Charitable Laptop for $100?

A project aired at the recent World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)in Tunis aims to allow thousands of children in the Third World to own a PC.

The $100 laptops are not yet in production and will not be available for sale - not in the short term, anyway. Initially, the laptops will be distributed to schools directly through large government initiatives. To achieve this goal, a new, non-profit association, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), has been created.

Known as the "Green Machine" because of its lurid lime green cover, the laptop can be used as a conventional computer, or as an electronic book. The laptop will be of rugged construction and include a crank for generating its own power. The laptops will be encased in rubber to make them durable and their AC adaptors will act as carrying straps. The laptop is being developed under the OLPC initiative to a budget of $100 (one hundred dollars) per machine.

The laptops will operate without a conventional hard-drive and use flash memory instead. To add localised flexibility, the project will use open-source software meaning that support for local content and languages can be accommodated easily.

The product was showcased in Tunis by Professor Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), supported by Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations. Professor Negroponte said the idea was that the laptops would be ubiquitous and their prominence would deter re-selling. Your editor feels he may need to rethink that one!

Kofi Annan urged leaders and stakeholders at the summit to do their utmost to ensure the initiative was fully incorporated into efforts to build an inclusive information society.

Although the laptop will initially be available to governments only, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is in talks with commercial manufacturers to make it available on the open market eventually.

World Summit on the Information Society

OLPC Initiative