bala4digit
Journeyman
Besides the unveiling of a $100 laptop, the UN technology summit discussed other ideas that will help narrow the digital divide between the developed and developing nations...
TUNIS: A UN technology summit was focused Thursday on bringing more communications, including Internet access, to developing countries where the cost has been too high and the technology too low-tech.
At the same time, several companies and organisations were unveiling their plans to bring the world closer and, in a sense, narrow the digital divide, by providing laptops that cost just $100 (Rs 4,500 approx) to portable, satellite-based radios that can pull in international programming from just about anywhere.
More than 16,000 people from 176 countries are attending the three-day summit.
Microsoft, the world’s largest maker of software, unveiled a new network of learning centres in Tunisia that will train people to be teachers in technology.
The effort is part of a joint push with UNESCO to make technology easier to understand and, ultimately, to spread its reach across Africa and Asia.
“We welcome this project for its scope and potential,� said Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO’s general director.
Jean-Phillippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International said that the year-old project has gained steam and the 200 centres it plans to open in Tunisia will be replicated elsewhere.
“The InfoYouth Centre represents the type of program that effectively addresses education and development issues to date,� he said.
Late Wednesday, a text-book sized laptop boasting wireless network access and a hand-crank to provide electricity was unveiled by Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman of MIT Media Lab.
The machines will sell for $100, making them accessible to millions of schoolaged children worldwide, he said. “These robust, versatile machines will enable children to become more active in their own learning,� UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters after the machine was unveiled. Negroponte said the aim is to have governments or donors pick up the cost of the machines with the children who receive them having full ownership. The first shipments are due in February or March. Negroponte did not say who would build the machine, which will cost $100 to make, but at least five are considering bids to do so.
He said the laptop, lime green in colour, would run on an open source operating system, such as Linux.
Negroponte said the laptops could become available on the commercial market, but at a higher price.
He said they were coloured lime, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and to fend off potential thieves. AP
*img294.imageshack.us/img294/5041/getimage4by.jpg
Nicholas Negroponte, right, and Mary Lou Jepsen present their $100 Laptop prototype at the UN Technology Summit that is currently being held in Tunis, Tunisia. According to the MIT Media Lab, it has launched a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop, a technology that it hopes will revolutionise how the world’s children are educated. The initiative was first announced by Nicholas Negroponte, Lab chairman and co-founder, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2005
WANNA BUY??!!!!
BYE!!!
-MOJOJOJO-
TUNIS: A UN technology summit was focused Thursday on bringing more communications, including Internet access, to developing countries where the cost has been too high and the technology too low-tech.
At the same time, several companies and organisations were unveiling their plans to bring the world closer and, in a sense, narrow the digital divide, by providing laptops that cost just $100 (Rs 4,500 approx) to portable, satellite-based radios that can pull in international programming from just about anywhere.
More than 16,000 people from 176 countries are attending the three-day summit.
Microsoft, the world’s largest maker of software, unveiled a new network of learning centres in Tunisia that will train people to be teachers in technology.
The effort is part of a joint push with UNESCO to make technology easier to understand and, ultimately, to spread its reach across Africa and Asia.
“We welcome this project for its scope and potential,� said Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO’s general director.
Jean-Phillippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International said that the year-old project has gained steam and the 200 centres it plans to open in Tunisia will be replicated elsewhere.
“The InfoYouth Centre represents the type of program that effectively addresses education and development issues to date,� he said.
Late Wednesday, a text-book sized laptop boasting wireless network access and a hand-crank to provide electricity was unveiled by Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman of MIT Media Lab.
The machines will sell for $100, making them accessible to millions of schoolaged children worldwide, he said. “These robust, versatile machines will enable children to become more active in their own learning,� UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters after the machine was unveiled. Negroponte said the aim is to have governments or donors pick up the cost of the machines with the children who receive them having full ownership. The first shipments are due in February or March. Negroponte did not say who would build the machine, which will cost $100 to make, but at least five are considering bids to do so.
He said the laptop, lime green in colour, would run on an open source operating system, such as Linux.
Negroponte said the laptops could become available on the commercial market, but at a higher price.
He said they were coloured lime, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and to fend off potential thieves. AP
*img294.imageshack.us/img294/5041/getimage4by.jpg
Nicholas Negroponte, right, and Mary Lou Jepsen present their $100 Laptop prototype at the UN Technology Summit that is currently being held in Tunis, Tunisia. According to the MIT Media Lab, it has launched a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop, a technology that it hopes will revolutionise how the world’s children are educated. The initiative was first announced by Nicholas Negroponte, Lab chairman and co-founder, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2005
WANNA BUY??!!!!
BYE!!!
-MOJOJOJO-