In Nicholas Negroponte's ideal world, every child would be a participant in the digital age, regardless of economic status. From the the favelas of Brazil to the tin-roofed townships of South Africa, the educational experience of impoverished children across the globe would be transformed by a simple fact: all of them would have a laptop. This ambitious concept is the basis behind the One Laptop Per Child (OPLC) initiative, a nonprofit program spearheaded by Negroponte, the MIT Media lab, and their magnificent $100 laptop.

$100? Yes, no typo to be found. Even with the ubiquitous descent in cost of most electronic products, aspirations of such an inexpensive piece of machinery seem a long fall from the cheapest laptop around. This week, however, the team behind OLPC ensured their vision is no pipe-dream by unveiling the first prototype at a summit in Tunisia. Standing alongside UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Negroponte displayed the rugged green frame of the machine and touted its impressive capabilities.

The laptop sports a 500 Mhz processor under the hood as well as a 1 GB flash hard drive. Although these are only modest specifications by current standards, they are certainly robust enough to handle most computing tasks, and would have required a machine that probably would have filled an entire room 20 years ago. The 7 inch LCD screen can operate in either color or black and white mode to save power, and was key in lowering the price point. The team at the MIT media lab developed a special low-power screen specifically for the $100 laptop, one that can be produced more cheaply than a standard laptop display. The laptops will also run on the Linux operating system, best known for offering free and open-source software to anyone trying to escape the vice grip of Apple or Microsoft.

One of the most visible, and perhaps most impressive attributes of the laptop is the yellow handle jutting out from its side. Cranking this handle for one minute can generate 10 to 40 minutes of power for the device depending on the level of use. With electrical access limited in many of the target locations for the machine, it seems the ability to manually generate power will be indispensable to those using the laptops. It also will build strong muscles. Finally, the green machines are equipped with special Wi-Fi cards, capable not only of connecting to the internet, but of "meshing" with other laptops of the same breed to create a giant network. Such meshing would not only allow communication between children but also access to out-of-range internet connections by connecting through other users.

Although there is much controversy surrounding the effectiveness of this approach in narrowing the educational gaps in the developing world, it is remarkable how such a vision has actually been realized in design. Even if the plan falls short of its goals, Negroponte and his team are still pushing the boundaries of making technology affordable to a group that has thus far been left by the wayside.

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