Crossing the digital divide is a great idea and the folks at MIT have come up with the greatest single idea yet to do that. Negroponte and his team set out to build a $100 laptop so that people and especially children all around the world could be online. Although the project now looks more like it will be $175 per laptop it is still a very viable concept.

Currently we have 6.6 billion people on the planet and 2 billion of them are children. Only the children in the first world countries have computers or laptops. More and more children will have access to the Internet in the future, but right now most children do not. If we are to bring up the entire world we need to start with the children and get them use to using computers.

If not they may be left behind as the world moves forward and it may cause them to have economic hardship throughout their lives. One laptop per child or OLPC is a great concept. There will be 100’s of millions of children in India, China, Indonesia and South America who may be able to have their own laptop to help them learn.

If the children can join together in a common cause and have a viable vision for the future then working together they may actually be able to see it come to fruition. Each generation is touted as the generation that will save mankind and yet in the past we have not seen a generation come along and take charge and make it so. However, with one laptop per child all this may be possible.

L. Winslow is an Economic Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur. Currently he is planning a bicycle ride across the US to raise money for charity and is sponsored by http://www.Calling-Plans.com and all the proceeds will go to various charities who sign up.

Tags: OLPC, One Laptop Per Child