A $100 laptop

At the UN summit on information and technology in Tunis, plans for a $100 laptop have been unveiled. They are running Linux, have wireless capabilities and a hand-cranck to provide power. Those laptops are aimed at bridging the Digital Divide (I would even say Digital Cayon) between the rich and poors countries. First shipments are planed in February/March to Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria.

This is great but then again, in some countries, wireless access are not widespread and still very expensive. On a trip to Congo-Brazzaville last year for a non-profit, I talked to many managers of Internet Café and I learnt that the subscription was as high as $600 per month for a lousy 64k connection. Yet this is clearly a step in the right direction.