Skip Navigation

New Technologies: ICTs

Follow SciDev.Net on Twitter

Find us on Facebook

Features

  • Print
  • Comment
  • | Share

Bridging the digital divide with a self-powered laptop

Source: The Guardian

22 February 2005 | EN

Nicholas Negroponte

MIT

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, plan to provide laptops costing just US$100 to 100-200 million schoolchildren in the developing world by 2006.

But bridging the digital divide between rich and poor countries is not just about making a cheap product, it is also about making it usable in areas that have unstable electricity supplies, poor transport systems, and few trained computer technicians.

In this article, Clint Witchalls reports how Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists Nicholas Negroponte, Seymour Papert and Joseph Jacobson aim to overcome these problems. They are developing innovative ways of powering the machines, such as through the action of typing. The laptops are also being designed to be as robust as military equipment to prevent them being damaged in transit on poor roads.

Similar projects have failed before, Witchalls reports, but Negroponte has the advantage of experience in providing information and communication technologies to schoolchildren in poor rural communities. The plan has already received US$2 million from both Google and computer chip maker ADM, and samples should be ready by September this year.

Link to full article in the The Guardian

Add your comment

This is your network: share your views on any of our articles by adding your comments.

You need to be signed in to post a comment or to email a consenting comment author. Please sign in or sign up.

All comments are subject to approval and we reserve the right to edit comments containing inappropriate/unsuitable language. SciDev.Net holds copyright for all material posted on the website. Please see terms of use for further details.

All SciDev.Net material is free to reproduce providing that the source and author are appropriately credited. For further details see Creative Commons.

Back to Features
To the top

<
Science at Rio+20 by iStock/RapidEye

Latest on Rio+20

We track the news on science, technology and the Rio+20 Earth Summit
A globe with internet cables - Shutterstock

Speedy research

A new high-speed Internet link may boost data and research transfer between Africa and the rest of the world

From GM crops to forestry

Learn more about the challenges of feeding our growing population versus caring for our planet
A mobile phone - Flickr/kiwanja

African innovation

Two North Africans have scooped the first African Innovation Prize awards

Mrs. Chabayanzara follows podcast instructions to draw cattle vaccine, Zimbabwe - Lawrence Gudza

No local input, no impact

Pushing technology won't work without engaging poor communities, says Lawrence Gudza
Indian children pumping water - Flickr/pyjama

Uncovering innovation

Innovation is thriving in local communities all over the world
Flour mill on a scooter - SRISTI, Ahmedabad

Alternative innovation

Facts and figures on grassroots innovation — its champions, challenges and potential to promote sustainability