But just as elevators have changed the shape of buildings and cars have changed the shape of cities, bits will change the shape of organizations, be they companies, nations, or social structures.

It's not computer literacy that we should be working on, but sort of human-literacy. Computers have to become human-literate.

The computer provides the only way to give students a real foundation in 21st-century skills.

In Uruguay, the President of the country announced that this would be his legacy, "One laptop per child."

One of the basics of a good system of innovation is diversity. In some ways, the stronger the culture (national, institutional, generational, or other), the less likely it is to harbor innovative thinking. Common and deep-seated beliefs, widespread norms, and behavior and performance standards are enemies of new ideas. Any society that prides itself on being harmonious and homogeneous is very unlikely to catalyze idiosyncratic thinking. Suppression of innovation need not be overt. It can be simply a matter of peoples walking around in tacit agreement and full comfort with the status quo.

Kids drop out of school mostly because school is boring and not particularly relevant.

The laptop brings back a more seamless kind of learning.