Technovelopment Tools

For a few years now, Nicholas Negroponte and his colleagues at MIT have been working to engineer a fully functioning laptop that will sell for $100.  Through the "One Laptop Per Child Foundation", they hope to make computing power freely available to young people around the world, tackling the challenge of the digital divide head on.

What is the digital divide?  Basically, it's the notion that wealthy, educated individuals are quick to adopt new tools and new technologies.  They have the financial resources to afford the equipment, the ability to purchase educational "lessons" or tech support to learn how to use the tools, and a social environment that often spurs early adoption of new technology in  the same way that kids want the latest (and coolest) cell phone.  Those without the same resources find themselves "lagging" on the technological front, and over time a gap opens up between those who have and use new technologies, and those who find themselves increasingly distanced from those same technologies.  This gap is often labeled the digital divide.

This divide is a dangerous one in many ways... it's not just a question of who gets the best toys, or the best bells and whistles.  Technology is today's primary driver of productivity growth and efficiency, and technology links the diverse elements of the global logistics and supply chain.  Those without sufficient technological savvy and experience are in great danger of finding themselves left behind in the 21st Century economy.

Economic Developers have been worried for some time about those who might be left behind.  In the industrialized world, there have been some major efforts to bridge the digital divide.  Industry Canada, for example, a Canadian government agency, sponsors the Community Access Program (CAP), which builds public use computer facilities in small and rural communities, where training programs are delivered to help individuals become familiar with computer and Internet technologies that they might not otherwise be exposed to.

Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child Foundation has a similar goal, building on the idea that many children in poorer or developing countries will not normally have access to emerging computer technologies, with one of the primary barriers being cost.  As a result, the Foundation is seeking to develop the "$100 Laptop" - a computer so inexpensive and so versatile that it can be imported in mass quantities to communities - and children - across the developing world.  The children exposed to these laptops will have taken their first steps in bridging the digital divide.

Negroponte's team hasn't quite hit the $100 level yet... but for $200, they've got some pretty amazing machines.  Available in lots of 10,000 units, the buyers of these laptops will likely be other foundations, government agencies and charities.  But already, Negroponte and his team are preparing to ship as many as 200,000 laptops in early 2008 to countries including Uruguay, Peru and Mongolia.

The laptop uses just 2 watts of power (where normal laptops use as much as 40 watts), and relies on USB devices rather than hard drives.  They feature a multinlgual keyboard, a video camera, wireless capabilities and the open source Linux operating system.

The $100 laptop hasn't quite arrived yet, and it won't solve the challenge of the digital divide by itself, but it's a significant step.  Better yet, it's a powerful challenge to the rest of the IT world to start thinking along similar lines.  Already, Microsoft is looking to adapt its software to the $100 laptop.  Let's hope a lot more companies follow suit.

Next: What's Coming in the Tech World in 2008, and what does it mean for Development?