UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Professor Nicholas Negroponte with a prototype of the laptop at WSIS in Tunis United Nations

One laptop per child

Another way to Connect the World

A flexible, rugged machine

The lime-green machine was designed by a team at MIT, led by Professor Negroponte. The laptops will be encased in rubber, allowing them to be carried around safely in most environments, and they will be energy efficient, so that they can be powered, if necessary, simply by hand-cranking. After turning the handle for one minute, the screen will be powered for about 40 minutes in black and white — which is easier to see in strong sunlight. However, the display will also be capable of working in full colour. In addition, the design allows the computers to be opened so that the screen can be viewed in different ways: for example, as a television, or as an electronic book.

According to OLPC, the price of each machine will be kept low by removing commercial profit margins and reducing distribution costs. A cheaper than normal screen will be used in the laptops, as well as a scaled-down 500 MHz processor with less memory than usual, so that a “lightweight” operating system is all that is needed. And that operating system is to be the “open source” Linux, which means that local adaptations can be made and shared without restriction, while also reducing costs.

Demonstration of the first working prototype of the USD 100 laptop at WSIS in Tunis, as part of the One Laptop Per Child initiative ITU 056264 / H. Dridi

Professor Negroponte says he hopes that mass production will begin before 2007, and it is planned that the computers will be distributed by ministries of education in each country — just like textbooks. In the programme’s first phase, the target is to distribute between five and 15 million machines, with a focus on remote and rural areas. In addition, MIT intends to support this effort by creating a centre in each country to impart the necessary technological and pedagogical skills to classroom teachers. The first countries to benefit are likely to be Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand and South Africa.

Discovering a new way of learning

The mission of OLPC is not merely to promote the production of inexpensive laptops for classroom use; it also aims to introduce children to the wider world of computing through giving them hands-on experience. The new laptop “embodies the new information culture, and fosters individual growth within that culture,” Professor Negroponte says, adding that “Just as language is best acquired by speaking it, a culture is best acquired by living it.”

The professor and his colleagues in the OLPC project view computers as supremely versatile learning tools, which are a gateway to not just facts, but also to new ways of thinking. Giving children access to the machines can create the innovative, educated citizens needed by the information society as it becomes a reality, and who, in turn, will thrive in the new environment. “The USD 100 laptop makes a new learning equation possible, one in which every child and adult is both learner and teacher,” says Professor Negroponte. “We are talking about transforming society. And this, of course, is what education should be about.”

This wider role in educating future citizens was also mentioned by Mr Annan. Speaking in Tunis at the launch of the laptop, he said the machines would be able to unlock “the magic within each child, within each scientist, scholar or plain citizen-in-the-making.” Lauding the initiative as a “truly moving expression of global solidarity,” Mr Annan urged governments at WSIS to incorporate the initiative into their efforts to build an information society.