The BBC has reported on the One Laptop Per Child project as finally coming to a close - as in the fabled working laptop, able to produce documents, surf the net and show pictures is finally available. At least it will be next year. Customers will need to purchase two laptops when they are initially on sale however, as one is sent to to the developing world for each sale.

The machine itself has been developed as low cost, durable and as simple to use as possible. A number of countries have already signed up - proving that there is very much a demand for the technology in the global marketplace. Impressively, for the price it features wireless and video conferencing in the small yet durable package.

The next step is to develop some sort of supply chain and organisation, which will be performed by a philanthropic company or group. Interestingly, the speech by Mr Bletsas (chief connectivity officer for the project) at the CES highlighted a lack of ambition in the industry as he stated “they should look to connect the next five and a half billion [people]“.

Looking at this technology, it is not only important but vital that growing nations (particularly those termed ‘third world’) are brought into line with the other developing nations at least in terms of opportunities and access to technology. The longer we continue to race ahead with fancy TV sets and DVD recorders the further they fall behind. This includes of course entertainment technology but much more importantly, genuinely world changing technology such as access to the web.

Global economics has many challenges it must face, not least in the form of how we as humans interact with each other. The world is becoming a much smaller place. Let’s all be a little bit more philanthropic and help the world join in the technology revolution, to make it a better place for us all. One world, one global set of people and one laptop per child.

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