From a prominent Greek shipping family and director of MIT's Media Laboratory, Professor Nicholas Negroponte was raised in Switzerland and received his post-secondary education in America. His diverse cultural background is the source of his infinite inspiration.

No stranger to Taiwan, Negroponte revealed his belief that technology should serve everybody when he announced his "One Laptop Per Child" idea in a speech given at the Industrial Research Technology Institute in late November 2005.

On a trip to Myanmar several years ago, he discovered that the children there have it hard enough trying to make it anywhere in school, but then they come home to houses with no radios or television sets. Lacking the electric infrastructure that we take for granted makes it difficult for children to learn and obtain information. The difficulties children face to get an education in remote areas set his creative juices flowing. The result: the US$100 laptop.

With laptops going for over US$1,000 a pop, however, trying to reduce costs to US$100 is going to put the cost control capabilities of manufacturers through their paces. According to Negroponte, half of the cost of most computers goes into marketing. If the US$100 laptops were distributed by schools and government education agencies, the money saved on marketing could go into developing new materials.

At Negroponte's invitation, the likes of Google of search engine fame, CPU giant AMD, and software producer Red Hat have joined forces with Taiwanese and Korean hardware manufacturers. After mass production begins in late 2006, between 5 and 10 million US$100 laptops are expected to be sold in countries including China, Vietnam, India, Nigeria, and Brazil.

Negroponte, who has served on Motorola's board of directors for ten years, observes that the telecommunications giant has been working on reducing production costs for computer monitors to US$10. Initially, Negroponte and his partners opted for the cheaper rear projection display system. Due to the high cost of royalties, Microsoft Windows was out of the question, so they are using the open-source operating system Linux instead. With the unstable electric grids of many developing countries in mind, the US$100 laptops are bringing together all types of interesting innovative ideas like low-power-consumption components, a hand-cranked charger along the lines of the Victrolas of yesteryear, and solar panels.

Speaking frankly, Negroponte explains that when he brought up the idea of US$100 laptops, some said it couldn't be done. He points out that the naysayers only steeled his resolve. Laying it on the line, he points out that of the five points required for a creative environment, the most important is "Never say never." Anybody on your team that doesn't agree with this point needs to be shown the door, because inventiveness comes from thinking outside box.

The other important points:

MIT Media Lab chairman Nicholas Negroponte gave a speech called "One Laptop Per Child," expressing the hope that low-cost computers can be used to help children in remote areas learn about the latest advances in knowledge. Experts and scholars from the lab also presented their ideas about creativity.

Incrementalism is the enemy of creativity. Creativity advances by leaps and bounds, not incrementally, so seeking just-right incremental changes can choke ingenuity. By not accepting failure, or by castigating those who fail, many cultures nail the coffin shut on the spirit of creativity.

Discipline doesn't necessarily help. Managers especially need to pay attention to this point. Businesses need to tolerate a certain degree of anarchy. They cannot, for example, require that their creative people live and die by the time clock. Creativity is more of a game than a job. If a creative person isn't passionate about his work, then he's in the wrong place.

Perception is more valuable than IQ. At a Las Vegas magician's request, MIT Media Lab developed a "performing chair" that could sense a person's whereabouts. An engineer from Japan's NEC saw it and felt it could be used in child car seats, because crash-released airbags can smash into older model car seats which in turn can injure children. Had that engineer been less observant, this technology might have simply remained a parlor trick.

Cultural diversity. The US is a highly diverse country. Case in point, 35% of MIT's student body is composed of foreigners. This means that one third of its thinking and culture are new. In stark contrast, only 5% of students in European and Asian universities are foreign and most of those are from neighboring countries--a situation not conducive to creative research. Creative environments should, as much as possible, tolerate diversity in everything from professions to value systems.

Negroponte has lectured many times in Taiwan on the concept of creativity. MIT's OpenCourseWare website, translated by Lucifer Chu, contains complete recordings of Negroponte's brilliant speeches along with Chinese translations. Readers can check them out at http://www.twocw.net/mit/Media-Arts-and-Sciences/MAS-news/media-news01.htm