Activity File
Information Appliances for the Poor
Hope or Hype?
Summary
Together with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, infoDev is sponsoring a series of activities -- policy dialogues, events, working groups -- and new informational resources to promote reasoned, and sober debate on the potential and realities of producing, introducing, using and maintaining "cheap ICT devices" in developing countries.
Background / Terms of Reference
The buzz and excitement surrounding the idea of a “$100 laptop” has caught the imagination and fancy of many around the world. Announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos in early 2005, this well-known initiative for an inexpensive portable computing device for use by students in developing countries has been celebrated in the press, embraced by prominent political figures, and found support from some of the world’s largest corporations. While the One Laptop Per Child Initiative -- the formal name of the project initiated by Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab which is receiving so much attention -- is the most prominent initiative of this sort, many other projects and programs are currently underway aimed at providing inexpensive information appliances for the poor, in a variety of formats (PC, laptop, mobile phone, PDA, etc.) and proposed for use in many sectors in developing countries (especially, and notably, in education).
Few would argue that new technologies do not hold great promise, and that the cheaper these technologies are, the better for everyone. That said, many critics question whether projects and initiatives in this area really should be given such high profile and priority, especially given many of the pressing and immediate needs related to basic infrastructure and services in many developing countries.
Despite the explosion of interest and discussion in this topic, it is difficult to find consolidated information about who is doing what, and what some of the related issues, concerns and challenges are. In support of a variety of upcoming initiatives in this area, infoDev maintains a short set of resources to help interested parties stay up to date with the latest news, projects and initiatives related to this topic.