In December 2005, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced with great fanfare a project to close the so-called digital gap between the children of rich and poor countries.

The way to do it, he declared, is via a small but powerful $100 laptop designed for school-age children in the Majority World. It’s an initiative developed by a U.S. organization called One Laptop per Child (OLPC), and the brain-child of computer-booster Nicholas Negroponte.

The prototypes will allow users, even those without electricity, to communicate with their schoolmates and anyone else around the world via wireless internet. The plan is to get various countries to purchase in bulk and then have the little machines distributed to children for free.

The $100 laptop has been hailed and criticized in equal doses. The project raises many questions about appropriate technology and the transfer of Western development models to other parts of the world. Is this nothing more than a Trojan Horse to sweep poor children into the maws of consumerism, driven of course by the English-predominant internet? Or, regardless of the motives of its developers, does the little device have some potential as an educational and communications tool with real benefits?

On seeing the first prototype unveiled last December a commentator from Mali remarked, “If you live in a mud hut what use is that computer for your children who don’t have a doctor within walking distance.” Others see it as the product of a U.S. mind-set focused on gadgets and a technological fix.

A different critique has been voiced by the UK charity Computer Aid International. Its founder claims that the project won’t be successful because it is based on “a misunderstanding of the history of technology. They are looking to introduce a non-standard, untested platform…” and “the decision to buy will be made by politicians.”

One key decision in the design is to use non-commercial software, i.e. not Microsoft Windows. This illustrates the political and economic issues involved, and reminds us that news coverage of the project should not focus solely on the technology (after all open source Linux has been around since 1991). Some economists believe that the OLPC initiative threatens the market share of Microsoft and Bill Gates, true to form, has openly attacked the project.

Negroponte, no stranger to corporate technology through his ties to Motorola, Inc. and MIT’s Media Lab, has convinced many people to pony up. In an interview with the People’s Daily Online, in China, he enthused. “I created OLPC because it will not happen otherwise. Free market forces will not bring the cost down sufficiently. This project is a humanitarian effort, meant to make learning available to the poorest and most remote children.”

The machine is hardly a toy or some think-tank gizmo confined to the nerds at MIT. Corporate participants include Google, Redhat, AMD, and somewhat ominously, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (will they be donating The Simpsons or Fox News?) Apparently Canada’s Nortel has also signed on for a $2 million contribution and will provide expertise with the wireless features. Quanta, of Taiwan, the world’s foremost laptop maker, snared the production contract but in keeping with the globalized computer industry’s move into China, Quanta will manufacture the machines at their Shanghai factory, a facility with much lower labour costs than Taiwan.

There are some fascinating elements to the design. The little machine combines and recombines elements that have been around for a while — the windup and foot-pedal power mechanisms (as seen in radios); robust word and data processing software; and some brand new elements such as the LED screen that draws less power, and wireless access to networks through a so-called mesh system. The newest prototype features rounded “horns” which house the Wi-Fi antennas.

What makes some of this possible is Negroponte’s emphasis on education and a slightly different economic model. The pedagogy underlying the project stems from a type of learning-by-doing approach, known as constructivism, whose main proponent is MIT professor Seymour Papert, himself a sometime follower of Jean Piaget. In terms of the economic model, the machines will be cheap not simply because of their free software but also because they’ll be made in huge quantities and according to fixed pre-orders from governments.

In the newest development, the Lagos Vanguard newspaper announced on July 11 that Nigeria has recently ordered one million units. In response to my query, however, an OLPC press officer in the U.S. said that the Nigeria article was “mis-informed.” Perhaps the newspaper employed some degree of wishful thinking, which may be an indication of interest. Several other states have expressed strong interest, including Brazil, Argentina, Egypt and Thailand. Negroponte continues to predict that distribution will begin in 2007, so this is an ongoing story sure to draw continued media attention.

The prime ingredient for success and value for children might well turn on the influence that participating countries can exert on the design and implementation. Nigeria’s investment should bring it some clout and Brazil’s President Lula (not someone to suffer U.S. corporate designs) has, since 2003, been spearheading a campaign called Computers for Everyone.

In a world in which two billion people still live in areas with no mobile phone coverage the desire to communicate runs very high indeed. There could be a future for the little machine.

Peter Steven

Peter Steven

Peter Steven is the author of The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Media, 2nd ed. (Between the Lines, 2010); The News (Groundwood, 2011); and About Canada: Media (Fernwood, 2011). He is Professor of Film...