Tunis — NAMIBIA has warned against possible adverse environmental consequences amidst the hype following the launch of the "100$ Laptop", an ambitious project hoped to open education communication to children all over the world.
While everybody is overwhelmed by the US$100 laptop, Namibia's Information Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has cautioned that the issue of environmental consequences might have been overlooked.
"How do we take care of disposing these laptops when they have reached their living age? What do we do with them (laptops) when they are no longer useful," asked Ndaitwah.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the prototype of a cheap and robust laptop for pupils as an "expression of global solidarity" when he launched it at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).
The green machine was showcased for the first time by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Nicholas Negroponte at the UN summit in Tunis.
He plans to have millions of US$100 machines in production within a year.
The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning.
"Children will be able to learn by doing, not just through instruction - they will be able to open up new fronts for their education, particularly peer-to-peer learning," said Annan.
He added that the initiative was "inspiring", and held the promise of special and economic development for children in developing countries.
Namibia, South Africa and Botswana could be among the first five countries to benefit from the US$100 laptop.
"At least one sub-Saharan country will be one of the first to benefit. Discussions between South Africa, Namibia and Botswana are in progress here at the summit.
"South Africa might be among the first countries to benefit from this initiative, together with Brazil, China, if it commits itself fast enough."
The chief technology officer for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), Dr Mary Lou Jepsen said that two other countries, Namibia and Botswana, are enthusiastic to commit to purchasing the laptops.
"We are still negotiating with the countries but Botswana and Namibia seem to be more ready to commit themselves and it will be first come first served," she said.
The laptop will be sold to governments in developing countries for US$100 for distribution in schools. The cheapest laptop on the market roughly costs about US$500.
Considering that most governments in developing countries are struggling economically, this cheaper laptop will address the problem of digitally improving the quality and level of education.
MIT Labs director Professor Nicholas Negroponte said that the laptop, although simple is advanced because it has characteristics which are not found in some of today's most advanced computers.
Ndaitwah said although the project has been launched, it would only reach its beneficiaries around 2006.
The foldable lime green laptop made its debut at the summit, which has been devising ways of narrowing the technology gap between the rich and poor for the past week.
Nicknamed the green machine, it can be used as a conventional computer, or an electronic book. A child can control it using a cursor at the back of the machine or a touchpad on the front.
It can also be held and used like a handheld games console and can function as a TV.
"The idea is that it fulfils many roles. It is the whole theory that learning is seamless," said Professor Negroponte, who set up the non-profit One Laptop Per Child group to sell the laptops to developing nation governments.
"Studies have shown that kids take up to computers much more easily in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote areas all around the developing world."
There has already been firm interest in the machines from governments, though no laptops have yet been manufactured.
Professor Negroponte said he had asked the most enthusiastic countries, Thailand and Brazil, not to give written commitments to buy the machines until they had seen the working model, likely to be produced in February.
There has also been interest in the machines from five manufacturers and three big brand name technology firms, but no firm commitments have been made.
The laptops will be encased in rubber to make them durable and their AC adaptors will act as carrying straps.
They have a 500MHz processor, with flash memory instead of a hard drive which has more delicate moving parts, and four USB ports. They link up and share a net connection through "mesh networking".
"The initial plan is to start with countries that are big and very different to each other," said Professor Negroponte.
"We are launching with six countries initially, then six months later, as many countries as possible." Those include countries in the Arab world, two Asian, one sub-Saharan, and South American nations.
The project also has some big name supporters on board, including Google, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
But it will rely on open-source software so that support for local content and languages can easily be built.
Although the laptops will initially be available to governments only, MIT is in talks with commercial manufacturers to make it available on the open market.
To take part in the initiative, governments have to commit to buying a million machines for around US$100 each.
Annan urged leaders and stakeholders at the summit to do their utmost in ensuring that the initiative was fully incorporated into efforts to build an inclusive information society.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"We really believe we can really make literally hundreds of millions of these machines around the world," as costs continued to drop, Professor Negroponte said.
He added that it was critical that children actually owned, instead of loaned, the machines.
To overcome the potential problem of secondary "grey markets" for the machines, Professor Negroponte said the idea was that they would be so ubiquitous and prominent it would deter potential re-selling.
"I hope there would be community pressure so it does not appear in the secondary market. The technology is in it so that the machine is disabled if not connected to the network after a few days," he added.
Technical breakthroughs have already driven the prototype design, but every technical breakthrough in the next five years would mean costs would continue to fall, he said.
Although children will be able to interact with each other through the machines, education is still the priority for the laptops.
But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale.
Collaboration will also be encouraged by using open-source software, which the children could develop themselves and use in local communities.
