UN tech summit renews push to close digital divide

A UN technology summit in Tunisia was set to get down to business today as it focused on giving more communications, including internet access, to countries where the cost has been too high and the technology too low-tech.

Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and Senegalese President H. Wade were among the leaders scheduled to address the World Summit on the Information Society, which ends tomorrow.

At the same time, several companies and organisations were unveiling their plans to bring the world closer and, in a sense, narrow the digital divide, by providing laptops that cost just $100 (€85.60) plus portable, satellite-based radios that can pull in international programming from just about anywhere.

Yesterday, a text-book size laptop boasting wireless network access and a hand-crank to provide electricity was unveiled by Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman of MIT Media Lab.

Microsoft Corporation, the world’s largest maker of software, unveiled a new network of learning centres in Tunisia that will train people to be teachers in technology.