

Tim Berners-Lee Announces Creation of New Foundation to Bring the Web to All People - senthil_rajasek
http://www.webfoundation.org/donations/knight2008/tbl-speech

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tjic
I love how folks create non-profits and big elaborate plans to "push along"
something that is already historically inevitable.

The "One Laptop Per Child" is an example of this: people are getting wealthier
(especially in the third world - the last decade had the biggest movement out
of poverty in the history of mankind), and computers are getting cheaper and
cheaper, so it is a matter of WHEN not of IF everyone on the planet will have
a computer.

...and then the OLPC gets out in front of this, as if they're needed, or
something.

Web access is the same: everyone on the planet WILL have web access, thanks to
Moore's Law and free markets.

...and now TBL is getting out in front of inevitability to "make it happen".

Sigh.

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jsmcgd
I don't share in your cynicism or in your application of the phrase
'historically inevitable'. There are many technologies that were invented
along time ago and that were historically inevitable that still haven't
reached many parts of the world, for example electricity and clean water.
Poverty may have been reduced substantially but it still has a long way to go
and can benefit hugely from organizations like the OLPC and their ilk.

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netcan
The question that then arises is: Is OLPC likely to reach the widely available
$100 laptop goal substantially sooner then the commercial market?

At the least, they need history unfolding to take them 90% of the way. But
that 10% may be substantial.

