UN Internet Summit High Points

hotsauce writes "Negroponte has unveiled his $100 laptop with Kofi Annan at the UN Internet summit. The plan is to have several countries, both rich and poor, sign up for at least a million each of these machines within a year. Many countries and companies seem interested. Also at the UN summit, the ITU is predicting an internet of things, and warning that social safeguards need to be put in place, as the BBC gleefully talks about employers watching workers via RFID tags." From the article: "Although children will be able to interact with each other through the machines, education was still the priority for the laptops. But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale. "

Comments

Kids don't need mesh networks to ineract!

[gambit3]

But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale.

Kids already have a way to interact while doing school work: It's called SCHOOL!

Let's stop waiting and hoping for "Pie in the sky" solutions for problems that already have a low-tech solution.

Let's start using what we have, and stop looking as technology as a panacea to fix the worlds' ills.

Re:Kids don't need mesh networks to ineract!

[saforrest]

They're basically going to distribute a $100 machine to the poor. What do you want to bet that the poor will start selling them for: food, clothing, shelter, etc...

You can make the same argument about textbooks, bicycles and all sorts of things given to students by similar programs.

Since the goal is obviously to keep the things in the hands of students, the key will be to keep the black-market price low. A $100 laptop goes a hell of lot further towards this goal than a $1000 one.


These machines are going to be a HUGE flop and a complete waste of money - our money. No wonder there's such a huge anti-UN movement.


That's far from certain, and as for me, there are a hell of a lot of wastes of government money (on the local and national level) that concern me more than this stuff.

Re:Kids don't need mesh networks to ineract!

[NardofDoom]

There are things we can do right now to improve the lives of people in Africa that don't involve Mesh networks. Things like investing in their infrastructure. Even in some of the richest countries the roads are predominantly dirt. By doing this, we'll improve health, increase access to education, and allow more people to interact more easily. If we put the money we're spending on these "miracle laptops" into building roads and water systems, I'm almost certain we'll see more results and it would magnify the impact of these machines.

Re:Kids don't need mesh networks to ineract!

[manabadman]

Kids already have a way to interact while doing school work: It's called SCHOOL!

I grew up in a rural area of a third world country. All communication infrastructure is bad. There were no phones, the roads bad and public transportation almost non existent. I would have welcomed any possibility of interaction with other kids outside of school. Especially on weekends and holidays.

Let's stop waiting and hoping for "Pie in the sky" solutions for problems that already have a low-techsolution.

I have taught in a third world country. There simply are not enough trained teachers. Distance learning (formal or not) has the potential to make a difference.

Let's start using what we have, and stop looking as technology as a panacea to fix the worlds' ills.

I'm a scientist and an engineer. Using technology to try and help is what we do. If someone from another discipline has an idea that they think can work, please go ahead and help.

Maybe $100 computers won't solve our problems, but the other things we've been trying for the past couple centuries don't seem to have been working out either. If computers don't help education that much, would all the first world countries please send the computers in their schools to schools in third world countries? If it doesn't work out for us either we can use the cases as traps to catch dinner.

Re:A $100 bit of technology saves the world?

[rewinn]

>Lets start with books

These are books! Not paper books (...which I love...) but effective books: an entire dictionary, access to google, and even Wikipedia [snicker]

>...a trade system which doesn't punish the poorest ...

That's a fair 'nuf righteous comment, but I submit these poor people are going to have to implement a fairer trade system on their own because the people who profit from the current trading system have no motivation to give it to them. And because knowledge=power, the improved access to information this technology offers may be the decisive force multiplier.

Cheaper HIV Drugs, How?

[Irvu]

Some of the benefits of this ubiquitous networked society include cheaper HIV treatments ...

How?, Where? What will RFID tags do to make HIV drugs cheaper? When can we expect these revolutions? Who is working on them? Where in hell did this assertion come from? What does this have to do with "Cars that warn their owners when they develop a fault"? Mine already does that via dashboard lights?

Honestly, is this an article about the issues surrounding next-generation technology and the direction whe are heading or is just some free-association wishlist?

Lets look at the underlying issues. A UN body presents a report outlining privacy issues, health-and safety issues, and other looming crises that must be addressed now before ubiquitous sensors, and rfid tags become too commonplace to regulate effectively.

And what does the BBC do? They give us more padding than pudding and spend most of the article lauding the joys of ubiqquitous sensors ("better coffee") and the growth of RFID tags ("Wal-Mart made the chinese use them") than addressing or even framing the issues raised. And then whan they run out of filler factoids they make more pie-in-the-sky promises like the ones above.

This isn't an article, it's a lullaby: "don't worry about privacy, your bag will tell you when you forgot to shop at Wal-Mart."

This could be great for Linux adoption

[NtroP]

Think about it. If there are hundreds of millions of linux-based laptops out there with ebook content (for education, etc.), kids games (this won't be a gaming machine, but still) and word processing, it is going to be very important that the "rest of the world" is accessible to it. That means document formats and other content will need to meet open standards. This may just be the push the world needs to make Linux-on-the-desktop acceptable.

Proprietary formats will have to be marginalized. I know this laptop is "just for kids" but if all the content is in .doc , .wma, quicktime, etc. then a lot of people will be left out in the dark. I think there will be a groundswell of resentment and awareness of the ridiculousness of proprietary formats. Once most content is available in standard formats, one of the largest hurdles to adopting Linux elsewhere will disappear.

I'd love to roll Linux out district-wide in our school district. The problem is that there is so much content our there that our teachers and students wouldn't have access to. Sure, the older formats have been reverse engineered or cracked, but the modern, up-to-date content would probably be unusable. What about eBooks? Most of the text book vendors can't agree on a standard and when they do it DRM'ed to hell and require a proprietary [Windows] app to play it. If "all the children of the world" get a linux laptop, that will have to change.

Here's hoping!

Make them pay for the laptop

[external400kdiskette]

I've travelled extensively throughout the 3rd world and with this attitude the program is going to be a disaster "The goal is to provide the machines free of charge to children in poor countries who cannot afford computers of their own,". If you provide them free of charge all of the most abject poor are going to get them and sell them, especially all the children who have hardly enough $ to eat, and many parents would send their children to get them free so they can sell them. It's not nice but it's reality.

Selling cheap stuff as long as they pay for it and cant resell it for a profit isn't such a bad idea however I've generally found that even the poorest people interested in pcs have been able to get a dodgy box to learn and use their skills to get some sort of computer related job.

Re:Chilean Government Snubs Negroponte's Laptop

[amightywind]

Very interesting post, and correct. This laptop is a utopian fantasy looking for a problem. The point that 'gifts' like this distort fragile local economies is well made. The $100 would be better spend on immunization and a trip to the dentist for the kids. Good for Chile for judging this program for the boondoggle that it is.