The United Nations Development Programme will back MIT's Nicholas
Negroponte and his One Laptop per Child program, according to reports. The partnership is critical to helping the initiative which hopes to get $100 hand-cranked laptop computers in the hands of children in poorer nations around the globe.
The partnership will be made official this Saturday in the Alpine ski resort of Davos, Switzerland. Together the UNDP and OLPC will work with local and international partners to get the machines in specifically targeted schools and undeveloped nations. Governments of such nations and charitable donors will be relied upon to pay for the laptops, although the children themselves will own them.
Formally announced at the World Economic Forum roughly one year ago, the laptops are the size of an average textbook. The computers are designed to setup their own wireless networks and function in areas without reliable electricity.
View: MIT Media Lab: $100 Laptop
News source: CNET News.com
