In a dingy meeting room in the bowels of New York's vast Javits Convention Center, Béhar is deep in conversation, in French, oblivious to the stir around him. A clutch of women near the door have been waiting for an opportunity to interrupt. Finally, one summons her courage: "Is that the $100 laptop?" she asks, pointing to a bright-green-and-white computer on the table in front of him. "We saw it last night on 60 Minutes. Can we touch it?"
Béhar's work for Coke and J&J may be paying the bulk of the bills, but these days it's the laptop that's getting all the airtime. One Laptop per Child was spawned eight years ago when Negroponte first saw the educational and developmental impact computers had on children at a school he had opened in Reaksmey, Cambodia. The goal now is to get the device into the hands of 50 million kids in developing countries by 2010, a target recently made more likely after Intel (which was designing another low-cost machine) decided to collaborate, not compete. Béhar and his team signed on in 2005, picking up after the project's initial design firm, Design Continuum, got, in the words of Negroponte, "stuck." Five people at fuseproject worked on the device for two years, at cost.
Technologically, the laptop is a masterpiece, with muscular Wi-Fi, a high-res screen, and a power system that charges via battery, foot pedal, or a manual pull cord. But it's the machine's design that is exerting the gravitational pull, even on adults: Its engaging color, cunning little rabbit-ear antennae, and swivel screen make it almost anthropomorphically appealing. "One 8-year-old child told us he valued his laptop more than his life," Negroponte says. "Another refused to give his broken laptop back to be repaired for fear of its not coming back."
For Béhar, the project is central to how he views design's role--both in his business and in the world at large. "Design is in the bright lights today," he says, "but that also comes with a responsibility. Where we can make a difference, as a profession, we should simply go."
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Recent Comments | 2 Total
February 23, 2009 at 5:24pm by Eli Shapiro
That story is very inspirational to hear, mostly because off the success Yves has had so far, his age, and the fact that he didnt go to a traditional art school at first. When someone like that is able to accomplish his business goals while simultaneously telling his clients how it is really says something about how innovation comes about; from the people who had an outsider's perspective to start with. It has gotten to the point that I think traditional educational programs in many fields are more of a hindrance than a help for creative thinking and design.
November 21, 2009 at 5:03pm by jennifer park
Whenever i see the post like your's i feel that there are still helpful people who share information for the help of others, it must be helpful for other's. thanx and good job.
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