Lee Felsenstein on the $100 Laptop · 192 words posted 11/18/2005 10:51 AM
Lee Felsenstein, one of the primary forces behind the Remote Village IT Project in Laos, raises questions about the feasibility of MIT’s $100 Laptop. Felsenstein sees two classes of problems with the $100 Laptop plan: technical (underpowered laptops and insufficiently dense mesh networks) and structural (top-down planning and distribution).
The Jhai Foundation, chaired by Lee Thorn, has attempted to build and distribute rugged, low-cost computers designed by Lee Felsenstein. It’s hard to know how much of Felsenstein’s critique is sour grapes: the Jhai PC is nearly extinct, while in both ambition and press attention the $100 Laptop project easily eclipses the Remote Village IT project.
I’ve featured two interviews on the challenges developers face in getting low cost machines into the hands of people in developing countries:
- Lee Thorn on the Remote Village IT Project in Laos; and
- Mahabir Pun on setting up wireless networks in Nepal.
From that small sample group, one might conclude that the following ingredients increase the chances of a successful developement project:
- Local, culturally sensitive management control;
- Outside technical expertise; and
- Limited scope.
Whether the $100 Laptop project has drawn the same lessons from previous development work remains to be seen.
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