Annan to present prototype $100 laptop at World Summit on Information Society

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will unveil the first working prototype of the $100 laptop tonight at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Tunisia. Annan will be joined by Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and co-founder of the Media Lab at MIT, in presenting the laptop to the gathering.

The $100 laptop, first announced by Negroponte at the World Economic Forum in January 2005, is an ultra-low-cost, full-featured computer designed to dramatically enhance children's primary and secondary education worldwide. It is a joint project of the Media Lab and 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 $100 laptop is inspiring in many respects," said Annan. "It is an impressive technical achievement, able to do almost everything that larger, more expensive computers can do. It holds the promise of major advances in economic and social development. But perhaps most important is the true meaning of 'one laptop per child.' This is not just a matter of giving a laptop to each child, as if bestowing on them some magical charm. The magic lies within -- within each child, within each scientist-, scholar-, or just plain citizen-in-the-making. This initiative is meant to bring it forth into the light of day."

"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," said Negroponte. "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.'"

OLPC is a Delaware-based, nonprofit organization created by faculty members from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. These machines will be rugged, Linux-based, and so energy-efficient that hand-cranking alone will generate sufficient power for operation. Mesh networking will give many machines Internet access from one connection. The pricing goal is to start at approximately $100 and then steadily decrease.

The World Summit on the Information Society is the culmination of three years of planning, turning the global spotlight to developing strategies to bridge the digital divide and harness the power of information and communication technologies to spur progress towards the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals. More than forty-five heads of state and delegations from more than 150 nations are among the 16,000 attendees.

Source: MIT

Related stories:

Goodbye wires... MIT experimentally demonstrates wireless power transfer
Imagine a future in which wireless power transfer is feasible: cell phones, household robots, mp3 players, laptop computers and other portable electronics capable of charging themselves without ever being plugged in, freeing us from that final, ubiquitous power wire. Some of these devices might not even need their bulky batteries to operate.
OLPC Notebooks Delayed Until Fourth Quarter
A representative from the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative confirmed on Friday that notebook shipments will be delayed until the fourth quarter of 2007.
'The eyes have it' -- Autism research yields surprising results
Autistic children are able to interpret the mental state of others by looking at their eyes, contrary to previous research, a new University of Nottingham study has found.
$100 Laptop May Be at Security Forefront
(AP) -- The $100 laptops planned for children around the world might turn out to be as revolutionary for their security measures as for their low-cost economics.
The $100 laptop is coming
Some manufacturers Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen approached about producing and selling a laptop computer for $100 laughed at her. Despite this chiding and disbelief, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) chief technology officer has persevered, and the $100 laptop is on track to be shipped next spring.
One Laptop Project reaches critical stages
The One Laptop Per Child project, an effort spearheaded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Laboratory and joined by several corporate partners and international governments, has moved closer to completion. The effort, which is intended to provide tens of millions of children in developing nations with laptop computers, has reached several of its goals with full manufacturing and distribution of the units due in about 12 months time.
'One Laptop per Child' project continues
At a time when $100 might not buy the latest techno-gadget you've been lusting over, MIT's Media Lab thinks it can do something better: provide a laptop computer for a child in a developing country.
Internet socializing keeps time with the music scene
As music lovers mobbed an outdoor stage, vying for views of Radiohead, Beck and other rockers, Keith McPhail enjoyed a prime view of the show from a couch in an Internet "living room."

News discussion:

Electronic Devices news