By Robin Hicks | 18 October 2010
The government of Indonesia is planning the launch of a low-cost notebook to help bridge the digital divide in the populous archipelago.
Ferry Yahya, Director, Center for Data & Information, Ministry of Industry, told FutureGov that the project was “conceptually already there”, but more work needed to be done to bring the price of the notebook below Rp 2 million (US$224).
The ‘One notebook, one home’ project, which aims to deliver internet connectivity to all of Indonesia’s 36 million households, will see notebooks manufactured locally using both local and imported technology and expertise, Yayha explained.
“The digital divide is a big problem in Indonesia, a vast country of 13,000 more than islands. The idea is to put a notebook into every home in the country, so that everyone can use the internet,” said Yahya.
The device would cost what the average Indonesian policeman earns in a month (Rp 2 million), and Yahya admitted that the project had a long way to go to make it affordable for all.
The news emerges one month after Indonesia’s archipelagic neighbour, the Philippines, hatched a plan to launch a low-cost tablet computer for use in schools.
This device would be a stripped down version of popularly available tablets, priced at down to around PHP3000 (US$70).
Mobile computers would bring an end to the days of children dragging heavy schoolbooks around, according to Science & Technology Secretary Mario Montejo. “We should really should replace books,” he said.
In the Philippines, internet penetration is around 30 per cent. In Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest internet community, it is around 19 per cent.
Source: http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2010/oct/18/indonesia-launch-low-cost-notebook/#
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