I think that I and people in developing nations want the same thing: a guaranteed source of income, doing meaningful work with benefits, without the need for a boss. This is what “In the River They Swim” has omitted so far. Sure, it’s liberating to not to need government aid, but isn’t even more liberating not to need a boss? Can the internet provide such an opportunity? Can we teach a person to “swim” in the river by themselves without a boss? Can’t we teach them to catch their own fish? It looks like it because I get many email offers to run independent businesses but so far, I can’t tell if they are scams or not.

So if children in Africa got those laptops from Nicholas Negroponte, and if adults in developing nations got them too, and had a system for evaluating on-line enterprises to create independent wealth, where only the most honest, environmentally sane, opportunities that are respectful of human rights and of the stakeholders were available, would this put everyone in every country on an equal playing field, able to earn meaningful income, possibly without the hierarchy of a traditional boss?

Perhaps, but some computer education and education about economics may first be in order for this method to succeed.