In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte outlined a plan to design and build laptops for no more than $100, and distribute them to 150 million of the world's poorest children. Since then, the "One Laptop per Child" program has hit a few snags — the laptops cost about $180 and Microsoft and Intel have emerged as competitors.
Why can't all of the companies join forces to build and distribute laptops to children worldwide?
"It depends on whether you look at children as a market, or a mission," Negroponte says, "and as a profit-making company, you have a fiduciary responsibility to treat it as a market."
Negroponte says he views the "competition" from companies such as Intel as a success:
"If every child on the planet used an Intel laptop three years from now, that would be delightful," he says, "because I'm not in the laptop business. What we are is in the education business, and we want children to be connected."
Guests:
Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child; co-founder and director of the MIT Media Lab
Steve Stecklow, reporter for The Wall Street Journal, author of the article "A Little Laptop With Big Ambitions"
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