BBC News: UN debut for $100 laptop for poor

Last Updated: Thursday, 17 November 2005, 09:39 GMT

By Jo Twist
BBC News technology reporter in Tunis

A prototype of a cheap and robust laptop for pupils has been welcomed as an "expression of global solidarity" by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The green machine was showcased for the first time by MIT's Nicholas Negroponte at the UN net summit in Tunis.

He plans to have millions of $100 machines in production within a year.

The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning.

"Children will be able to learn by doing, not just through instruction - they will be able to open up new fronts for their education, particularly peer-to-peer learning," said Mr Annan.

He added that the initiative was "inspiring", and held the promise of special and economic development for children in developing countries.

Green machine

The foldable lime green laptop made its debut at the World Summit on the Information Society, which is looking at ways of narrowing the technology gap between rich and poor.

Nicknamed the green machine, it can be used as a conventional computer, or an electronic book. A child can control it using a cursor at the back of the machine or a touchpad on the front.

It can also be held and used like a handheld games console and can function as a TV.

"The idea is that it fulfils many roles. It is the whole theory that learning is seamless," said Professor Negroponte, who set up the non-profit One Laptop Per Child group to sell the laptops to developing nation governments.

"Studies have shown that kids take up computers much more easily in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote areas all around the developing world."

There has already been firm interest in the machines from governments, though no laptops have yet been manufactured.

Professor Negroponte said he had asked the most enthusiastic countries, Thailand and Brazil, not to give written commitments to buy the machines until they had seen the working model, likely to be produced in February.

There has also been interest in the machines from five manufacturers and three big brand name technology firms, but no firm commitments had been made.

Big name supporters

The laptops will be encased in rubber to make them durable and their AC adaptors will act as carrying straps.

They have a 500MHz processor, with flash memory instead of a hard drive which has more delicate moving parts, and four USB ports. They link up and share a net connection through "mesh networking".

Plans for the global domination of the children's laptop are ambitious.

"The initial plan is to start with countries that are big and very different to each other," said Professor Negroponte.

"We are launching with six countries initially, then six months later, as many countries as possible." Those include countries in the Arab world, two Asian, one sub-Saharan, and South American nations.

The project also has some big name supporters on board, including Google, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

But it will rely on open-source software so that support for local content and languages can easily be built.

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

To take part in the initiative, governments have to commit to buying a million machines for around $100 each.

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

"We really believe we can really make literally hundreds of millions of these machines around the world," Professor Negroponte said, as costs continued to drop.

He added that it was critical that children actually owned, instead of loaned, the machines.

To overcome the potential problem of secondary "grey markets" for the machines, Professor Negroponte said the idea was that they would be so ubiquitous and prominent it would deter potential re-selling.

"I hope there would be community pressure so it does not appear in the secondary market. The technology is in it so that the machine is disabled if not connected to the network after a few days," he added.

Sharing and collaborating

Technical breakthroughs have already driven the prototype design, but every technical breakthrough in the next five years would mean costs would continue to fall, he said.

Michail Bietsas, MIT's director of computer systems told the BBC News website that laptops benefited primarily from mesh networking, as a way of sharing scarce net connections.

One computer with a wi-fi or 3G net modem, for example, would share the connection with others in a classroom.

He explained that the display did not have a backlight or colour filters that more pricey LCD laptop displays used, so saved power. Instead, bright LEDs are used which reduced power consumption by a factor of 10.

The screens are dual-mode displays so that the laptop can still be used in varying light conditions.

Although children will be able to interact with each other through the machines, education was still the priority for the laptops.

But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale.

Collaboration will also be encouraged by using open-source software, which the children could develop themselves and use in local communities.

"Every single problem you can think of, poverty, peace, the environment, is solved with education or including education," said Professor Negroponte.

"So when we make this available, it is an education project, not a laptop project. The digital divide is a learning divide - digital is the means through which children learn leaning. This is, we believe, the way to do it."

Do ya think it can produce FOOD OR WATER? (sigh)

Well, there's enough food and water to go around, but there are control issues involved:

The So-Called Green Revolution
Follow-up on Green Revolution

A deeper look at the root causes of hunger will reveal that any claim that world hunger is caused by a lack of food is simply a self-serving agribusiness myth. In reality, food production has kept pace with population growth. Studies conducted by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) clearly indicate that it is abundance, not scarcity, that best describes the world's food supply. Every year, enough wheat, rice, and other grains are produced to provide every human with 3,500 daily calories. In fact, enough food is grown worldwide to provide 4.3 pounds of food per person per day, which would include two and a half pounds of grain, beans, and nuts, a pound of fruits and vegetables, and nearly another pound of meat, milk, and eggs....

If we have plenty of food to feed today's population and to support population growth for the foreseeable future, why do 800 million people still go hungry every day? One basic cause is food dependence. The industrial system has, over centuries and in virtually every area of the globe, "enclosed" farmland, forcing subsistence peasants off the land, so that it can be used for growing high-priced export crops rather than diverse crops for local populations. The result of enclosure was, and continues to be, that untold millions of peasants lose their land, community, traditions, and most directly their ability to grow their own food-their food independence. Removed from their land and means of survival, the new "landless" then flock to the newly industrialized cities where they quickly become a class of urban poor competing for low-paying jobs and doomed to long-term hunger or starvation. The victims of enclosure are becoming ever more numerous. Just 50 years ago, only 18 percent of the population of developing countries resided in cities; by the year 2000 the figure jumped to 40 percent. Unless current policies change, by 2030 it is estimated that 56 percent of the developing world will be urban dwellers. A United Nations report has found that close to 50 percent of this urban population growth is due to migration, much of it forced, from rural to urban communities.

