Re: [GKD] A Hundred-Dollar Laptop for Hungry Minds

[Grady]

It seems this is a repeat of the debate on the inexpensive Simputer in
India of a while back. I vaguely recall that many argued that no one
wanted a  stripped down version that could not run the latest programs
and it was doing a disservice by not being able to learn marketable
programming skills.

Grady




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Re: [GKD] A Hundred-Dollar Laptop for Hungry Minds

[Lee Thorn]

On 10/4/05, Mikhail Doroshevich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> A Hundred-Dollar Laptop for Hungry Minds
>
> At Technology Review's Emerging Technology Conference at MIT September
> 28, 2005, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT's Media Lab, showed off
> the design of a laptop he hopes can be sold for just $100.


Dear Mikhail and all,

I hope this finds you and your families well. It is great this List is
back up. I have good news! We're all on this bus together. It will take
many, many people to solve the problems we are addressing . And the
vast, vast majority of workers on these problems are people related to
people in poverty and people in poverty themselves. We are humbled to be
part of the effort.

In all humility, I do not believe Nick's $100 price.

We at Jhai have made progress lately including a deal with the Indian
government to make a low-power, rugged, low cost computer - with no
hidden costs - at under $200 based in large part on our Jhai PC. Our
Jhai PC v.1.6 has been field tested on the Navajo reservation since June
this year and in Laos in 2003 for a short period. Oddly the MIT machine
seems to look a lot like ours, but this must be a coincidence, I guess.
I wish them well.

We have released, as you know, our hardware assembly tools, our BOM, and
other documents as well as our software source code at
 The new machine we are
developing with the Indian government is faster, better and has no
moving parts. Ours is designed with major input and now a redesign by
people who live in or grew up in poorer communities. The Jhai PC and
communication system is part of a larger system that includes very well
thought out and tested socio-economic, networking, political and
communications solution matrixes based on and all related to the clearly
expressed needs of real poor people living in tough rural conditions.

Our project is bottom-up. It comes from people, including relatives of
mine, who are smart, have great skills, know their needs and their
conditions in the most minute detail, and who want to make more money
and basically keep their traditions in their villages. I thought I might
not go to Tunis, since I travel so much and it is so hard on my family.
Now, I think I will go. If I go, I will make further announcements
there. Now, I am in India and will stay here for another two weeks. We
have many partners here and elsewhere. We have been asked to help in 65
countries altogether. We just haven't chosen to talk about ourselves too
much before we believe that things are in place. There is a huge
distance between an idea and a tested system - we know - we have been at
this now for six years. Our Jhai PCs have run in the field with NO
crashes and have run in the lab with no crashes for 8 months. They are
full-function machines built for village people with inconsistent,
little, or no electricity - about 2,000,000,000 people in total. We
developed our machines with the help of Lao villagers, Navajo villagers,
and engineers from around the world on mainly a volunteer basis. We are
ready, now. Here's more detail:

Jhai Cooperating with the Indian government in producing a computer for
third world at under $200

The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Ministry of
IT, Government of India, and Jhai Foundation are planning and
cooperating on the building of a sub-$200 full-function PC for third
world applications, ***with no hidden costs***. Dr. Ravindra Kumar, Addl
Director and Head, Hardware Design Centre, C-DAC states further, "We may
go for ASIC development to make this happen in large quantities. Govt.
of India's C-DAC is ideally equipped for this, with its national
presence (14 institutions, 2000+ staff) and design, deployment and
Transfer-of-Technology expertise, besides creating the ecosystem for
rural computing needs."

I am traveling all over India in next four weeks meeting with leaders of
the Datamation Foundation Trust , the MS
Swaminathan Foundation , n-Logue
 and others to be announced to create test beds
and am visiting with many others in the government, the NGO sector, and
industry.

 
NAVAJO TEST OF JHAI PC V.1.6 AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM GOING WELL

Chris Larsen reports from the field indicate that there have been no
hardware or software crashes of our machines. However, a lightning storm
knocked out one of his antennas for a day. We have also had issues with
the Vonage aspect. We are using Vonage because the Window Rock School
District has a proprietary network for VoIP phones that our system is
relating to. Understandably the school district does not want the
expectation or the expense of local VoIP phone users. Vonage cards are
not part of our long range plan. We have also begun our anthropological
study. Next step: I go to work with users on economic benefits and Chris
and I work with the chapter house and the tribal government to see 

Re: [GKD] A Hundred-Dollar Laptop for Hungry Minds

[Jeff Buderer]

The $100 PC sounds great. Four questions I want to know:

1. How are they made? (It is my understanding that Europeans have the
edge in terms of sourcing computer componentry so that they have minimal
ecological impact and are easy to recycle).

2. How long will they last?

3. What do they do with them when they break or are no longer usable?

4. How does the $100 PC business plan address not just the digital divide
but the 
technology divide/gap (in other words, does the plan allow for the
development of facilities in emerging markets to produce these computers
including supply chains)?


Jeff Buderer
oneVillage Initiative - Trust. Unity. Prosperity
Holistic ICT Development for Eco Living
www.onevillagefoundation.org 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
+1 408 813 5135
San Jose, California



On Tuesday, October 4, 2005, Mikhail Doroshevich wrote:

> At Technology Review's Emerging Technology Conference at MIT September
> 28, 2005, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT's Media Lab, showed off
> the design of a laptop he hopes can be sold for just $100. At that
> price, governments in developing countries could afford to buy one
> laptop for every child, he said, opening up educational opportunities
> for millions.
> 
> http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/09/wo/wo_092805bullis.asp




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[GKD] A Hundred-Dollar Laptop for Hungry Minds

[Mikhail Doroshevich]

A Hundred-Dollar Laptop for Hungry Minds

At Technology Review's Emerging Technology Conference at MIT September
28, 2005, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT's Media Lab, showed off
the design of a laptop he hopes can be sold for just $100. At that
price, governments in developing countries could afford to buy one
laptop for every child, he said, opening up educational opportunities
for millions.

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/09/wo/wo_092805bullis.asp



Best regards,

Mikhail Doroshevich
E-Belarus.ORG
E: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
U: http://www.e-belarus.org
B: http://www.i-policy.org
*** New E-Belarus.ORG Analysis "Belarusian Government Agencies Online"
available for download ***
http://www.e-belarus.org/article/egov05.html




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