The $150 Notebook

Herbert Hoover's 1928 campaign promise of “a car in every backyard,” while less well-known than his famous “a chicken in every pot” slogan, appealed to many because it offered a technology that could allow the breadwinner to travel farther to work, get a better job and permanently improve the family's financial condition. The successful campaign recognized that many people felt there was a great divide between those who had access to transportation, the most important technology at the time, and those who didn't.

Today there is another great divide; this is one related to communications and computer technology. One Laptop Per Child, a project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, seeks to narrow that divide by developing an affordable notebook computer that can be distributed to children around the world.

OLPC hopes to encourage developing countries, and possibly some U.S. states, to buy tens or even hundreds of thousands of the PCs, called the Children's Machine.

Low Cost, Plus Functionality

Most of the buzz about the OLPC notebook comes from its low cost, which may allow countries with relatively small budgets to buy them. Argentina, Brazil, Libya and Nigeria are considering purchases, and all four agreed to participate in system beta tests that began in January.

Originally called the “$100 Laptop” because developers hope to achieve that price point by 2008, the machine is expected to be released with a price tag of $150 sometime this winter or early spring.

But while OLPC's low price grabbed the attention of officials in developing countries, Walter Bender, president of software and content for OLPC, points out that the machine is not just a bare-bones, stripped-down version of a typical commercial notebook.

“We wanted it to be inexpensive, but our primary focus was its epistemological value,” Bender says.

The notebook comes with hardware and software features that the OLPC team believes increase its usefulness and educational value to people in developing countries.

For instance, many rural areas don't have clean electrical power, and others don't have any power at all. So the notebook runs on less than 2 watts (compared with the 20 to 40 watts typical for a commercial notebook) and is powered by a sturdy nickel metal-hydride battery.

The hand crank, pictured on early prototypes, and possibly pedal power will be options in future versions. Bender's goal is to achieve 10 minutes of use for each one minute of human power.

The Children's Machine supports all 802.11 protocols. So users can surf the Web at hot spots. But even more important, children in rural areas with limited Web access will be able to communicate with others within a half a kilometer line of sight using the 802.11's mesh-networking standard.

The machine also will have a video camera, photo-editing software and the ability to play and compose music. It will include a Web browser, a Web server and tools such as Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing static content, but with the added ability to type or write notes in the margins and share those notes with other users. It also will have a word processor and a journaling tool.

Societal Benefits

Supporters of the OLPC project believe the Children's Machine is a cost-effective way to improve the educational levels of children in poorer nations. “I think [the Children's Machine] can start a kind of digital vaccination against ignorance and prejudice in the developing countries,” says Antonio M. Battro, an Argentinean OLPC board member. Battro is not one of his country's decision-makers on purchasing the notebooks, but he is close to the Argentinean Ministry of Education.

Battro sees three primary benefits of the OLPC project. First, it will interconnect children and teachers from different groups and nations.

Second, Battro believes the notebook will become an important tool in the teaching and learning of the arts and sciences. Finally, the Children's Machine will become an enabling technology for disabled children. “The computer can work as a prosthesis for the brain and help to overcome many sensory, motor and mental handicaps,” Battro says.

Although few would argue against the goal of equipping all children with a computer, not everyone supports the OLPC project. Some opponents say the $100 million or more that many countries would have to pay to supply all children with notebooks represents a major expenditure that would be better used on roads, electrification and more traditional educational projects.

Other obervers take issue with the notebook's unorthodox design, which they say renders it more of a gadget or toy with limited capabilities compared with existing notebooks or desktop systems.

Financial Considerations

Vince Vasquez, public policy fellow in technology studies at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, is one naysayer. “I'm not sure the OLPC project is the best use of national resources to meet the needs of its citizens,” he says, adding that developing countries might do better spending limited funds on teachers, schools and books. He believes that computers are important, but a few off-the-shelf PCs in a classroom might make more sense than custom notebooks in the hands of every child.

Some officials of nations that have dismissed the project agree. According to an article in The Hindu, Indian Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee calls the Children's Machine “pedagogically suspect” and adds that it would be more appropriate to spend money to make secondary education universal in India. “We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools,” Banerjee says.

Competing Projects

The primary challenge to the Children's Machine design comes from a competing project, Intel's Classmate PC. Both have a rugged case, a small screen, flash memory instead of hard drives, and possible alternative energy sources. (Intel is looking into car batteries and solar power.) Neither device has been sold yet, though Intel said in November it won its first contract with a Mexican manufacturer to build the notebooks.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two systems is price: The Classmate PC will be released at just under $400, more than three times that of the Children's Machine.

But, Willy Agatstein, Intel's vice president and general manager of emerging market platforms, believes the cost of ownership should be close because local vendors will provide service and support. “It will be sold through our network of 170,000 dealers,” he says.

In contrast, the Children's Machine will be sold to governments that will have to create their own support networks.

Another major difference is that the Intel machine runs most Microsoft Windows applications as long as they can fit on a 2-gigabyte flash card. This allows countries and original equipment manufacturers to take advantage of thousands of off-the-shelf applications. The OLPC notebook runs Linux because of its smaller footprint and the ability to shape software to cultural needs.