Carlos A. is wrong when he says that Negroponte's 'green thing'
computer project involves trying to transfer a United States based
approach to settings where it will not work. The same approach has
NEVER WORKED in the United States.

The 'green thing' has more to do with power and influence devoted to
promoting Negroponte than it has to do with actually bridging the
digital divide. If the goal were to bridge the divide the Media Lab
would be listening to the voices of the South, instead of playing to
the Media outlets of the North.

The proper strategy here is to help those who might be seduced by
Negroponte's words to better understand what questions they should be
asking when approached by rich and powerful forces offering 'green
thing' gifts of questionable value.

It would be interesting to learn my MicroSoft software is not on the
machine. I am glad but do not think this is a victory for Linux and OSS.
I suspect that MS understood that the 'green thing' is a flawed idea.

Sam Lanfranco
Distributed Knowledge Project
York University
Nearby Wed Nov 23 13:31:09 2005