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NEWS

$100 laptop includes WiFi

From "One-Wireless-Laptop-Per-Child Founder Negroponte Resigns from MIT," by Brian White, The Wireless Report, 16 February:

"As many readers can probably tell, the word 'Wireless' was slipped into the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) phrase in the title above. With Nicholas Negroponte stepping down from MIT's famed Media Lab yesterday to concentrate on his 'One Laptop Per Child' iniative, I have to give it up to the man - following his real passion and dream of connecting every child possible to the world, each other, and global informaton - to empower them to create and fulfill their dreams. And, for many, to escape knowledge repression and to rise up to what they all could be. I applaud the man greatly, even if the OLPC initiative fails or is slow to gain strength.

"The one 'killer app' in this whole initiative is the inclusion of WiFi in these hand-cranked $100 laptops. Enabling villages and small towns (and big towns) to form WiFi mesh networks is the glue that will make this all work. Interconnection and sharing is the linchpin of such an effort and even as WiFi gains on wired connections in the developed world as a preferred connection method for the internet, it will be the only connection method for under-developed nations to breach their own 'digital divide' and connect and interact with the rest of the world. Some of Negroponte's MIT associates are also following him to his OLPC non-profit to assist, which speaks even more highly of this highly-regarded initiative."
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[On 12 February 2006, OLPC announced that Mark Foster, former head of portable computer engineering at Apple, has joined the project. Foster was responsible for developing the first high-volume wireless networking product, the AirPort. The "$100 Laptop FAQ" confirms that "The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network."]

[WiFi: 17 February 2006]