More WSIS

Negroponte showed off his laptop, “the green machine”. Looks pretty snappy. What I’m really happy about is the choice of going open source (OS) and the reasoning behind that choice. The idea, as I understand it, is that using OS permits more flexibility to adapt the system and software to the needs of each user. This is certainly in line with my own thinking, as evidenced from this paper.
In other news, the BBC’s WSIS blogger claims that “The answers to bridging the digital divide are already here. The challenge is in their implementation.” My question is, which digital divide is he referring to (developing countries, rural areas, the illiterate, the elderly, the poor in developed countries, this list could go on and on and on), and what is it that these “solutions” acually solve? Claims like this over-simplify the issues and are certainly not helpful.