Werner

Object From The Future

(editing currently in progress)

The 100 Dollar Laptop

The $100 laptop is an ultra-low-cost, full-featured computer designed to dramatically enhance children's primary and secondary education worldwide. It is the central project of the nonprofit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) association, which aims to equip the world's schoolchildren and their teachers with a personal, portable, connected computer.

The project was proposed in January 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switserland by Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of MIT Media Lab. The idea is that governments pay roughly $100 for the laptops and distribute them for free to students in the lesser developed nations. The idea was very popular and in the months after the Forum, Negroponte started an non-profit organization called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) which devoted time and effort into getting as much parties involved as possible in order to create a prototype.

Change

According to Nicholas Negroponte, 'Children are the greatest natural resource of any country, and educating these children is at the root of solving our largest and most complex problems.' Nicholas continues, 'Yet the best education may not come from sitting in a traditional classroom, but rather through independent interaction and exploration. The development of a $100 laptop will now make this possible for all kids -- especially those in developing nations. It will redefine how we 'learn learning.' '

Growth

At the moment, a few prototypes have been created

Non-Profit Group 'One Laptop Per Child' Proposed in January 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switserland Governments pay roughly $100 for the laptops and distribute them for free to students. 'Education Project, not a laptop project' Grassroots movement;'Open Source Education' in line with Linux and Wikipedia Wind-up Powered Initiative of Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of MIT Media Lab in collaboration with the UN Targeted production; 150 milion per year Thailand, China and India have expressed their interest

The proposed design of the machines calls for a 500MHz processor, 1GB of memory and an innovative dual-mode display that can be used in full-color mode, or in a black-and-white sunlight-readable mode. The display makes the laptop "both an electronic book and a laptop," he said.

Power for the new systems will be provided through either conventional electric current, batteries or by a windup crank attached to the side of the notebooks, since many countries targeted by the plan do not have power in remote areas, Negroponte said.

The machines, which will run a version of the Linux operating system, will also include other applications, some developed by MIT researchers, as well as country-specific software. "Software has gotten too fat and unreliable, so we started with Linux," he said.

For connectivity, the systems will be Wi-Fi- and cell phone-enabled, and will include four USB ports, along with built-in "mesh networking," a peer-to-peer concept that allows machines to share a single Internet connection.

"In emerging nations, the issue is not connectivity," Negroponte said. "That was the issue, but there are many people working on it, (thanks to) global competitiveness. But for education, the roadblock is the laptop."

Five companies are working with MIT to develop an initial 5 million to 15 million test units within the year: Google, Advanced Micro Devices, News Corp., Red Hat and BrightStar, Negroponte said. He said the current plan is to produce 100 million to 150 million units by 2007.

While the initial goal of the project is to work with governments, Negroponte said MIT is considering licensing the design or giving it to a third-party company to build commercial versions of the PC. "Those might be available for $200, and $20 or $30 will come back to us to make the kids' laptops. We're still working on that," he said.

Steve Ballmer being first in proposing a $100 pc, only for different purposes;

References

One Laptop Per Child website

MIT Techtalk volume 50, number 9

One Laptop Per Child Wiki

Steve Ballmer Interview on Piracy

Werner Heijstek March 19th, 2006