The Manager's Perspective
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Playing with a laptop
One laptop per child...
This is what the mission is. The idea is to distribute laptops to needy children across the globe. A lofty mission indeed.
Nicholas Negroponte who has set up a non-profit group - known as the One Laptop Per Child, supported by international big wigs like Google, Quanta, AMD, 3M, etc. is into the India part of the initiative. In an interview with Business Standard, he has outlined his action plan for the achievement of the lofty mission.
"
India faces serious power problems. And laptops also need power. How do you propose to resolve the issue?
Our laptops will run on human power. It will come with at least two means of charging: with your arms and your feet (one each, as a minimum). The satellite connection would need a generator, but we would provide that too.
Human power is not dependent on the number of hours, but the ratio of human movement to subsequent run time. I mean that, simply in the worst case, one minute of cranking means 10 minutes of operation. If you use your legs, like a bicycle pump, it skyrockets, perhaps as much as 25 minutes.
This is what the mission is. The idea is to distribute laptops to needy children across the globe. A lofty mission indeed.
Nicholas Negroponte who has set up a non-profit group - known as the One Laptop Per Child, supported by international big wigs like Google, Quanta, AMD, 3M, etc. is into the India part of the initiative. In an interview with Business Standard, he has outlined his action plan for the achievement of the lofty mission.
"
India faces serious power problems. And laptops also need power. How do you propose to resolve the issue?
Our laptops will run on human power. It will come with at least two means of charging: with your arms and your feet (one each, as a minimum). The satellite connection would need a generator, but we would provide that too.
Human power is not dependent on the number of hours, but the ratio of human movement to subsequent run time. I mean that, simply in the worst case, one minute of cranking means 10 minutes of operation. If you use your legs, like a bicycle pump, it skyrockets, perhaps as much as 25 minutes.
"
Hope there are plenty of more innovations like this.
There is an interesting article written by Negroponte in WIRED magazine. This, titled Beyond Digital, says that the digital revolution is over....
"Face it - the Digital Revolution is over.
Yes, we are now in a digital age, to whatever degree our culture, infrastructure, and economy (in that order) allow us. But the really surprising changes will be elsewhere, in our lifestyle and how we collectively manage ourselves on this planet."
Are we ready for the digital age????
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