News this morning that Intel has finally decided to come to the party and help the One Laptop Per Child Foundation.
OLPC was set up by Nicholas Negroponte of Wired Magazine and MIT fame. Basically it seeks to produce a rugged, multi powered and simple laptop that sells for around USD100 and to send a gazillion of them to the third world in order to…. well in order to solve their problems I guess (although to be honest the majority of problems in the third world stem from lack of food and lots of disease – laptops won’t help much with this but I guess education is a medium/long term play to solve the problems).
Anyway – it’s good to see Intel get behind the project, the lateness of their entry is a bit of a PR disaster but better late than never.
I know we aren’t technically the third world but I would be a starter for a basic laptop for kids – every kiwikid should have a laptop of their own (and free broadband access)- not just the kids of the wealthy.
David – I agree that it would be useful for Kiwi kids but I also fear that the third world is exactly where we are heading unless we can turn around our woeful social, economic and educational record.