$100 laptop presented
I blogged about this fantastic product idea back in September when it was a theory, but today, it’s a reality.
The hand-cranked laptop, shown for the first time at the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), operates at 500MHz, or about half the speed of commercial laptops. It features a low-power display that can be switched from color to black and white to allow viewing in bright sunlight. Many children in developing countries have school outside, Negroponte said.
The machine can be folded in different ways to serve as a computer, electronic book, or media player.
“We designed the device to perform many roles,” said Negroponte, who also heads the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit group. “Learning should be seamless.”
The computer will run “Linux or some other open-source operating system,” Negroponte said.
Applications will also be open-source based, and available in “every single language that people want,” Negroponte said. The MIT professor said he expects the open source community to jump at the opportunity to pitch in with this effort.
The computers will be free to schoolchildren. “Ownership of the computer is absolutely essential,” Negroponte said, pointing out that people generally take better care of things they own. “Have you ever washed a rental car?” he asked.
Choosing the colors–the body is lime green and the crank yellow–was one of the hardest decisions the group had to make, Negroponte said. The colors should convey “a message of playfulness,” he said.
This would be impossible without open source software, of course, in addition to the highly imaginative engineering. Open source is a fundamental force for democracy, modernization, and improvement of the Commons. I’m all for it. I’m also adding this to the “why MS’ operating system and office productivity arms are doomed, reason #320116″ pile.