require another three months
of development. The designers also have yet to bring the overall price
down to $100, although they say they are getting close. "Even if the
first ones are $118.50, as long as subsequent machines are less and
less expensive, that is what counts," Mr. Negroponte says.
Major computer industry players appear to be taking the venture
seriously, including companies like Microsoft Corp. that aren't yet
participating. Microsoft could be confronting a laptop that could
become a standard in the developing world -- one that, for now, would
come without its dominant Windows software.
Mr. Negroponte discussed the project last week with Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates and Craig Mundie, chief technical officer of advanced
strategies and policy. "We're in serious discussions to determine what
the appropriate type of involvement is with us with their project,"
says Mr. Mundie.
Steve Jobs, Apple Computer Inc.'s chief executive, offered to provide
free copies of the company's operating system, OS X, for the machine,
according to Seymour Papert, a professor emeritus at MIT who is one of
the initiative's founders. "We declined because it's not open source,"
says Dr. Papert, noting the designers want an operating system that
can be tinkered with. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.
Under present plans, the first production version of the laptop will
be powered by an AMD microprocessor and use an open-source Linux-based
operating system supplied by Red Hat. Open-source software is not
patent protected and can be copied for free. To get the price down, an
eight-inch diagonal screen -- smaller than standard notebook computers
-- will run in two modes, with a high-resolution monochrome mode for
word processing and a lower-resolution color mode for Internet
surfing. It will be powered by both a power adapter, if electricity is
available, or through a wind-up mechanism. The device will have
wireless capabilities and can network with other units even without
Internet access.
Mr. Negroponte says the project's supporters are working to provide
Internet access in some areas via cellular phone networks. He also
believes competition and deregulation eventually will bring low-cost
access to even the poorest countries. The designers say they are
planning to give the laptop a unique look to discourage sales on the
black market in developing countries.
At the same time, they say they are hoping to authorize a commercial
version that would sell for around $200, with a share of the profits
ideally used to subsidize the educational project. "We are in talks
with large, brand-name companies," Mr. Negroponte says, noting it will
be up to them to decide where and how to sell it. "I would not hold my
breath for it to be in Best Buy," he says.
Software will include a word processor, a Web browser, an email
program and a programming system. Governments would decide how to use
the machine in classrooms. "We're going to give them general tools so
they can make big changes [in curriculum] if they want to," says
Dr. Papert, who is a pioneer in using computers in education. "Even
using it as a typewriter has a payoff."
Rodrigo Mesquita, a Brazilian entrepreneur and a member of a
government working group on the project, says his country believes the
laptops could be used both to improve public education and the
economy. Brazil is hoping to manufacture three million units,
beginning next year, and supply some of them to other countries, he
says. He also says money normally spent on textbooks would be used to
pay for the laptops for Brazilian schoolchildren. "I'm very
optimistic," he says, giving the project a "70 to 80%" chance of being
launched in the country.
Daryl Sartain, director of strategic business development at AMD, says
his company is "absolutely committed" to the project and that it fits
in with its initiative to bring Internet and computing access to half
the world by 2015. "I have no doubt that this will happen," he says of
the laptop project, adding, "It will, like everything else, have bumps
in the road and some evolution that occurs." He declined to say how
much the company would charge for its microprocessor, but says,
"Certainly we expect this to be a business for AMD. We also expect it
to be a business for many other companies, not just us."
Meanwhile, Intel Corp. says it isn't worried about the thought of
millions of laptops in developing countries powered by a competitor's
chips. "Our view is that whatever it takes to get computer power to
places where it hasn't been before is a good thing," says spokesman
Chuck Mulloy. "But there will be different flavors of these kind of
devices." Noting that Intel is involved in other projects to bring
low-cost computers to developing countries, he says the company has
learned from experience that "functionality is equally important to
cost."
Gretchen Miller, director of world-wide marketing for mobile systems
at Dell Inc., said she didn't think a $100 laptop would be powerful
enough to meet students' needs. "We don't believe it's feasible at
this point to manufacture a $100 notebook that meets our quality
performance standards. Those things are all customer driven," she
says, adding, "It's important that a computer prepare students for the
applications they'll be using after they get out of school."
But Mike Evans, vice president of corporate development at Red Hat and
who has been working on the laptop project for nine months, disputes
the suggestion that the machine will be inadequate for
students. "There are people in developing countries who have never
seen computers so it's not like, 'How is this better than Windows?"'
he says.
Mr. Papert, who is critical of the computer industry, says one of the
project's goals is to challenge the notion that a laptop must be
expensive. "They've followed a policy of stuffing more and more into
it which most people don't really need and keep the price up. I think
it's quite amazing that they managed to convince the world to accept
that, but they did."
He also says Microsoft, which is a financial contributor to MIT and a
backer of its Media Lab, has undergone a change in attitude about the
$100 laptop. "Their first reaction was to laugh at the idea, then the
next reaction was kind of antagonistic," he says. "Recently, they're
very friendly."
Microsoft's Mr. Mundie says he wasn't aware of any antagonism, adding,
"At the end of the day, I think we have fundamentally the same
objectives that the Media Lab project has relative to the kids." And
Mr. Negroponte, after meeting with Mr. Gates, now says, "The machine
will run anything, including Windows."
Write to Steve Stecklow at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-------------------
the website for the MIT laptop project is:
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
--
Rei Shinozuka [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ridgewood, New Jersey
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