this is tunis calling...

[alanmck]

been at this UN thing all week. strange mix of folk - Robert Mugabe, Kofi Annan, the ever excellent Nic Negroponte from MIT with his $100 clockwork laptop, and a bucketload of randoms doing a lot of headshaking, hand-wringing and little else. sounds like a club i used to go to.

bizarrely, i have just met Gilberto Gil, and what a very nice man he was. sadly, my camera is at the hotel.

[pokester]

been at this UN thing all week. strange mix of folk - Robert Mugabe, Kofi Annan, the ever excellent Nic Negroponte from MIT with his $100 clockwork laptop, and a bucketload of randoms doing a lot of headshaking, hand-wringing and little else. sounds like a club i used to go to.

bizarrely, i have just met Gilberto Gil, and what a very nice man he was. sadly, my camera is at the hotel.

yes the gone solve the african problem with rewinable laptops

[peretti]

yes the gone solve the african problem with rewinable laptops

Well a $100 laptop's not going to solve world hunger but it will at least let developing countries into the digital economy and help with education, the promotion of independent media and, of course, bring free porn and a wealth of e-mail opportunities to consolidate your penis or enlarge your debts. I met Negroponte a few years ago and he is a truly inspirational figure. Plus those machines look fantastic!

[pokester]

Well a $100 laptop's not going to solve world hunger but it will at least let developing countries into the digital economy and help with education, the promotion of independent media and, of course, bring free porn and a wealth of e-mail opportunities to consolidate your penis or enlarge your debts. I met Negroponte a few years ago and he is a truly inspirational figure. [/IMG]

agree

let's hope it works ...they said the same with the rewindable radio (aids prevention,..)

[babycart]

been at this UN thing all week. strange mix of folk - Robert Mugabe, Kofi Annan, the ever excellent Nic Negroponte from MIT with his $100 clockwork laptop, and a bucketload of randoms doing a lot of headshaking, hand-wringing and little else. sounds like a club i used to go

are they still appointing Ambassadors for Goodwill? I hear Roy Keane's looking for a job...

[alanmck]

will it solve all of the world's problems? will if fuck.

as Peretti said (sort of, anyway), the long game is to (and here comes the phrase of the week) help to bridge the digital divide. education, ddevelopment, training, media, eventually access to connectivity/ internet, etc. it's the trojan horse. man. the way that it changed conversations was fantastic - instead of "oh, it'll never work, we'll never be able to..., too expensive, blah" it became "ok, what can we do with it, how could we bundle it with other stuff, what would people in my country use it for, how could we fund it. this to me is the whole point of the thing. knock away (one of) the key barriers to access, and all sorts of innovation can happen. it is, to use another of the phrases of the week, a great enabling technology.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,69615,00.html

at $100, it's affordable (in some cases partly through donor organisations/ debt swapping arrangements) for a fair proportion of the countries that most need it. i particularly liked Negroponte's line "why one laptop per child? well, would you give them one pencil per class?". He was excellent value during a 3 hour bullshit session with Unesco, where he

1. accused them of living in the past: "you only seem to talk about preservation. it is important, but what about what comes next, what about the future?"
2. suggested that eventually, there will only be one language used globally. all others will become secondary, used locally by inidigenous populations. Cue outraged shaking of heads, a small number of walkouts and more hands raised to "debate" than any of the other sessions i attended in the 6 days i was here.

oh, and the global language? mainly english, with a bit of chinese (non-specific, prob mandarin, and some hindi). oh, how the francophones loved to hear that!!!!! i would guess though that the teachers who frequent this site could give us examples of this "new" global language being used in classes and playgrounds in the uk right now.

anyway, back at tunis ariport now, glad to be going home.

[Ian Townsend]

i would guess though that the teachers who frequent this site could give us examples of this "new" global language being used in classes and playgrounds in the uk right now..

Sadly the reigning global language amongst boys aged 11 to 15 is the same as it was when I was at school in the early 70's; namely:

Urrgh....this school dinner is gay. P'** off you Gaylord. I hate Geography; it's gay. etc etc etc ad infinitum....despite every teacher I've ever known challenging it in every way imaginable.

The 80's ushered in the ....'and your mum' insults; perfectly captured in the film 'White Men Can't Jump'.

Two weeks after Sermad shared his tale of a schoolkid cussing him on the bus with 'Your Mum Works at McDonalds'...and it's accompanying MWM three fingered signage..... I heard it at school with 'Minimum Wage' added.

How language travels.

[alanmck]

Two weeks after Sermad shared his tale of a schoolkid cussing him on the bus with 'Your Mum Works at McDonalds'...and it's accompanying MWM three fingered signage..... I heard it at school with 'Minimum Wage' added.

How language travels.

it might be the bottle of wine i've nearly finished, it might be being home after another week away, or it might just be very funny.

whatever, that made me laugh out loud. and try the signage. cos let's face it, if it's good enought for the kids, then why not for me? oh, ok then... i see. g'night all.