No, there isn't enough food (edible food) to go around. Don't get me started on WATER the most precisious..... Your country is looking at our country for WATER? Don't get me started on the distruction of lands, Watch a kiddie movie "Fern Gully" (sp) and see how machines obliviate nature.
Some yoyo phoned me this week surveying what we thought of a new parkland along our rivervalley. I said; "leave it alone". People in Edmonton have lots of places to walk, no need for more taxpayer spending. That's a long story short....

You might look into why your country is running out of drinkable WATER?

The "Green Revolution" refers to the promotion of genetically modified crops by large agribusiness corporations. It has nothing to do with environmentalism or the Green Party. You should read the critique that I linked to, it's quite informative:

http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2006/01/so-called-green-revolution.html
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2006/01/follow-up-on-green-revolution.html

Another quote:

Monocultures and uniformity increase the risks of crop failure as diverse seeds adapted to diverse ecosystems are replaced by rushed introduction of unadapted and often untested seeds into the market. When Monsanto first introduced Bt Cotton in India in 2002, the farmers lost Rs. 1 billion due to crop failure. Instead of 1,500 Kg / acre as promised by the company, the harvest was as low as 200 kg. Instead of increased incomes of Rs. 10,000 / acre, farmers ran into losses of Rs. 6400 / acre.

In the state of Bihar, when farm saved corn seed was displaced by Monsanto's hybrid corn, the entire crop failed creating Rs. 4 billion losses and increased poverty for already desperately poor farmers.

...

Third World agriculture today exists in the context of a colonial history where peasant cultivators were pushed off of the best land and onto marginal land, and the most fertile, level land was used for plantation farming of cash crops. It is a myth that Third World hunger results mainly from primitive farming techniques, or that the solution is a technocratic fix. Hunger results from the fact that land once used to grow staple foods for the people working it is now used to grow cash crops for urban elites or for the export markets, while the former peasant proprietors are without a livelihood.

Oooops.
Thanks for the links, hubby will want a printout on this info, he's the seed/farming/science pro in the family ..

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Replying to:

The "Green Revolution" refers to the promotion of genetically modified crops by large agribusiness corporations. It has nothing to do with environmentalism or the Green Party. You should read the critique that I linked to, it's quite informative:

http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2006/01/so-called-green-revolution.html
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2006/01/follow-up-on-green-revolution.html

Another quote:

Monocultures and uniformity increase the risks of crop failure as diverse seeds adapted to diverse ecosystems are replaced by rushed introduction of unadapted and often untested seeds into the market. When Monsanto first introduced Bt Cotton in India in 2002, the farmers lost Rs. 1 billion due to crop failure. Instead of 1,500 Kg / acre as promised by the company, the harvest was as low as 200 kg. Instead of increased incomes of Rs. 10,000 / acre, farmers ran into losses of Rs. 6400 / acre.

In the state of Bihar, when farm saved corn seed was displaced by Monsanto's hybrid corn, the entire crop failed creating Rs. 4 billion losses and increased poverty for already desperately poor farmers.

...

Third World agriculture today exists in the context of a colonial history where peasant cultivators were pushed off of the best land and onto marginal land, and the most fertile, level land was used for plantation farming of cash crops. It is a myth that Third World hunger results mainly from primitive farming techniques, or that the solution is a technocratic fix. Hunger results from the fact that land once used to grow staple foods for the people working it is now used to grow cash crops for urban elites or for the export markets, while the former peasant proprietors are without a livelihood.

People move to the desert Southwest and proceed to plant lawns, flower gardens, wash their cars, etc. The aquifer is being destroyed. I'm sure there are schemes to divert Great Lakes water off as well as Canadian water. Good for Canada for saying NO. Just watch out that Osama isn't seen up there somewhere, the US might have to "spread some democracy".

Years ago I heard that Great Lakes water was already being diverted, that's why the water levels are so low. I don't have written proof tho :-( There is a marina near my hometown where a group of people had to hire a dredger so folks could get their boats out onto the river. That was about 5 years ago . Our water levels are horribly DOWN up here as well. Hubby and I took the pups for a quad ride today. Drove onto a local lake to let them run. You can see how low the waterlevel is there.

Little Snoops looks funny running on ice trying to keep up with our Border Collie. That pup is all ears ;-) His front legs are almost normal and I clocked the little guy at 20 kilometers an hour

Someday JS, water will be our greatest treasure ...

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Replying to:

People move to the desert Southwest and proceed to plant lawns, flower gardens, wash their cars, etc. The aquifer is being destroyed. I'm sure there are schemes to divert Great Lakes water off as well as Canadian water. Good for Canada for saying NO. Just watch out that Osama isn't seen up there somewhere, the US might have to "spread some democracy".