Technology Archives

Computing for Democracy

Filed under: Technology

Back in April, our Robert Mayer blogged about Nicholas Negroponte's "One Laptop Per Child" campaign, posting video of his lecture about the project at Time magazine's 2007 Leadership Forum. The sub-$200 laptop, designed to be used by children in the developing world and potentially a boon to openness, development and democracy, is shown above.

Now, the New York Times reports that the project is facing trouble:

Late last year, Mr. Negroponte said he had hoped for orders for three million laptops, but those pledges have fallen short. Orders of a million each from populous Nigeria and Brazil did not materialize. Still, the project has had successes. Peru, for example, will buy and distribute 250,000 of the laptops over the next year -- many of them allocated for remote rural areas. Mexico and Uruguay, Mr. Negroponte noted, have made firm commitments. In a sponsorship program, the government of Italy has agreed to purchase 50,000 laptops for distribution in Ethiopia.

Click through to find out more about the current status of the project and how you can help (a new marketing initiative allows you to buy two such machines for $399, keeping one for yourself and sending one to a child in a developing nation). Watch a video review of the product here.

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Kim Zigfeld · September 23, 2007 11:00 AM · Comments (2) · TrackBacks (0)

Best way to learn a language?

Filed under: Technology

I have lived in Latin America and Spain for a few years, and as such have "learned" Spanish through immersion without any formal education whatsoever. However, because of this, I have never been able to perfect my grammar, tenses, vocabulary, and all that good stuff. I can shoot off the slang like it's no one's business, but using the subjuctive will throw me off base.

I am looking for a way to do this without having to take classes in an actual classroom.

People talk a lot about the Rosetta Stone software, but from what I've read, it mostly teaches you words through association with images. This would be really useful for someone who is just starting a language, but it appears that at no time does Rosetta Stone really indoctrinate the formal grammar into you, or even the alphabet! It is these technical aspects that i need to master rather than simply more trial-and-error.

Given that Publius has a very international and internationally-minded audience, I'm sure many of you have learned a second language. What I'd like to know is, first, how did you do it? Second, if you used any kind of software, CDs, online courses, anything, what was it and how well did it work for you?

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Robert Mayer · September 17, 2007 9:14 PM · Comments (49) · TrackBacks (0)

Nicholas Negroponte discusses the $100 laptop

Filed under: Technology

Bentley College in partnership with TIME magazine hosted the 2007 leadership forum on April 25, in which a lot of important an influential people attended. Even more important we the speakers. I made sure to take video of the entire thing. It's not the best quality, but there is a heck of a lot to learn from these people.

This video is of Nicholas Negroponte giving the luncheon keynote address. He talks about the $100 laptop project, the technology that's driving it, the purpose behind it, and how the business world is making it all possible. I had to chop it up into four pieces for YouTube, but I guess that just allows you to watch it in snippets. Check it out.

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Robert Mayer · April 25, 2007 7:09 PM · Comments (3) · TrackBacks (0)