Just when you thought Google couldn't get any more jaw-dropping
with its latest explorations, you realize with a sudden and
exasperated "omigod" that this is bigger...much bigger than we
imagined. Google, NASA, and MIT are going to change the
world...again.
It was titillating enough to think of the seemingly inevitable
GoogleNet, an ad-supported wireless network that would transform
the Internet into a broadcast-style medium like radio or television.
The scope of that, in the immediate future anyway, was hedged by US
borders (or North American borders perhaps).
Then, Google hires the exalted Father of the Internet, CEO Eric
Schmidt gets over his CNet freeze out, decides to move in with NASA,
and is a sponsor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's
massively philanthropic ambition to put $100 drop-it-in-the-mud-if-
you-want, hand crank powered laptops into the hands of the poorest
children of the globe in countries like Brazil, Cambodia, Thailand,
China, Egypt, and South Africa.
And you're all, "huh?" Be careful to avoid anyone that may pat you
on the back, your face could freeze that way.
Eric Schmidt says, "Google and NASA share a common desire-to bring
a universe of information to people around the world."
So after sifting through a string of recent mega-announcements,
your mind...it gradually gets there...yes...oh...my-God. The whole
world. But how?
Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal dutifully points out that in
Brazil, Internet access, after an initial $130 sting for a modem,
runs at about $50 a month-a considerable expense in a country where
the average income is between $220 to $330 per month. At the first
once over, you wonder what good it does to hand a kid a laptop if
she can't afford Internet access.
But Baker realizes that Google has to have some master plan in
conjunction with this project.
"With rumors of the GoogleNet and Google Wi-fi in the works and
their latest partnership with NASA, I highly expect Google to
announce some sort of global wi-fi or satellite based Internet
connection for the world's poor to be announced once this One
Laptop per Child program becomes a reality, which it hopefully
will. Funded, by Google AdWords," writes Baker.
We knew we were witnessing history. We may not have known to what
extent history was being made.
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