Posted on 11/17/2005 6:57:53 AM PST by jjm2111
TUNIS, Tunisia - A U.N. technology summit was focused Thursday on bringing more communications, including Internet access, to developing countries where the cost has been too high and the technology too low-tech.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and Senegalese President H.E. Wade were among the leaders scheduled to address the World Summit on the Information Society, which ends on Friday.
At the same time, several companies and organizations were unveiling their plans to bring the world closer and, in a sense, narrow the digital divide, by providing laptops that cost just US$100 (euro85) to portable, satellite-based radios that can pull in international programming from just about anywhere.
[snip]
Microsoft Corp., the world's largest maker of software, unveiled a new network of learning centers in Tunisia that will train people to be teachers in technology.
[snip]
Late Wednesday, a text-book sized laptop boasting wireless network access and a hand-crank to provide electricity was unveiled by Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman of MIT Media Lab.
The machines will sell for US$100, making them accessible to millions of school-aged children worldwide, he said.
[snip]
Negroponte said the aim is to have governments or donors pick up the cost of the machines with the children who receive them having full ownership.
[snip]
Negroponte said he expects 1 million of them to be sold to those countries. He did not say who would build the machine, which will cost US$110 to make, but at least five are considering bids to do so.
He said the laptop, lime green in color, would run on an open source operating system, such as Linux.
[snip]
He said they were colored lime, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and to fend off potential thieves.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
dear mr negroponte needs to pay for this out of his pocket, because when he mentions govts, i know im somehow going to get a bill for one of these things. and just how long will these computers work in third world environment, where people often share their home with the livestock? dirt floors, etc etc. but the most important thing is will there be a help desk in india to help when experiencing problems with your machine?
And quit calling them developing countries, they haven't developed in 2000 years!
Screw them, we'll start our own Internet.
Oh wait, we did.
How about bridging the freedom gap and shutting down the despots around the world?
Oh wait, the UN supported Saddam's terror regime which had rape rooms, cut the hands off of prisoners, sponsored terrorism, and bought the silence of criticism from some with millions in misdirected oil sales.
Hey, instead of forcing Africa into the 21st century, let's pay for some tech that will be used to hammer fenco posts into the ground for goat pens.
Hush. They ARE developing all sorts of new online scams, like the email scampaign to "smuggle" Nigerian funds into American citizens bank accounts (only to actually loot those accounts).
So maybe they aren't as low tech as I thought?
This is the globalized version of "The Little Red Hen."
This is so stupid! They're putting hand cranks on these things to generate electricity because they have none now! How about bringing them into the 19th century first...then worry about the computers after that happens!
An example of why poor countries are poor:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/charity.htm
'Charitable Corruption'
I doubt this MIT thing will come off as planned although it is getting massive media coverage.
Why would any American companies go somewhere where the murderer Qadafi is speaking?
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