For a paper I have recently written a comment on Negroponte's $100 laptop as strategy for bridging the global digital divide by giving cheap technologies to developing countries. I would like to share these comments, maybe someone wants to comment on them. Best Christian "Nicholas Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) association have introduced the $100 laptop as a strategy for advancing computer technology in developing countries. The problem is that this is a technology that is inferior to Western standards (very slow processor, no hard disk and drives, etc.) and hence can be produced and sold rather cheaply. If the $100 laptop is widely diffused in the Third World, Western actors selling these computers will derive profits, and a global divide in technological progress and standards will emerge that separates advanced Western technology users from users of less-advanced technologies in the Third World. What is needed are not new business strategies, but solutions to the material and social causes of the global digital divide as well as free advanced hardware, infrastructure, and software that are based on open standards and copy-left licenses. That Microsoft and Intel are critical of the $100 laptop doesn't mean that it is automatically a good idea; this is rather a manifestation of the competition for profit and customers in developing countries. Open source technologies have a potential to transcend market logic, what is needed is an advanced $0 laptop with free software for people in developing countries as well as criticism of the logic that has caused the divide between developing and developed countries and solutions to the social, economic, political, and cultural inequalities that underpin the global digital divide". ______________________________ Christian Fuchs Assistant Professor for Internet and Society ICT&S Center - Advanced Studies and Research in Information and Communication Technologies & Society (http://www.icts.uni-salzburg.at) University of Salzburg Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18 5020 Salzburg Austria Phone ++43/662/8044 4823 christian.fuchs@sbg.ac.at Information-Society-Technology: http://cartoon.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/christian Managing Editor of tripleC: http://triplec.uti.at -----Ursprungliche Nachricht----- Von: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org]Im Auftrag von J. J. Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. Juni 2006 00:05 An: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Betreff: [Air-l] One Laptop Per Child Here it is: http://www.laptop.org/ Jarek _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/