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In the wake of a nasty spat with former partner Intel, a reorganization, and mounting criticism, Nicholas Negroponte is looking for a chief executive for his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, according to BusinessWeek.

He wants someone to help manage the organization "more like Microsoft," according to the article, rather than like the "terrorist group, doing impossible things" it's been until now.

"I am not a CEO," OLPC Chairman Negroponte said in an interview with the magazine. "Management, administration, and details are my weaknesses. I'm much better at the vision, big-picture side of the house."

Negroponte has hired a headhunter to help find a CEO and hopes to have one named by April or May.

The Cambridge, Mass., group aims to provide low-cost laptops to children in developing countries.

The group has faced its share of challenges in the three years since it was formed. Its XO laptops initially cost $188 each instead of the anticipated $100, some countries are scaling back their deployment plans and Intel recently quit, claiming OLPC was pressuring it not to compete with its own laptops.

Maybe a Bill Gates is just what's needed to get OLPC back on track and focused.

I've long admired the work done by Nicholas Negroponte in helping the world's cyber have-nots get wired. Ditto for Intel. That company's track record of achievement through the decades speaks for itself.

So I'm especially puzzled over the inane dustup that erupted this week between Negroponte's nonprofit One Laptop Per Child and Intel.

Intel sits on the OLPC board but this has been a bad marriage for months. On Thursday, the rancor went public. Intel leaked to The Wall Street Journal its decision to cut ties with OLPC. One day later, a press release went out under Negroponte's name, accusing Intel of a litany of misdeeds. This sort of heat seeker is rare to find anymore in the oh-so-scripted tech industry where PR dainties usually run the show. As such, it deserves being quoted at length:

"We at OLPC have been disappointed that Intel did not deliver on any of the promises they made when they joined OLPC; while we were hopeful for a positive, collaborative relationship, it never materialized.

Intel came in late to the OLPC association...Intel has violated its written agreement with OLPC on numerous occasions. Intel continued to disparage the XO laptop in developing nations that had already decided to partner with OLPC (Uruguay and Peru), with countries that were in the midst of choosing a laptop solution (Brazil and Nigeria), and even small and remote places (Mongolia).

Intel was unwilling to work cooperatively with OLPC on software development. Over the entire six months it was a member of the association, Intel contributed nothing of value to OLPC: Intel never contributed in any way to our engineering efforts and failed to provide even a single line of code to the XO software efforts - even though Intel marketed its products as being able to run the XO software. The best Intel could offer in regards to an "Intel inside" XO laptop was one that would be more expensive and consume more power - exactly the opposite direction of OLPC's stated mandate and vision.

Despite OLPC's best efforts to work things out with Intel and several warnings that their behavior was untenable, it is clear that Intel's heart has never been in working collaboratively as a part of OLPC.

This is well illustrated by the way in which our separation was announced single-handedly by Intel; Intel issued a statement to the press behind our backs while simultaneously asking us to work on a joint statement with them. Actions do speak louder than words in this case. As we said in the past, we view the children as a mission; Intel views them as a market.

The benefit to the departure of Intel from the OLPC board is a renewed clarity in purpose and the marketplace; we will continue to focus on our mission of providing every child with an opportunity for learning."

OK, it's obvious that Negroponte is pissed. Royally. But as my CNET News.com colleague Tom Krazit pointed out during Friday's podcast, neither Negroponte nor Intel has a divine right to market laptops to the developing world. This is a competition between organizations that are shooting for the same goal. Forgetting the Godfather rule of business, Negroponte's whiny diatribe is turning this into a clash of personalities.

That doesn't let Intel off the hook.

The company's actions make it appear every bit the money-grubbing predator that Negroponte suggests. The company is going after many of the same markets earmarked by OLPC. On the surface, that doesn't sound untoward. If anything, it's old-fashioned competition. But you have to wonder whether Intel would be so gung-ho if the OLPC's machine featured an Intel processor rather than one from rival Advanced Micro Devices. (The public divorce obviously puts the kibosh on plans for an upcoming Intel-based unit from OLPC.)

