Date: February 21st 2007

Belly Button Window - an American experience - http://www.bellybuttonwindow.com

Think about it, a $100 dollar laptop. Wouldn't that be great! You could buy one for everyone you know. Better yet, what about a $100 laptop designed for students?

Imagine a classroom full of children, faces aglow with laptop screens, all learning at Internet speeds; the next Bill Gates, the next Jerry Yang, the next Sergey Bergin. Now imagine all three in the developing world, better known for abject poverty than power computing.

That is the dream of Nicholas Negroponte, a MIT professor and technology futurist, as well as a dream of many in the development community. In a distinct difference, Mr. Negroponte has run with his dream and now his nonprofit, One Laptop Per Child is designing an appropriate-technology laptop, the Children's Machine XO.

Originally priced at $100 dollars per laptop, now $150 and climbing, the technology behind the computer is amazing. But as Dr. Negroponte often reminds us, this is an education project, not a technology project, and he believes that he can revolutionize education through Constructivism - the laptop being sole tool required to achieve that goal.

As a technology professional, with a deep love for the developing world, I've followed OLPC in daily detail on my other website: One Laptop Per Child News http://www.olpcnews.com where sometimes I am a fanboy and other times I scream in frustration, schizophrenic in my support.

Tonight National Public Radio will discuss this love-worry spectrum of One Laptop Per Child on "Open Source with Christopher Lydon" and I will be one of the guest speakers. That's right, I'm going to be on NPR!

Listen in - this is your chance to give a thought to one of my passions, development using information and communication technology:

Radio Open Source streams live tonight at 7 PM EST:

- on air across National Public Radio:
http://www.radioopensource.org/about/listen-on-public-radio/

- online at WGBH:
http://64.71.145.107/online/play.php?xml=897.xml

And will be available for download later at Radio Open Source:
http://www.radioopensource.org/about/listen-online/

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