United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and a leading United States IT expert, Nicholas Negroponte, on Wednesday unveiled the bright green and yellow working prototype of a $100 laptop aimed at millions of schoolchildren in poor countries.
The robust wind-up laptop with low power consumption is meant to be the backbone of an educational project to distribute the internet-connected computers at no cost to their future owners.
”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,” Annan told reporters at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
”Studies and experience have shown repeatedly that kids take to computers much more readily, not just in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote rural areas of the developing world,” he added.
Nicholas Negroponte, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory in the US, said he is aiming to launch the laptop in about two years.
He said he hopes small quantities, several thousands, will be produced this year and more than 100-million by the end of 2006 or 2007.
The non-profit ”One Laptop per Child” project is aiming to eventually open up the way for supplementary parallel sales by a commercial partner in wealthy countries.
However, distribution in the primary developing markets will be financed by donors or national governments and channelled through the same networks used to bring textbooks to schools, Negroponte said.
Initial launches are being lined up in six ”big” countries — one in the Middle East, two in Asia, one in sub-Saharan Africa and two in Latin America.
Negroponte only identified Brazil and Thailand as the ”most enthusiastic” governments. Discussions were also held with China and Egypt.
Talks were under way with several potential industrial partners, including one major computer maker.
Negroponte said the laptop will rely on economies of scale to keep the price down, as well as some innovative technology especially for the colour screen and web or network connections.
Some of the components still have to be tested.
The compact laptop and its protective support can fold through different positions to turn it from a computer into an electronic book, a games machine and a television set.
”The idea is to have it play many roles so that the child takes it home, uses it for play, study. The whole theory is that learning is seamless; it’s not something you just do at school,” Negroponte said.
The inventors also want to rely on free-distribution open-source software.
Supporters of the project include the web search engine Google, computer chip maker AMD and US-based media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
A slightly embarrassed Annan inadvertently broke the crank handle of the non-functioning model on display as he left. — Sapa-AFP