[A2k] At Davos, the Squabble Resumes on How to Wire the Third World

[Malini Aisola]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/business/worldbusiness/29cheap.html?ex=3D=
1170738000&en=3D7e2fe62e8d747ec7&ei=3D5070&emc=3Deta1

At Davos, the Squabble Resumes on How to Wire the Third World


By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: January 29, 2007

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 28 =97 Here in the Swiss mountains at the World
Economic Forum, the annual conclave of world leaders, concerns over a
growing digital divide this year have taken a back seat to the challenge
of climate change.

Being out of the limelight, however, has not dimmed passions over what
the best way is to deploy computers in the developing world. The
controversy boiled over on Saturday at a breakfast meeting here where
Craig R. Barrett, the chairman of Intel, squared off with Nicholas P.
Negroponte, the former director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, whose
nonprofit organization One Laptop Per Child is trying to develop a
low-cost computer for the 1.2 billion children in the developing world.
His prototype XO computer is designed to sell for $100 by the end of 2008.

Intel has also contributed significant resources to the cause, including
its own design for an inexpensive laptop computer, albeit one that is
currently more expensive than Mr. Negroponte=92s.

On Saturday, Mr. Barrett, speaking about Intel=92s efforts to train
teachers to use personal computers, said that it is impressive to see
what students =93are able to accomplish with some help from a teacher,=94
adding, =93You can literally change people=92s lives.=94

But Mr. Negroponte suggested that Intel executives had engaged in a
campaign to discourage world leaders from committing to purchasing his
laptop systems. Mr. Negroponte also accused Intel of marketing its
strategy to the developing world.

=93Craig and I sometimes argue, and he called our thing a =91gadget,=92 =94=
 Mr.
Negroponte said, referring to the XO. =93I=92m glad to see he=92s got his o=
wn
gadget now. Craig has to look at this as a market, and I look at this as
a mission.=94

Other executives suggested the dispute was doing little to forge a
common strategy to use computing to advance economic and educational
development.

=93I do hear marketing going back and forth between you,=94 said Michael J.
Long, a senior vice president at Arrow Electronics, an industry
components supplier. =93We ought to concentrate on how we can help. The
question is what can I do when I leave this room.=94

The dispute between Mr. Negroponte and Mr. Barrett, who was formerly
Intel=92s chief executive and who is now chairman of the United Nations
Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technologies and
Development, covered both substance and philosophy at the annual digital
divide meeting, which has been presented for three years by David
Kirkpatrick, a columnist for Fortune magazine.

Also present at the meeting was Michael S. Dell, chairman of Dell Inc.,
as well as top executives from Sun Microsystems and Advanced Micro Devices.

Mr. Negroponte, who has quarreled publicly with both Microsoft and Intel
executives in his quest to give simple portable machines to hundreds of
millions of children, has long been known for his iconoclastic positions
on economic development and education.

Recently at the Digital, Life, Design conference in Munich, he
introduced himself as the =93good bin Laden=94 =97 a reference to the notio=
n
that his low-cost laptop is terrorizing some companies in the computer
industry because of the possibility that it will transform markets for
personal computers in the developing world.

At the Davos session, Mr. Barrett sketched out a four-point program for
getting involvement from emerging economies including affordable
hardware, low-cost data communications, local curriculum and educators.

In contrast, Mr. Negroponte offered a vision based on working through
children. He attacked projects that instruct teachers and students how
to use programs like Microsoft Office.

=93I think they should be making music and playing and communicating,=94 he
said. =93It has to be a seamless part of their lives.=94

Despite initially trying to persuade Intel to back his project, Mr.
Negroponte has chosen to use a low-power processor from Advanced Micro
in his laptop, which was being exhibited here at a hotel near the
conference center where the annual World Economic Forum is held.

It is still not certain whether Mr. Negroponte will succeed in his
crusade. At the meeting, he said he now has eight handshake agreements
with heads of state, including the recent additions of Rwanda and Uruguay.

However, he has also said that he will not begin manufacturing the
laptop in volume unless he has firm commitments from one country each in
Asia, South America and Africa. Other countries that have expressed
interest include Brazil, Argentina, Libya, Nigeria, Thailand, Ethiopia,
Pakistan and Mexico.

During an interview here, he said he now expects firm commitments by
March and for manufacturing to begin in April.

Despite his publicly combative stance with respect to Intel, Mr.
Negroponte has apparently moved to patch up his disagreements with
Microsoft, and a version of Windows may be available from governments
that chose that software instead of the Linux that the One Laptop Per
Child organization is developing.

One Laptop officials said that the computer might cost $10 to $20 more
to run Windows, because of hardware support.

Separately at the meeting on Saturday, John Gage, the chief researcher
at Sun Microsystems, proposed an industry plan to deploy advanced data
networks in developing economies with contributions of engineering staff
time of 1 percent.

Mr. Gage, who headed the NetDay project for connecting American schools
to the Internet, said that rural areas in the developing world would
cost as little as a $1,000 a kilometer, compared with $1 million to
deploy a network over the same distance in New York City.




--

Malini Aisola

malini.aisola@cptech.org

www.cptech.org


Consumer Project on Technology

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Tel.: +1.202.332.2670 Fax: +1.202.332.2673