Re: Jim Gettys on writing software for the new "one laptop per child" system

> > http://www.gettysfamily.org/wordpress/?p=11

Cute general idea - But how would a child in the back planes of Uganda
manage to get power to use it? I guess this would only work for those
who could afford the power to run it, not to mention the ability to
access the internet, etc...

Interestingly, in Uganda specifically, cell phones are all the rage (as
you can imagine - no infrastructure otherwise), they are like 90%+
"pre-paid" phone service, and people living in the "bush" will
literally go broke to pay the cell phone company for service and "walk"
10-20 miles to pay someone to charge the phone so that it can even be
used.

Seems like a good idea, but the basic questions of how to deliver
trickle-down technology that people (children) can actually use seems
to be a bigger issue in the short/medium term for the parallel promise
of "a chicken in every pot".

Dave
Received on Tue Jan 3 03:09:37 2006