Letters from our Readers

The Hundred-Dollar Laptop
I read with great interest your article on the Hundred-Dollar Laptop, or HDL, proposed by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte ("From the Editor," August 2005). I have been living in Haiti for the last two decades and, as a member of the Haitian Association of Technology Entrepreneurs, I have looked for years to find ways to increase poor people's access to new technologies.

The success of an HDL will depend on the availability of new third-party software. For example, we are developing a multimedia application that uses the Creole language and a tactile screen to help illiterate people use a computer; we could very well try to integrate such an application in an HDL. Another important factor will be the ability to manufacture such a machine locally, using inexpensive components. I am ready to concretely explore those options here in Haiti.