The Hindu : International : Laptops for the kids

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 06, 2005

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International

Laptops for the kids

CAMBRIDGE (MASSACHUSETTS), APRIL 5. In a rural Cambodian village where the homes lack electricity, the night-time darkness is pierced by the glow from laptops that children bring from school. They were equipped with notebook computers by a foundation run by Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and his wife, Elaine.

"When the kids bring them home and open them up, it is the brightest light source in the home," said Mr. Negroponte. "Parents love it." He and some MIT colleagues are at work on a project they hope will brighten the lives and prospects of hundreds of millions of developing world kids. It is a grand idea and a daunting challenge: to create rugged, Internet and multimedia-capable laptop computers at a cost of $100 (about Rs. 4,400) apiece.

Mass produced

The laptops would be mass-produced in orders of no smaller than one million units and bought by governments, which would distribute them.

Ambitious projects to bridge the digital divide in the developing world at low cost have had a shaky track record. Perhaps the best example is the Simputer, a $220 handheld device developed by Indian scientists in 2001 that only last year became available and is not selling well.

But Mr. Negroponte and MIT colleagues are not deterred. For one, three corporate partners have committed an initial $2 millions apiece to the initiative and pledged to serve as suppliers for the "one laptop per child" project: California-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which will bring expertise in processors; "Do No Evil" search engine king Google and News Corp., Rupert Murdoch's U.S. media company with global satellite capabilities.

Ubiquitous

The mission: to make laptops as ubiquitous as mobile phones in technology-deprived regions. Mr. Negroponte's pitch: The cost of a laptop comes in far lower than a child's textbook expenses for the computer's lifespan. "It is a way of having the children be the agents of change," he said. "They bring the device home, and then the parents look over their shoulder." He thinks it is extremely important that individual children own laptops; it will ensure they will be well-maintained.

In design and function, Mr. Negroponte wants the $100 laptop to "be so close to the current laptops as to be nearly indistinguishable," but acknowledges that the machine will have a relatively slow processor and modest storage capacity paired with barebones software. The biggest challenge, he says, is designing a display that does not put the price out of reach or drain the battery too quickly.

Details are still being worked out, but here is the MIT team's current recipe: Put the laptop on a software diet; use the freely distributed Linux operating system; design a battery capable of being recharged with a hand crank; and use newly developed "electronic ink" or a novel rear-projected image display with a 30-cm screen. Then, give it Wi-Fi access, and add USB ports to hook up peripheral devices.

`Real challenge'

Most important, take profits, sales costs and marketing expenses out of the picture. "The technology challenge is real, and you need to make some breakthroughs, but most of the money is saved in other ways," said Mr. Negroponte, who pitched the project in January at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the annual confab of global powerbrokers.

He has also met Chinese and Brazilian officials to discuss expected orders and production in those countries, which would create local jobs. Two prototypes have been built, and test units could be shipped by the middle of next year. The project would essentially be non-profit, with about $90 covering hardware for each computer and an extra $10 for contingencies or a small profit margin depending on how each government's order is structured.

Out of the box, the $100 laptops will be able to communicate with one another using peer-to-peer mesh networking. That does not directly solve the Internet or electricity problem, though.

`Holy grail'

Andy Carvin, director of the Newton-based non-profit Digital Divide Network, applauds the project's goals, calling an extremely low-cost, durable laptop "one of the holy grails of bridging the digital divide." But he said increasingly sophisticated and versatile wireless handhelds may gain favour over laptops as the developing world's online tools of choice. "That is not to suggest we should not have an inexpensive laptop," Mr. Carvin said. "They are parallel tracks, and it is probably a healthy competition to have both."

The digital divide remains vast: The technology research firm IDC examined 53 countries and determined that a household in Canada was 131 times more likely to own a personal computer than one in Indonesia — hardly the world's least tech-oriented country.

The U.S. trailed Canada at second place by that measure in rankings that examined computer use in countries that fall in the top third for advanced technology use.

Mr. Negroponte says his promotion of the $100 laptop project at the World Economic Forum meeting has helped it gain momentum. "People are now calling me saying, `We would like to participate, and not only can we participate, but we can do it cheaper, or we can create better performance in this laptop,'" he said. "People are saying, `My God, this is real.'"

— AP

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