U.N. lends backing to $100 laptop project

The United Nations on Thursday lent its support to a project which aims to ship inexpensive, hand-cranked laptops to school-aged children worldwide.

Kemal Dervis, head of the U.N. Development Program, will sign a memorandum of understanding Saturday with Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of One Laptop per Child, on the $100 laptop project, at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.

The program aims to ship 1 million units by the end of next year to sell to governments at cost for distribution to school children and teachers.

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UNDP will work with Negroponte's organization to deliver "technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries," the U.N. agency said in a statement.

Negroponte wants to start shipping the cheap laptop, which is to have wireless network access and a hand-crank to provide electricity, later this year. The aim is to have governments or donors buy them and give full ownership to the children.

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Negroponte, who is also chairman of the MIT Media Lab, has said he expects to sell 1 million of them to Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria.

The laptop is expected to run on an open-source operating system, such as Linux.

The devices will be lime green in color, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and, so the thinking goes, to fend off potential thieves.