It is possible that Libya will become the first country in the world where all school-age children are connected to the internet through educational computers, he told the newspaper. "The US and Singapore are not even close," [Negroponte] said.That's Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of MIT's Media Lab (not the spook), who now heads a non-profit called One Laptop Per Child. OLPC's aim is to provide cheap, rugged laptop computers to schoolchildren in "developing countries." The MIT-developed computers cost about $100 each, need about 10% of the power "normal laptops" do, and - here's the catch - rely on free software such as Linux rather than Microsoft Windows to keep costs down.
Microsoft and Intel, reports The Guardian, have been "skeptical" about the project.
Whatever. Just figure you aren't gonna see a laptop for every US kid anytime soon.
2 comments:
I am sceptical too. Both about the technology, but also Libya's plans. Think those laptops will have unfettered Internet access? Or the content will be unbiased? I think not.
You may indeed be right. On the technology front, a $100 laptop with the kind of features described sort of seems too good to be true. There's a rumor Massachusetts is considering buying into this program for its schoolkids and if that turns out to be true I may get my hands on one someday. It'll be interesting to see what they can (or can't) do.
The access issue seems more a network matter than a property of the machine itself but yes, I have my doubts about access too. Still, it seems to me that in general a little access is better than no access at all, and there will be some subset of geeks who will figure out how to bypass the system, as is happening in China and elsewhere now.
Some have suggested that since Nicholas Negroponte is the brother of John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, it's the Libians who should be worrying about access. But that's another matter for another day.
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