SnapperTalk

You may have seen the “One Laptop Per Child” machine finally announced yesterday by Kofi Annan at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Tunisia. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. Prototypes indicate the Linux-based screens will be rugged, encased in rubber, have a sunshine-readable screen, sport a 500MHz processor, mesh networking capabilities, four USB ports, and will be so energy-efficient that hand-cranking alone will generate sufficient power for operation. The mesh networking will be used to give many machines Internet access from one connection.

The thing is there are already many in the western world who would actually quite like one of these stripped-down go-anywhere machines themselves… One of the best solutions I have seen is to sell them for $200 in the West on a “Buy-Two, Get One” deal. You pay for two machines costing you $200, and get one for yourself with the other being given to a kid in the third world, along with your email address (if you agree), so that you can keep in touch and maybe learn from each other.

Sounds like an excellent idea.