Negroponte: $100 laptops due next year

M.I.T. Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte showed off the latest prototype of the US$100 computer to a gathering of educators in San Diego Thursday.

Telling the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) that "children are the main agents of change," the author of the best-selling "Being Digital" said he expects millions of the low-cost laptops to be distributed to children in developing countries starting next year, according to a statement issued after the event.

The focal point of Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative -- which aims to produce a $100 laptop computer for distribution to children in developing countries -- features a hand crank that generates the two watts of power the machine needs to operate. It uses a Wi-Fi mesh to connect to the Internet, and runs open-source software. All of the components are chosen for low power usage and low cost to make the portable computers as inexpensive as possible.

NECC members got an early look at one of the project's most innovative developments: a dual mode display that can be easily viewed in natural and artificial light, which helps to reduce the machine's power consumption.

Despite these efforts, the price tag of each computer still comes in at $130-140, although Negroponte and others involved in the project believe the cost will drop as component prices decrease.

More information about this effort to reduce the digital divide can be found at the One Laptop Per Child Web site.