Chipping Away at the Digital Divide | A Net For The World
by DT - May 9th, 2006 12:05 pm
The digital divide is being chipped away at. At the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, the Media Lab founded by Nicholas Negroponte (curiously, the younger brother of the Bush Administration’s Intelligence Director, John Negroponte) continues its work on developing a really cheap computer (under $100, that is) for use by educators in the Third World. And now the Intel Corporation is to spend more than $1bn over five years to bring laptops, training and internet connectivity to developing countries.
It’s more than altruism, of course. The company will be laying groundwork for future sales as the markets in these nations mature. Intel, after all, entered China way back in the 1980s and was able to capitalize on the phenomenal growth of that country’s hi-tech industries.
Intel is also banking on a future of wireless connections in poor countries, leapfrogging over the wired form of communication that already-industrialized countries have all had to pass through.   WiMax — the long-range wireless networking standard promoted by Intel — will figure prominently (up to 175 trials are being conducted worldwide) in the chip-maker’s program.
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