Will the $100 laptop bridge the UK's digital divide?
Big hopes set on wind-up computer...
You might be forgiven for thinking that a laptop powered by hand cranking was an April fool's gag - or the IT department's way of punishing workers it didn't like.
But within two years, millions of lime-green $100 (£56) laptops, complete with wind-up handle, could be in use by poor children around the world.
At least that's the plan. The idea is being driven by Nicholas Negroponte, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who set up the not-for-profit organisation One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in a bid to help the disadvantaged learn about computers and get access to the internet.
Last year at a UN conference with secretary general Kofi Annan, Negroponte unveiled the "Green Machine" prototype, backed by the likes of AMD, Google, and Red Hat.
But while his idea is certainly noble, will the $100 laptop bridge the digital divide between rich and poor?
Clive Longbottom, service director for analyst Quocirca, said: "It's feasible to build a $100 laptop but what sort of thing are we building? It's not going to be one you can play games or store a lot on.
"But then it doesn't need to. It'll have a browsing environment and be able to do some printing. We are not looking at putting Microsoft Office or Photoshop on it. It'll be something for searching and getting information back."
Supplying computers to children means someone has to support them, Longbottom said.
"You can't just ship 500 and say 'enjoy yourself'," he said. "You need file servers and secure storage. This was something that the schools in the UK found with shared laptops. It can take 10 minutes to get them out, 10 minutes to switch them on, another 10 to switch off and 10 minutes to put them away.
The $100 laptop is aimed at the developing world - but would a similar initiative be of use in the UK? Some critics argue that the digital divide is about more than cheaper hardware.
One way of judging the digital divide is by looking at the number of household internet connections in the UK - and it is clear that internet penetration varies around the country
According to research from broadband analyst Point Topic, the areas with the highest density of broadband connections are London and the home counties - with one in four households connected. The areas with the lowest connection rates are Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The government has pledged £50m to help provide every schoolchild with computer access. The Learning Foundation also encourages parents to contribute to a pool of school laptops that children can borrow.
UK charity Citizens Online would like to see every schoolchild in the UK with a laptop by 2010. It also aims to help connect everyone in the UK to the internet to bridge the digital divide.
John Fisher, CEO of the charity, said: "The $100 laptop – that's quite a challenge. Anyone who launched anything like that here would probably change the dollar sign to a pound sign.
"I think there's a market for that though. The ads for computers all tell you how fast and whizzy they are but that's almost a turn off for people in that [disadvantaged] group."
Fisher argues computers still appear unfriendly and difficult to master for those who have never used them - and that as PCs get even more sophisticated some users will fall even further behind.
He said: "You then raise the entry level to computers. I just turned on my new laptop and got a blank screen. The sophistication that surrounds PCs is different. It's not like turning the telly on."
Government schools IT agency Becta (the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency), is reviewing spending on technology in schools. It is examining ways to save money so more children can use computers to access schoolwork at home.
Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Ruth Kelly, has said the internet could allow parents to "influence learning" to a much greater degree than has ever been previously possible.
But those families without computers could perhaps be left behind in the scheme, unless the digital divide is bridged.
Quocirca's Longbottom warned: "It'll be like everyone who earns more than £200,000 will get a Ferrari and anyone who earns less than £50,000 gets a bike just so you can say 'everyone's mobile." "The $100 laptop does nothing for the digital divide but does do something for the knowledge divide."
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