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UN Internet Summit High Points

Posted by Zonk on from the my-favorite-world-spanning-body dept.

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. "

3 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. What about the low points? by Noryungi · · Score: 5, Interesting
    There are a few things about this summit that need to be reported as well:
    1. Robert Menard, the President of 'Reporters without Borders', an ONG dedicated to preserving reporters, freedom of speech and freedom of the press worldwide, has been denied access to Tunisia, under the pretext that his organization protested the imprisonment of a Tunisian journalist.
    2. Coincidentally (or not) Reporters without Borders has published its list of the Top 15 Internet black holes: the top 15 countries who try to limit access to an uncensored Internet.


    Here are the top 15 most repressive countries when it comes to the Internet, according to Reporters without Borders:

    Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Maldives, Nepal, Uzbekhistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

    Remember: it's a free Internet as long as you fight for its freedom.
    --
    The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
  2. I'll buy one! by ksp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'll buy one for $200-300 and they can give 1-2 for free to kids in developing countries. I can afford paying more than them if I want a fun little gadget terminal to play around with. A school in a third world country probably needs pencils, paper, crayons, chalk and books instead of this. Set up a webshop where we geeks can buy these and use the income to donate computers to those who can't afford them. It won't finance the entire project, but it could help?

    --
    What is the sound of one hand clapping?
    cat /dev/null > /dev/audio
    1. Re:I'll buy one! by iphayd · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, this isn't a bad model...

      For every one an american/european school buys for $300, two get shipped to a third world country. However... They all automatically have an email/IM attached, with links for all three laptops to message each other out of the box. This way, the schoolchildren in america/europe can pen pal with the children were given laptops due to their $200.