What if everyone had a laptop?

There’s a company One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) that came up with the idea of the $100 laptop so eventually everyone could have one. They didn’t make the $100 target, but they have come up with a pretty nifty product. It’s cute. It’s fun. I’d certainly love to have one to play with. I’m guessing it would probably be way better than the Palm I bought a few years that I never use. Want to see it. Here it is on YouTube:



So here’s the thing…. This laptop is supposed to be for education in developing countries, but most people in developing countries don’t have access to wi-fi…… so how is this going to work? There’s actually a map in Wired Magazine this month (Sept 2007) about how expensive it is to get broadband service in most countries, esp the developing countries.

What if this gizmo was used to change the world here? What if every student was given one of these laptops with all their textbooks already input so all that a kid had to carry around was that little laptop? Can you imagine the braniac with no backpack full of books? I think we all know the day is coming when books become rarer… there have been multiple devices for years now, but what if all kids grew up reading their class material on computers. Would that change things? There are so many ‘what ifs’ of this could go on for ever. The question is I guess: Is this going to be the product that changes the world? If not, why not?