if:book will be spending the day at the Open eBook Forum‘s eBooks in Education Conference at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in New York.
In the spirit of the conference, here’s an AP article from last week that gives a good overview of Nicholas Negroponte‘s $100 laptop project for developing countries.
“Details are still being worked out, but here’s the MIT team’s current recipe: Put the laptop on a software diet; use the freely distributed Linux operating system; design a battery capable of being recharged with a hand crank; and use newly developed ‘electronic ink’ or a novel rear-projected image display with a 12-inch screen. Then, give it Wi-Fi access, and add USB ports to hook up peripheral devices. Most importantly, take profits, sales costs and marketing expenses out of the picture.”