Lasers in the Jungle Watch
Posted by erweinstein on August 3, 2007
The so-called “$100 PC”, designed for citizens of developing nations, has been the object of a several-year product design struggle by technology firms and economic development specialists. The One Laptop Per Child campaign, which aims to accomplish this goal using a cheap, 2 Watt AMD subnotebook, now has some competiton. Lenovo announced today that they will sell a new PC aimed at rural Chinese customers, for as low as $199. Dell had earlier announced a low-cost PC for around $223.
(This post will hopefully be the first in a continuing series about the arrival of technology in the developing world, particularly in clever or unique ways. “Lasers in the Jungle” is a line from Paul Simon’s song “The Boy in the Bubble” on the album Graceland–the 1986 Grammy Album of the Year. The song juxtaposes the the arrival of Western technologies with the banality of daily life in an unnamed, poverty-stricken African dictatorship.)
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Chicago, Athens, and Jerusalem 
Five-Year Blogaversary « Chicago, Athens, and Jerusalem said
[…] Tyler Cowen once wrote (I can’t find a link) that good blogs have recurring features, like a regular “cast of characters”. Although I haven’t been anywhere near as prolific a blogger as Tyler, I have tried to follow his advice in this respect. My recurring features include the not-quite-weekly “Remark of the Week” series, longish posts of assorted links called “Festival of Links”, and the occasional “No Hiding Place”, wherein I highlight the misfortunes of corrupt politicians and other public figures. If you see an example of the creative use of technology in a developing country, be sure to share it with me in an email or comment so I can blog about it in my (so far abortive) continuing series called “Lasers in the Jungle Watch“. […]