MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-10-02 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] More on $100 laptops with a hand crank....
|
Brian Bergstein in Cambridge, Mass. | September 30, 2005 15:02 IST
The $100 laptop. Photograph: MITThe $100 laptop computers that
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers want to get into the
hands of the world's children would be durable, flexible and
self-reliant.
The machines' AC adapter would double as a carrying strap, and a hand
crank would power them when there's no electricity. They'd be foldable
into more positions than traditional notebook PCs, and carried like slim
lunchboxes.
For outdoor reading, their display would be able to shift from full
color to glare-resistant black and white.
And surrounding it all, the laptops would have a rubber casing that
closes tightly, because "they have to be absolutely indestructible,"
said Nicholas Negroponte, the MIT Media Lab leader who offered an update
on the project Wednesday.
________________________________________________________________________
FAQ on $100 laptop
What is the $100 laptop, really?
The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen
laptop that will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be
able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data. These
rugged laptops will be WiFi- and cell phone-enabled, and have USB ports
galore. Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.
Why do children in developing nations need laptops?
Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool
with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to 'learn
learning' through independent interaction and exploration.
Why not a desktop computer, or-even better-a recycled desktop machine?
Desktops are cheaper, but mobility is important, especially with regard
to taking the computer home at night. Kids in the developing world need
the newest technology, especially really rugged hardware and innovative
software. Recent work with schools in Maine has shown the huge value of
using a laptop across all of one's studies, as well as for play.
Bringing the laptop home engages the family.
In one Cambodian village where we have been working, there is no
electricity, thus the laptop is, among other things, the brightest light
source in the home.
Finally, regarding recycled machines: if we estimate 100 million
available used desktops, and each one requires only one hour of human
attention to refurbish, reload, and handle, that is forty-five thousand
work years. Thus, while we definitely encourage the recycling of used
computers, it is not the solution for 'One Laptop per Child.'
How is it possible to get the cost so low?
First, by dramatically lowering the cost of the 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.
Second, we will get the fat out of the systems. Today's laptops have
become obese. Two-thirds of their software is used to manage the other
third, which mostly does the same functions nine different ways.
Third, we will market the laptops in very large numbers (millions),
directly to ministries of education, which can distribute them like
textbooks.
Why is it important for each child to have a computer? What's wrong with
community-access centers?
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. Furthermore, there are many reasons it is important
for a child to 'own' something-like a football, doll, or book-not the
least of which being that these belongings will be well-maintained
through love and care.
What about connectivity? Aren't telecommunications services expensive in
the developing world?
When these machines pop out of the box, they will make a mesh network of
their own, peer-to-peer. This is something initially developed at MIT
and the Media Lab. We are also exploring ways to connect them to the
backbone of the Internet at very low cost.
What can a $1000 laptop do that the $100 version can't?
Not much. The plan is for the $100 Laptop to do almost everything. What
it will not do is store a massive amount of data.
How will these be marketed?
The idea is to distribute the machines through those ministries of
education willing to adopt a policy of 'One Laptop per Child.' Initial
discussions have been held with China, Brazil, Thailand, and Egypt.
Additional countries will be selected for beta testing. Initial orders
will be limited to a minimum of one million units (with appropriate
financing).
When do you anticipate these laptops reaching the market? What do you
see as the biggest hurdles?
Our preliminary schedule is to have units ready for shipment by the end
of 2006 or early 2007.
The biggest hurdle will be manufacturing 100 million of anything. This
is not just a supply-chain problem, but also a design problem. The scale
is daunting, but I find myself amazed at what some companies are
proposing to us. It feels as though at least half the problems are being
solved by mere resolve.
How will this initiative be structured?
The three principals at MIT are faculty members at the Media Lab:
Nicholas Negroponte, Joe Jacobson (serial entrepreneur, co-founder and
director of E Ink, and Seymour Papert (one of the world's leading
theorists on child learning).
Additional researchers include: Mike Bove, Mary Lou Jepsen, Alan Kay,
Tod Machover, Mitchel Resnick, and Ted Selker.
Organisationally, MIT will work with a small number of companies of
complementary skills to develop a fully working and manufactured laptop
(50,000 to 100,000 units) in fewer than 12 months, with an eye on
building about 100 million to 200 million units by the following year.
Five initial companies who have committed to this project are AMD,
Brightstar, Google, News Corporation, and Red Hat. MIT will also work
with the not-for-profit company One Laptop per Child (OLPC), as well as
with the 2B1 Foundation.
________________________________________________________________________
Negroponte hatched the $100 laptop idea after seeing children in a
Cambodian village benefit from having notebook computers at school that
they could also tote home to use on their own.
Those computers had been donated by a foundation run by Negroponte and
his wife. He decided that for kids everywhere to benefit from the
educational and communications powers of the Internet, someone would
have to make laptops inexpensive enough for officials in developing
countries to purchase en masse. At least that's Negroponte's plan.
