Design matters
19 November 2008
During Science, Technology and Innovation Week in the Basque Country, we had the privilege on November 10 of listening to a lecture by Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman Emeritus of MIT Media Lab and chairman of the One Laptop per Child initiative.
During his lecture, Mr. Negroponte stressed diversity and heterogeneity as the fundamental starting points for any process of innovation, and highlighted the importance of design in the creation of his most emblematic project: producing low-cost laptop computers to help bridge the digital divide in poorer countries.
He maintains that there are two ways of creating low-cost products, the more usual of which is to take cheap labour, cheap components and cheap design and create a cheap computer. The second way involves using highly advanced manufacturing processes, the highest technology available and a great design capable of facilitating large-scale production. One Laptop per Child is based on the second strategy. As Negroponte himself stresses, Design matters!
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