Bonfire of the Vanities 2.0: The $100 Laptop

I don't always agree with Om Malik, but I think he got this one right:

Everyone from Nicholas Negroponte to Microsoft to Intel wants to help the poor kids in emerging economies by giving them a laptop, a phone or some frankendevice. No one seems to ask the question if the kids actually need it, especially when food and water should be higher on the priority list.

Do kids need access to computers? Yes. But what they really need -- around the globe -- are food, shelter, and better schools. Let's work toward the common goals, and stop complaining about who should get the credit if we are successful.

Comments

[Women]

http://www.women1.org/

Women decided to separate development of feed crawling engine ( called newstrack) and GUI,
distributed feed crawling engine first women and then everyone are welcome to build custom
the top of it using Yahoo UI or any other AJAX so probably we do our best to release
women.

[Gary]

Yes, food and shelter would be a good start.

Perhaps 3rd on the list might be good sanitation or waste processing plants to keep everyone moderately free from some diseases.

Then they might need some good ole DDT to keep them from getting mosquito borne diseases.

Rachel Carlson is responsible for the death of millions of Africans.