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- kiteflyer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4In India computers are already being used to connect local farmers with the market and government.
" In contrast, the Madhya Pradesh approach is more entrepreneurial and market-driven. Villages have bought computers with money from their own budgets, then franchised their operation to a local person who charges fees of 10 to 35 cents for government records and other services available at the click of a mouse. The operators, who receive no salary, keep most of the money but give a portion back to the village and state governments."
" And for 10 cents, a farmer can get a printout listing the prices of any agricultural commodity sold at surrounding markets."
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/biztech/articles/28india.html
I'm not sure give a computer to the kids is the best way to go. For a small village strapped for cash, a 100$ computer would pay back for itself a lot faster. - rm999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3a lot more info:
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html
and proof that it will look like a toy :)
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ - cabazorro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I predict utter failure: And here is how:
1.$100.00 dollar price can only be achieved through mass parchase.
2.Mass purchase can only be achieved by government.
3.3rd world governments are corrupt.
4.In case of purchase, laptop will end in hands of the privileged (government connected) or resold for a profit (1 gig ram!!).
Which brings me to the conclusion:
The T in MIT stands for technology, not socioeconomics. - danlin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"on ebay? for what? like 50 bucks lol"
if you can even find one on ebay it will probably go for significantly more than $100. You can't buy one as a consumer here in the states. you can only buy them in quantities of thousands if not millions. They are designed for 3rd world countries. - mungojelly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They seem committed to the idea that just because we don't NEED this laptop in the first world, we shouldn't get it. Obviously there IS a market, though. All anyone says when you mention them is "Me! I want!" We want for the cool factor. We want for the durability/expendability factor. We want so we can crank up a computer if the power goes out (stick one in your bomb shelter). Forget the damn reason; we want it! So here's a plan: Sign up a million first worlders to buy them at $200 a pop, make two million of them, and send half of them to us ridiculous rich people who paid for them and the other half to the folks who actually need them. Everyone wins.
- CaptSnuffy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They changed the color and the deign slightly. It used to be silver, now it's green apparently and it actually does look like a toy. I'd get one anyway.
p.s. 1 GB of hard drive space, not RAM. You really think they'd throw in 1 GB on a 500mhz hand-cranked budget machine? - JohnFranolich, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hi,
I have friends who help build two grade schools in Kenya with over 1000 kids each attending... it is a very nice gesture to send a $100 laptop, the basic problem is funding to build a school. The government provides teachers but not the structure to learn in. Kids with a school that has a cement floor learn much better because the rain will not turn the floor to mud an interrupt learning (when it does rain they move to one side where it is dry). It is a very noble thought to send laptops and I am not saying hey stop doing this but a school building can be built for $1000.00, I don't think this is a practical to have laptops when the rain comes in. Even if the laptops are water proof, the rain will still come in and interrupt the class... Maybe it is different in other countries? - WilliamTanksley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Many people above are questioning whether we should give these laptops instead of giving food, or training, or peace, or freedom, or who knows what else. This is bad thinking. These people don't need to be given things, and we can't base their economies on gifts from us. They need things that they can afford to earn for themselves, things that will allow them to be more productive and thus both to earn more and to be indispensable to more people. If they earn more, they will have food. If they are indispensable to enough people, they will have peace.
Gifts create war. Productivity creates peace. - bossm4n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Although a compelling concept it seems a bit misguided as many critics have already pointed out. My question is, why not work with kids in the US who could benefit from this instead of first shipping it to 3rd world countries?
And China, yes there are certainly many children there who live in poverty, but the Chinese could probably manufacture this for $3.50 and distribute it themselves. Whose side are you on Negroponte? - danlin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MIT is not in it to make money so I doubt there will be any of this "AOL Effect" sambearpoet is referring to. no one can afford to make this at this price and make any money at it.
- doxtorray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm sorry, but this is about the dumbest idea I've heard in a long time. Education is not about the tools. Better pencils don't improve learning. It takes good trained educators and parents who support the kids' learning. A cheesy laptop can't create that. I'm sure the kids will have fun playing games on them, though.
- rm999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it sounds cool, but i bet you it's slow, heavy, and the OS is very stripped down. It will work great for the people it is targeted towards, but in the first world adults have a lot more money and can afford something better and more compatible with their needs. The fact that they are giving it to kids indicates it is sort of a half toy-half computer.
- ricir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The story is not really new. I discussed this subject on my blog with some friends (in italian...) including a doctor living in Ivory Coast.
My friend stressed that what Africa most needs is peace.
Anyway, instead of a large scale distribution of laptops to individuals, he suggested that what could be really useful is to install cybercafes or equipped schoolrooms. Another similar and perhaps better solution is Ndyio (thin client: http://www.ndiyo.org/).
Some additional notes: the laptop should run Linux, howevere a reent article said that also Windows and MacOS could be supported:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113193305149696140-cUtsblUyn2m2An2GU36_kzrgUV8_20061114.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
Sorry for my poor English. - rudegeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's good news for all the developing places! Keep on rockin' MIT! :-)
- schultzeworks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Basic needs will be helped with more skills, education, and computer literacy. I don't think anyone is suggesting that this laptop will replace clean water or adequate medical care ... but it all helps.
