MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and his wife Elaine have a dream: to brighten the prospects of millions of children in the developing world. They and some MIT colleagues are hard at work on a project to create rugged, Internet- and multimedia-capable laptop computers at a cost of $100 apiece.
The laptops would be mass-produced in orders of at least 1 million units and bought by governments.
The Simputer, a similar low-cost tech project, did not fare well earlier. The $220 handheld device developed by Indian scientists is not selling.
But the MIT team is confident. Three corporate partners — Google, News Corp and Advanced Micro Devices — have committed an initial $6 million and pledged more help.
“Children can be the agents of change,” said Negroponte. “They bring the device home, the parents look over their shoulders.”