As a visiting professor at MIT, I quickly learned that Nick Negroponte was no ordinary professor. We academics are trained that science proceeds in incremental small steps. Nick always was a visionary. As a computer science professor, in 1977 he saw the future was in the convergence of computers, media, publishing and entertainment. He draw a simple diagram – converging circles – and went out to raise $10 m. to start a Center to explore the implications. No American company would fund it. The Japanese got it – and wrote him a $10 m. check, giving birth to the now world-famous MIT Media Center – a playground for ideas and creativity that has to be seen to be believed. 

Negroponte is now on a two-year leave from MIT. His vision: one laptop for every child. There are 55 m. children in Brazil, most of whom do not get proper schooling, or even any schooling. There are 200 m. children in China who need schooling.  Negroponte wants every child to have a laptop. To do this, the price of the laptop must fall to $100. Right now it is $179 – but economies of scale are driving the price down. What about American kids? Well – parents can buy one, but a condition is that they must be two, and give one to a needy child abroad.

Negroponte’s OLPC organization is not-for-profit, and he himself seeks no profit. His vision is simply to implement his vision for the world’s children.

But there are obstacles. Negroponte selected AMD as the chip supplier. Intel, whose chips were too costly, has fought back and launched its own $100 laptop, called Classmate, which it offers to Brazil and other countries; Intel Chair Craig Barrett himself spearheads the effort.

Negroponte’s laptop is designed by the world’s top ‘geeks’. Its battery life will one day reach 12 hours. Its screen is phenomenal – easily visible outdoors in full sunlight. A hand crank generates electricity, when the battery runs down. There are no ‘holes’ or connections, and the computer can be rained on or dropped or dumped in the sandbox… and survives. It has two green ‘ears’ that give it far better receptivity for WiFi than ordinary computers. It looks neat – it’s green and white color scheme make it friendly and attractive for kids. Most of all, it is simple. Negroponte designed it, so that one child can teach another, or children can simply learn to use it on their own, in three minutes – and they do!  

Lessons for innovators from OLPC? Perhaps a key one – said in the Bible centuries ago. The prophet Isaiah said: “Without vision a nation perishes.” (Isaiah 61, 11).  In Hebrew, it is even more emphatic – “perishes” translates truly as “falls apart, crumbles”. Without vision, innovation falls short. What drives Negroponte to ultimate success, I hope, is his sweeping vision. He has used vision in the past to attain outstanding innovative success, with his Media Lab. And I hope his world-embracing vision will succeed again.