- dbavaria, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No really, aren't there basic needs that need to be fulfiled in the third world before they have laptops and wifi?
- troydoogle7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1how about this for a deal, some enterprising company charge 200 USD for the laptop and that will pay for one to be sent to a developing country plus one to be sent to the lucky yank/ european geek that wants one.... I think Dell and some other companies might have problems with releasing the laptop in the West.......
- greenknight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The point is to deliver educational material to students. Instead of hauling heavy, bulky loads of books to remote areas, give each of the kids a laptop and send them their books electronically. Education is a basic need, it can give them the knowledge to better use the resources they have in order to meet their other needs.
- Chasin_Fat_Kids, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thank you Punk, I apologize. But I doubt they had you in mind of the 100 dollar laptop. My comment was meant to be humorous- making fun of the nation's perception of 3rd world countries. I ment no offense.
- rm999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1its 1 gig of flash memory, and 256 (or was it 128?) megs of ram. Obviously the 1 gig is being used to store the OS and other data, in place of a harddrive.
Oh, and to all the food and water comments - this thing is, in the short term, for countries that are wealthier than you may think (china, south africa, brazil). These countries don't have problems feeding its citizens, but they have been left behind in the digital first world due to money. An invention like this is great for those people, but as someone else pointed out, pretty useless for people like us who are probably posting on here with 2.0+ GHz computers.
The tablet/write screen thing is really cool though - I'd like to see more affordable laptops with those. But at a certain point, you are just getting into the PDA-wannabe range. - pavelich, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yeah think of of the poor kids in the us that could benefit from this. it seems we value advancing other countries more than we do the already falling behind youth of today. people need to realize that dropping absurd amounts of money into 3rd world countries is only a temporary solution. I just finished watching a special on tv where by teaching correct farming methods to a small town they increased there output from 5 bushels of product to 40. not you can understand why there is a food shortage because they can only produce that crappy amount. what are they going to do? take their new comps, surf the web, post an auction on ebay for the computer they are on now, ship it out and feed there family for the month. i mean comon this project is a little short sighted isnt it? there are still millions of students in this country that are dependent on the use of public computers, which in turn makes them less productive and sets them behind. unless this computer comes with some aids training and proper farming methods, i dont see the help in the next five years. the cost would be overwhelming, and i dont know what user said it but the 200 dollar us laptop which in turn pays for an overseas is not a bad idea. this makes me mad
- kevin_qnn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0^you can't compare a computer to a pencil. can you access google from your dixon ticonderoga?
- Jeremydennis1, on 03/12/2009, -0/+0It's a great article. I like it. I want to know the full configuration of it. This is useful for replacing books. That’s about the only benefit from this. It’s an education tool. It will never be something of a laptop to be used like me and you know a laptop. If this can show the text of 1000 different books. It’s worth its weight and price. But they should change the color and the design slightly. It should used to be silver.
Thanks.
Jeremy
<a href="<A class=user href='http://laptop-computers.co.za">laptop/' rel=nofollow jQuery1236849834892="350">http://laptop-computers.co.za">Laptop</ ... Computers </a> - Jeremydennis1, on 03/12/2009, -0/+0It's a great article. I like it. I want to know the full configuration of it. This is useful for replacing books. That’s about the only benefit from this. It’s an education tool. It will never be something of a laptop to be used like me and you know a laptop. If this can show the text of 1000 different books. It’s worth its weight and price. But they should change the color and the design slightly. It should used to be silver.
Thanks.
Jeremy
<a href="http://laptop-computers.co.za">Laptop Computers </a> - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A lot of you have never been to a third world country and know nothing you are talking about when you suggest we airlift food or something. These things are NOT going to the middle of the dessert, these are going to poor rural commmunities, as in farms, as in farms have food, as in these people arent starving, theyre just poor. I've been to a poor third world village, EVVERYONE had sufficient food, what they didnt have was technology.
- CiceroGuru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Negroponte truly believes that this will bridge the digital divide between east and west - but sadly it wont. There are so many basic infrastructure components that do not exist: power, cell coverage, stable government, rule of law etc.. that are non existent in the third world which will make this irrelevant for most.
Economic empowerment and entrepreneurship are the keys to flattening the world - look at China and India outsourcing / tech businesses as the prime example.
Governments that striving for status quo for the farthest behind are short sighted - instead the goal has to be empowering generational leaps ahead to the most willing and able - this idea has dragged the economies of China and India as peers onto the global economic and technology marketplace. - agent_smith, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0CiceroGuro:
"look at China and India outsourcing / tech businesses as the prime example"
While this may be great for India and China, it sucks major donkey sized balls for US people who work in tech and have to talk to these iddiots on the phone who cannot comprehend pre-kindergarten level English. - TomJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0FTA "launch a prototype"
- OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0He and his colleagues believe that equipping all children in the world with their own laptop will greatly improve the level of education and help stimulate children to learn outside of school as well as in the classroom.
