Nicholas Negroponte, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, said he hopes to give $100 laptops to the world’s children by early next year.
Governments or donors will buy the laptops for children to own and use in and out of school, and the United Nations will help distribute the machines. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has expressed interest in buying the machines for schoolchildren in that commonwealth.
Negroponte’s current plan is to begin distributing 5 million to 10 million of the laptops in China, India, Egypt, Brazil, Thailand, Nigeria and Argentina by early 2007.
His One Laptop Per Child initiative offers links to papers, interviews, and podcasts discussing plans and responses.