Within a year, Negroponte expects his nonprofit One Laptop Per Child to
get 5 million to 15 million of the machines in production, when children
in Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand, South Africa are due to begin getting
them.
In the second year -- when Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney hopes to start
buying them for all 500,000 middle and high-school students in this
state -- Negroponte envisions 100 million to 150 million being made. (He
boasts that these humble $100 notebooks would surpass the world's
existing annual production of laptops, which is about 50 million.)
While a prototype isn't expected to be shown off until November,
Negroponte unveiled blueprints at Technology Review magazine's Emerging
Technologies conference at MIT.
Among the key specs: A 500-megahertz processor (that was fast in the
1990s but slow by today's standards) by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and
flash memory instead of a hard drive with moving parts. To save on
software costs, the laptops would run the freely available Linux
operating system instead of Windows.
The computers would be able to connect to Wi-Fi wireless networks and be
part of "mesh" networks in which each laptop would relay data to and
from other devices, reducing the need for expensive base stations. Plans
call for the machines to have four USB ports for multimedia and data
storage.
Perhaps the defining difference is the hand crank, though
first-generation users would get no more than 10 minutes of juice from
one minute of winding.
This certainly wouldn't be the first effort to bridge the world's
so-called digital divide with inexpensive versions of fancy machinery.
Other attempts have had a mixed record.
With those in mind, Negroponte says his team is addressing ways this
project could be undermined.
For example, to keep the $100 laptops from being widely stolen or sold
off in poor countries, he expects to make them so pervasive in schools
and so distinctive in design that it would be "socially a stigma to be
carrying one if you are not a student or a teacher."
He compared it to filching a mail truck or taking something from a
church: Everyone would know where it came from.
As a result, he expects to keep no more than 2 percent of the machines
from falling into a murky "gray market."
And unlike the classic computing model in which successive generations
of devices get more gadgetry at the same price, Negroponte said his
group expects to do the reverse. With such tweaks as "electronic ink"
displays that will require virtually no power, the MIT team expects to
constantly lower the cost.
After all, in much of the world, Negroponte said, even $100 "is still
too expensive."
Photograph and FAQ on $10 laptop from MIT.
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Share your comments
On Sun, 2005-10-02 at 22:04, Ruben Safir wrote:
> New York: One man in Boston has a plan that he hopes will bridge the
> world's gaping digital divide - and quickly.
>
> The visionary is Nicholas Negroponte, director of the Media Lab at the
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his idea consists of a new
> kind of laptop computer that will cost just $100 (about R636) to buy.
>
> It will also be a little different in design from the sleek machines
> some of us in the West have learned to love or covet.
>
> It will be foldable in different ways, encased in bump-proof rubber and
> will include a hand-crank to give it power in those corners of the globe
> where electricity supply is patchy.
>
> The first prototype of the machine should be ready by November and
> Negroponte - who was one of the first prophets of the internet before
> most of us understood the word - hopes to put them into production next
> year.
>
> He expects to churn out about 15 million of them in a year, shipping
> most of them at first to children in Brazil, Egypt, Thailand and South
> Africa.
>
> Describing the unusual design of his sub-laptop on Friday, Negroponte
> insisted that it would "have to be absolutely indestructible".
>
> The mission is to create a tool that children almost anywhere can use
> and can easily carry between their classrooms and their homes. For that
> reason, for instance, the AC adaptor cable will double as a shoulder
> strap.
>
> Inspiration for the project, which has backing from US companies
> including Google, came to Negroponte when he was travelling recently
> with his wife in Cambodia.
>
> He spotted children in a rural area carrying laptops - which the
> couple's foundation had donated - from school to their homes.
>
> To cut costs, the machines would have a 500-megahertz processor provided
> by Advanced Micro Devices, which is a little slow by today's
> lightning-speed standards.
>
> However, it would be set up for wireless connectivity, known as wi-fi,
> to give users the greatest chance of hooking up to the internet. It
> would run on a Linux platform rather than Microsoft's more expensive
> Windows.
>
> It is not the first time that someone has attempted to develop a
> rock-bottom price device to feed the potentially monumental market in
> developing countries for laptops.
>
> Part of the problem has been stopping donated machines leaking on to the
> commercial market.
>
> Negroponte said that his laptops would be so distinctive in design and
> look that stealing and reselling them would be akin to stealing
> furniture from a church. People would recognise where they come from. He
> thinks that no more than 2% of the devices would fall into that murky
> "grey market".
>
> Other features include being able to switch from a full colour screen to
> a monochrome, which will be easier to see in bright sunlight.
>
> In the first models, turning the crank for a minute will provide 10
> minutes of power. Negroponte says that he hopes that his machines will
> get cheaper and he expects the technology to improve. - Tribune Foreign
> Service
>
>
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