Uhh.. I didn't have a laptop in school. Nor did I use my computer at home for school work for anything other than a fancy typewriter (until I got to college). I would probably have to say that cheaper books would make more sense than cheaper laptops. I'm sure you could equip a student with a full set of books for under $100. - orsoihaveheard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sounds great. Over here in my ivory ***** tower.
The third world needs basics not eCharity 2.0. Tents in Pakistan, food in the Cape, peace in sub-Sahara.
This Negroponte's Folly. Ambitious sure, plausible, no. Progressive enablement of classrooms and satellite fobbed cafes in remote areas are practical ways to start the process of lighting up Africa. - frozencaldera, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This guy is speaking at the University of Maine today.
http://calendar.umaine.edu/details.asp?eventid=1760 - BangoSkank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This pie in the sky stuff. I have heard a half of dozen stories like this in the past, it never gets out of the prototype phase.
- battybattybatt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Goddam verbose mode again!
- 42kami, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Give Nicholas Negroponte a Nobel Prize." He just unveiled the prototype an hour ago at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia. Laptops will be in childrens' hands next year.
The challenge now is in getting them into kids hands and keeping them there. The only way I see of preventing the development of secondary/black markets is to sell them to consumers as well, and rapidly reduce the cost as much as possible, until it becomes a commodity that everyone can have.
Secondly, there needs to be standardized courseware. This however will vary from country to country. It is easy for nations like Japan, which already have a national curriculum, but in the U.S., I don't see all 50 States agreeing on one core curriculum in a million years... - SirThom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"MIT to launch $100 laptop in 2 days"
They're launching the PROTOTYPE, people! - kiteflyer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0why thank you.
A little bit more about India I learned by talking to some Indian IT managers. It seems that back a bit, Unix was pretty common there. But with the offshore boom the whole place turned into a Microsoft shop. I know some people that are trying to get Linux into the big Indian consulting shop, but they are sneaking it in through the side door.
Sometimes it's not the side door:
"In India, open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people."
-- Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, May 28, 2003
This event would be fun:
http://foss.in/2005/
Any Indian/Pakistani diggers care to comment? All I know is by talking to people in Toronto. Do yo think that any the MIT box may end up being used a cheep Linux box in India? How about localization? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Once again, practicality is thrown to the wind. This will never work, long-term. If a family has a $100 laptop but no food, where do you think the laptop's gonna wind up?
- edmicman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0emachines comes up with a crappy underpowered laptop, sells it through tiger direct for 100 bucks, no one would want in.
MIT comes up with a crappy underpowered laptop, says no one who can actually afford is allowed to have it, and everybody wants in. Would all y'all who is begging for one really use it? It would be a gimmick for a few days, and then just be painful to use until you went back to your normal powered equipment. - mattclare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'd pay $200 for a legit, North American targeted version.
My hope would be the markup would go towards the project. My brand new PowerBook 1.5 is a little bit more Powerful than the MIT laptop (not that much though - bring on MacX86) but I can't hand crank the battery, I have to find a place to charge it, and I can't treat the thing like it cost $200.
It looks like Red Hat is providing the OS. Maybe the $200 handcrank Laptop should be "The Red Hat Laptop". Anything else they make would have to be a super computer, but when you sell something with a handcrank performance expectations are lowered. - agent_smith, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah....I emailed the guy at MIT and asked him why he thought it necessary to do this and not to help the thousands of the US that also do not have computers. I'm still awaiting my response from about a month ago. I dislike this entire plan. He is using US minds to create something that is only designed to be used in foreign soil...sounds like a contradiction and a misuse of our knowledge. It also suggests that he cares not of the people in the US that also exist that cannot afford a laptop.
- celeb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hrm.. think google funded part of this project?
- beyondmatt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't think most of the people here get it. MIT is not making this for profit. I would not be surprised if the $100 asking price is well below cost. The are making this so people in developing nations will have the tools to build up their society and economy and bring them into the 21st century, not so some college kids in New Jersey can save $500 on their next laptop. And those who think the money would be better spent dropping food from the sky are clearly not familiar with the old proverb: "Give a man a fish and feed him once, teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime." Clearly starving families will not be able to eat their Wi-Fi laptops, but the idea is to get these people started on a path out of their current economical situation and to a point where they can become self-sustaining, rather than perpetuating the third world's reliance on monetary assistance from the first world nations.
- duke_nate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nowhere in that article does it say it will be launched in 2 days.
- kiteflyer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I suspect that if they had tried to make this available in the US for the average person, they would have lost all funding.
I use a machine at home that is in fact less powerful than the MIT laptop (400 MHz and little ram), it's running Ubuntu. It's slow but it does mail and surfing just fine. A box like the MIT one would cut into the sales of low end computers. - ebenthurston, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this will be cool until the 2nd time you crank up the battery.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0leet... is this for EU to ?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0don't bash the idea becuase i would buy this but not a real labtop and guys what last time i checked there is nothing like this.
- capajc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've heard it's not good enough to play NetHack...
- kiteflyer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.linux-india.org/
This page scold give you an idea of the extend of the localization issue thought in India it seem that if you know how to use a computer, you also know English. - znxster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nice idea, once its executed...
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