Personal Interest

Windup laptops aim to bridge digital divide

by Geof Lambert
Thursday, November 17, 2005. 02:47PM
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TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- A U.N. technology summit was focused Thursday on bringing more communications, including Internet access, to developing countries where the cost has been too high and the technology too low-tech.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade were among the leaders scheduled to address the World Summit on the Information Society, which ends on Friday.

At the same time, several companies and organizations were unveiling their plans to bring the world closer and, in a sense, narrow the digital divide, by providing laptops that cost just US$100 (euro85) to portable, satellite-based radios that can pull in international programming from just about anywhere. (Watch why some want a U.N.-controlled Internet -- 1:27)

More than 16,000 people from 176 countries are attending the three-day summit.

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