The “laptop for every child” initiative - Nicholas Negroponte’s MIT-based $100 laptop project - has obviously received a lot of publicity, mainly because it’s a great tagline.
But really, why? It seems a little quixotic, in light of repeated research showing that, in the developing world, the usual model is for communal access to computing facilities. Negroponte has also been quoted that “the best education may not come from sitting in a traditional classroom, but rather through independent interaction and exploration,” which also seems to fly in the face of findings that traditional teaching methods actually work quite well.
By the way, these laptops don’t actually exist yet. (sarcasm) A small detail, but one I hope they’ll address at some point (/sarcasm).)
So, here we are! It’s the World Summit on the Information Society! I’m so excited! That’s the only possible explanation for all these exclamation marks! 15,000 people, lots of government speakers, a huge expo hall, not much bandwidth!
This afternoon we’ll be presenting the ICT4Peace report, with an all-star line-up on the panel. That’s why I’m here. I missed the first phase of WSIS, which was happening in Geneva while I was happening in Liberia, so it’s also a great chance to see what this whole information society thing is all about.
So far, I’m not entirely sure what it’s all about. Andy Carvin has noted the lightly-clad lovely ladies that seem to be milling about various booths, as if it was a Vegas car show (not that I’m complaining as much as he is). There’s a lot of stuff here that I can’t work out - a strange mix of the hard core technology (online encrypted e-commerce solutions 4 all), the fuzzy feelgood (empowerment through sms 4 all) and the downright deranged (a laptop for every child 4 all).
From the humanitarian point of view, there isn’t much here. I had a good meeting with Rene Francis of the Ericsson Response Team, about extending ERT support to the NGO community - currently they work predominantly with the UN, on standby arrangement, but there’s no reason that couldn’t be applied to NGOs under a similar arrangement. Today I’m on a mission to find out some exciting new technologies, which I will promptly steal. Sadly, I think the most exciting thing here is WiMax - broadband wireless access for remote areas during humanitarian response is a bit of a no-brainer.
I’ll write more later, unless the wireless access here at WSIS goes down, which it seems to do every time anybody enters the building.