Can Technology Save the Developing World?

By BROCK READ

Cheap laptops are just the first step to jump-starting education in poor regions

Thousands of scholars and speakers flocked to the annual National Educational Computing Conference, held this month in San Diego, but there was little question who the star of the event would be. After all, Nicholas Negroponte was there, and he had his laptop with him.

As he showed off the laptop — a prototype of a brightly colored machine that can be manufactured for about