MIT Media Lab chair aims for $100 computer for the Third World: The e-book angle
“The founder and chairman of the MIT Media Lab wants to create a $100 portable computer for the developing world. Nicholas Negroponte, author of Being Digital and the Wiesner Professor of Media Technology at MIT, says he has obtained promises of support from a number of major companies, including Advanced Micro Devices, Google, Motorola, Samsung, and News Corp.” - The hundred-buck PC, in Red Herring (links added to quote).
The TeleRead take: That’s good news not just for the Third World and Silicon Valley but also for the e-book industry and consumers. The Red Herring article says: “Mr. Negroponte’s idea is to develop educational software and have the portable personal computer replace textbooks in schools in much the same way that France’s Minitel videotext terminal, which was developed by France Telecom in the 1980s, became a substitute for phone books.” The greater the e-book market, significantly, the lower should be consumer costs since publishers can charge lower prices and still profit. Here’s to volume! I suspect that the first versions of the $100 machine might use CRTs, but if so, let’s hope that e-book-optimized devicds with LCDs or even E Ink will follow. Given the power situation in rural villages, let’s hope that LCD is standard from the start–and that people remember that tech is not a panacea.
The OpenReader angle: The econo PC is one more reason to come up with a standard e-book format and an open source e-book reader, given the need to slash costs. If Negroponte cares about literacy without a Tower of eBabel, he should give OpenReader a good look.
Related: The TeleRead plan as originally published in Computerworld in 1992, as well as The Electronic Peace Corps: Take a look, candidates. Also see, natch, the requisite discussion at Slashdot.
Update, July 7, 2005: The project will use LCDs or another another CRT alternative. See other TeleBlog entries.
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