INTERVIEW : $100 LAPTOP FOR WORLD’S POOR UNVEILED Mithre J. Sandrasagra Fiddling with the prototype for a low-energy green laptop designed for children in developing countries, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have inadvertently shown up some of the concerns that critics have with the machine. Annan easily broke the wind-up crank which powers the $100 computer.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled a prototype of a $100 laptop aimed at poor children of the world at a specially organised high-profile media extravaganza held during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis. The low-energy green laptops, powered by a wind-up crank, are the key to the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative introduced by Annan and the laptop’s developer, Professor Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab.

The laptops are to be financed mainly through domestic resources and donors at no cost to the recipients themselves. They are to be distributed through education ministries using established textbook channels, Annan said.

Universal access to the world's knowledge without limitation of wealth, location or social position is a magnificent idea and no one at the summit is disputing that. Negroponte and the Media Lab are developing a tool that will change the world; however, many experts here feel that much more work has to be done before the computers are distributed.

TerraViva spoke with Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of the Harvard-based Global Voices about the OLPC programme and the prototype laptop unveiled here. Global Voices (www.globalvoicesonline.org), a project of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, is a non-profit global citizens’ media project. It is a place where people can go to read internet-logs or ‘blogs’ posted by people all over the world – China, Bangladesh, Haiti, Senegal, Tunisia to name a few – on a variety of topics.

Q: People in developing countries usually have a hard time finding money to feed their families, how will they afford to maintain this $100 laptop?

A: Negroponte’s answer is that ‘people tend to take care of what they own.’ He gives the example that ‘People don’t wash rental cars.’ There is much more to it than that. Kofi was fiddling with it and broke the hand crank yesterday. Their hope is for the children themselves to start repair clinics as they become more familiar with the machines.

Q: Will the manufacturers of the machines accept the computers back for repairs?

A: Sending the computers back is a good idea. For that though, local collection points would be required. Many more questions need to be asked. Negroponte is a ‘techie.’ He has done a great job getting the dialogue started.

Q: What about disposal of the machines which will have a five year shelf life at best?

A: All computer batteries have heavy metals, etc. Joris Komen, of School Net (www.schoolnet.na), a non-profit provider of internet service, hardware and training to Namibia’s schools is very concerned about this. ‘How do we make sure that they don’t end up in landfills and become toxic waste?’ is one of the questions that needs to be answered before these computers start going out. We need more questions and research on the sustainability of this computer.

Q: Given that currently the global production of laptops is under 50 million, can the $100 laptops be built and shipped in the quantities that Negroponte is promising - 100 million to 150 million every year by 2007?

A: The computers have to be manufactured in those kinds of numbers if the price point of $100 is to be achieved. It costs as much to make one microchip as to make one million microchips. The cost lies in setting up the manufacturing infrastructure. The more they build the cheaper they can make the computer. This computer will change the global laptop market because of the scale of its production.

Q: Where will the computers be built?

A: They have to be built by huge manufacturing companies. They will probably be built in China. Another question that remains unanswered is whether local manufacturers in the target countries for the laptop will be allowed licences to set up companies to build them.

Q: Many experts I have spoken to at the WSIS have complained that<