PCs for the poor

An interesting article that compares various options to bridge the digital divide, including the MIT Media Lab's 100$ laptop and Microsoft's cellphone PC. I have 2 cents of my own to add.

I don't like the one-laptop-per-child idea too much because even 100$ is a lot of money, and the funding will come in through the government. If the objective of bridging the digital divide is to bring awareness to the rural people, and allow them to communicate, then the rural kiosk model is significantly better. Both in terms of lesser cost which leads to greater reachability, and in building a community around the kiosk for better collaboration and exchange of thoughts and ideas. Furthermore, I and many more can't possibly envision a mesh network of laptops working in a village in India!

Microsoft's cellphone idea seems more practical, but meeting the low costs will be a significant challenge. Even if this is done, it is hard to think of applications that need to be accessed by a personal device, instead of a shared kiosk PC. Cellphones are great for personal voice connectivity, but when it comes to data, I would always vouch in favor of a shared infrastructure for most services required in practice.

Of course, if the objectives are changed slightly, to not just bridging the digital divide, but making an entire digital sphere, then such initiatives would make sense. But that is way long term. There is much to be done to set up shared kiosks which can pretty much completely bridge the divide.