Debating The Best Way To Spread Technology

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Laboratory, has sparked an ongoing debate about how best to bring technology to the developing world. Negroponte has created a nonprofit organization called One Laptop Per Child to develop a $100 laptop to be marketed to countries with limited access to technology. His vision is reportedly taking shape, with a manufacturer lined up and project organizers close to signing deals for seven million of the units. Negroponte reportedly talked with both Microsoft and Apple about supplying operating systems for his $100 laptops, but he ultimately settled on Linux, a decision that is said to have riled Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Speaking at the recent Consumer Electronics show, Gates suggested that instead of an inexpensive laptop, modified cell phones are a better way to spread technology. Gates showed a mockup of such a phone, which would connect to a TV and a keyboard. Negroponte said his group considered a similar approach but dismissed it as too impractical compared to the laptop idea.

New York Times, 30 January 2006 (registration req’d)