“One of the Most Interesting Developments of Modern Times”

That’s what John Naughton of the London Observer calls the One Laptop per Child initiative. It’s a program that is trying to provide a laptop for every child in the developing world. Piece of cake for the likes of a guy like Nicholas Negroponte.

The One Laptop per Child effort is supported by companies like Advanced Micro Devices, whose rallying cry is “50×15″ – meaning they’d like to see 50% of the world’s population get connected to a computer by the year 2015.

Nicholas Negroponte is the founder of the MIT Media Laboratory and the author of the best seller, Being Digital.

These days, though, he and companies like AMD are working on connecting the next generation by producing a $200 computer. If they can get enough orders to bring the price down to $100, they can connect even more kids.

You’ll have to visit the One Laptop per Child site (at www.laptop.org) for the technical details, but the unique design and software allow for minimal power consumption (less than one-tenth of a normal laptop), ease of use and constant connectivity.

The Observer’s Naughton tells of a “Show and Tell” session he attended with Jim Gettys, the project’s software guru. He let them play on three demonstration laptops:

It’s a lovely little device, and it was clear that most of the students and researchers at the session would gladly have purchased one – had they been available.

Give One – and Get Another One for You!

It appears that in November they will be available. For a limited time (as they say) you’ll be able to purchase two laptops. One will go to a child in the developing world and one can go to you.

What the heck do you want with a hand-crank laptop computer? Well, other than the fact that it will likely work better than the one you currently own, you could give it away – perhaps to a less fortunate child in your area.

Or, better yet, you could use it to show others how cool it is – which would then get them to donate a few themselves (and so on).

“Hopelessly Idealistic”

After all, a program like this already has considerable opposition. Ohio’s Lancaster Eagle Gazette (with perhaps a smaller reach than the London Observer) recently called the project “hopelessly idealistic.” In their opinion:

The first question that should be raised when hearing about programs like this one is, “why spend this money on laptop computers when it could be used to buy food?”

Why go to the moon? Why worry about the kids in the developing world? How can the folks from One Laptop per Child ever really make a difference when there is so much disease and hunger in the world?

Mr. Rodgers and Mr. Hammerstein may have hit it on the nose in their musical “Cinderella”:

Because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes keep dreaming up impossible hopes – impossible things are happening every day.

It’s a beautiful day to buy two from these daft and dewy-eyed dopes – two impossibly amazing devices that just might be “one of the most interesting developments of modern times.”

Note: John Naugton’s Observer article is part of a column that starts out with some great stuff about another topic. If you don’t see the laptop story right away – keep scrolling until you see “In the Laptop of the Gods.”