It is going to happen. I saw what will do it.

It is a small green box with a bright yellow wind-up crank - and a whole lot of digital circuits and such. It is a $100 lap top.

A guy named Nicholas Negroponte, working with some some very smart and very good people, is going to put this little box in to the hands of tens of millions of children the world over. Those little hands and those little minds will change the world.

And it all starts happening next year.

Phil Noble
Publisher

Even the cynical global press corps was visibly excited as they too knew what it meant. The excitement boiled over to near bedlam at the unveiling as the press jostled each other for the first photos.

Phil Noble talks with Negroponte about innovative ideas for global distribution and financing.

Inspired by a trip to a Cambodian village where he witnessed firsthand children benefiting from notebook computers at school that they could also tote home for personal use, Nicholas Negroponte decided that kids everywhere should should enjoy the educational advantages and communication powers of the Internet. "A lot of learning comes from explorations, interactions, curiosity. That's how we learned how to walk, how to talk. It's the kind of learning kids do very well. This [laptop] is a tool to make that more continuous,” explained Negroponte.

Negroponte’s non-profit, One Laptop Per Child, has teamed with MIT's Media Lab to develop a laptop with a price tag of less than $100, making it affordable for developing countries to purchase notebooks in bulk, and make one laptop for every child a reality. 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.

The trimmed Linux-powered laptop boasts the following specifications: 500 MHz, 1 Gbyte, 1 megapixel.

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. If just one laptop has direct access to the Net, others can easily connect to it and share a single online connection.

Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen, CTO of One Laptop Per Child and Phil Noble at the UN World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis.

The initiative is not only revolutionizing learning for children in developing countries, but also overhauling notebook design. The laptop’s durable, versatile, environment-proof design is constructed for rough- and-tumble, on-the-go kids.

The rubber-encased bright green laptop boasts a 7” color screen that switches from full color to glare- resistant black and white for outdoor reading. A child can control it using a cursor at the back of the machine or a touchpad on the front.

A cylindrical hinge allows for the machine to be folded in different ways to serve as a computer, electronic book, or media player. According to Negroponte, "The idea is that it fulfils many roles. It is the whole theory that learning is seamless."

The computer is powered by an AC adapter and, in case there is no electricity available, power can be generated with a hand crank. One minute of cranking will provide 40 minutes of power in black and white mode, but it is not clear yet how much cranking will be needed for the higher-power color mode. Finally, the power cord is embedded in a cover that can double as a carrying strap.
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Display
The first-generation machine may use a novel, dual- mode LCD display commonly found in inexpensive DVD players, but that can also be used in black and white, in bright sunlight, and at four times the normal resolution—all at a cost of approximately $35

Software/Hardware
Today's laptops have become obese, as MIT’s media lab explains, “two-thirds of software is used to manage the other third, which mostly does the same functions nine different ways.” The $100 laptop avoids these costs by starting from scratch with “skinny Linux — skinny open source." Using flash memory chips in place of a mechanical hard drive, and a low-powered processor to deliver enough performance for basic computing tasks and Internet access has also reduced the costs.

Production and marketing
Half the cost of a commercial laptop consists of sales, marketing, and distribution costs, as well as profit, costs that don't weigh down a laptop designed for a not-for-profit program. Instead, the $100 laptop can bypass marketing and be sold in bulk without concern for profit.

"One does not think of community pencils— kids have their own. They are tools to think with, sufficiently inexpensive to be used for work and play, drawing, writing, and mathematics. A computer can be the same, but far more powerful." --Nicholas Negroponte

Negroponte is conducting initial discussions with a dozen countries to distribute the first test systems to children. "The initial plan is to start with countries that are big and very different to each other," said Professor Negroponte. "We are launching with six countries initially, then six months later, as many countries as possible."

Those first countries include one in the Arab world, two Asian, one sub-Saharan, and South American nations. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva has agreed to buy a million, and Chile, Argentina, and Thailand are lining up. There's even interest in the United States - Governor Mitt Romney wants half a million for the kids of Massachusetts.

Children in the first participating countries may have a laptop in hand as early as 2006, when Negroponte plans to have the first computers in production. In the next three years, Negroponte hopes to have 150 million Laptops in production. A lofty goal, considering that PC makers will manufacture only 50 million laptops this year.

While the computer is not yet in production, talks continue with manufacturers to build the computers. One company has offered to build them for around $110 per unit, and four others are still considering. The price of the laptop will continue to fall as production increases.

Interviews
Negropon te Answers FAQ's on the $100 Laptop
Wired Interview with Negroponte