There's too much ill will to get the sides back together. But nobody came out ahead in the aftermath of this ridiculous spat. The only losers are the world's poor who might have benefited from a fruitful partnership between Intel and OLPC.

Novatium Solutions, which has come up with a thin-client computer for emerging markets, has landed an investment from New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

The company has mostly installed its computers around Chennai (formerly Madras) in southern India. The systems work on the thin-client model. Most of the actual computing and the Internet connection goes through a central server. Users then tap into the server through desktop units.

With thin clients, updates and security patches are easier to manage, according to Rajesh Jain, one of Novatium's founders. Energy can also be conserved. In a novel twist, Novatium's clients use a digital signal processor rather than a standard processor. NEA did not state how much it has invested in the company.

Jain, who sold his IndiaWorld portal in 2000 for $115 million, is one of India's better known technology execs. After selling IndiaWorld, he turned his attention to expanding the computer base in India. He also writes a popular blog. (Interestingly, another founder is Ray Stata, chairman of DSP maker Analog Devices.)

Novatium's computer will play in the same market as devices such as the Intel Classmate PC and the XO from the One Laptop Per Child organization created by Nicholas Negroponte. Some of these devices will be sold to schools, while others will likely be bought by Internet cafe owners, who will then recover their investment by selling time on their computers. Many phone booths in India are actually owned by individual entrepreneurs.

Even though Negroponte popularized the "$100 computer" name, no one is actually hitting that number. The XO will cost about $188 after a series of price hikes. Taiwan's Asustek is working on a $200 computer based around Intel's designs.

Novatium says that its machine costs about 500 rupees a month, including Internet connectivity, software and hardware. That's about $12.44.

Novatium has also experimented with ways of using old monitors and TVs to cut the price further. In a 2005 interview, Jain said that he could get the total price down to around $120 with a used monitor.

Chennai is something of a center for cheap computing devices. Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the Indian Institute of Technology of Chennai has developed a $1,000 automatic teller machine that can also serve as an Internet kiosk for villages.

Hugo Chávez, the combative leader of Venezuela, wants to come out with his own PC that he would then distribute to citizens in the region, according to sources in the PC industry who have been contacted by Venezuelan officials.

The PCs would be part of Chávez's strategy of winning friends in the region through gifts paid for through Venezuela's oil industry. Cuba, Bolivia and other nations have all been recipients of gifts from Chávez. The PCs would likely cost little or could even be given away. Venezuela has been contacting companies in Asia about the project, said sources.

(Credit: Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela)

It's not finalized, but an announcement could come later this year. Brazil and other governments have in the past had similar programs, but the programs died after funding trickled away.

A Chávez PC would also be the latest entrant in the market for computers in emerging economies. Intel, Via Technologies, Microsoft, Novatium, N Computing and the One Laptop Per Child organization have all come out with products aimed at bringing cheap computers to classrooms in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The debate over which one will win can sometimes be testing. Earlier this year, Nicholas Negroponte, the man behind the OLPC, accused Intel of trying to sandbag his project. Intel and others, however, have pointed out that the $100 laptop from OLPC actually costs about $175 and is made from nonstandard software and hardware.

I'm sure they will all get along fabulously with Mr. Chávez.

Chávez recently complained about a video game, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, because it takes place in his country. He said it was an attempt to prepare Americans psychologically for an invasion.

Apparently, this world isn't big enough for two low-cost PC projects.

Nick Negroponte, founder and leader of the One Laptop Per Child project, told 60 Minutes Sunday night that he would have 3 million orders for the $100 laptop (at this point, really $175) if not for Intel's "shameless" business practices.

"Intel has hurt the mission enormously," Negroponte said. How? By apparently distributing marketing materials questioning the features of the One Laptop (it's really called the XO) and by giving away an Intel-designed laptop called the Classmate PC to poor nations around the world.

Intel Chairman Craig Barrett made no apologies for his company's behaivor. Barrett has spent much of his time since ceding the CEO post to Paul Otellini traveling the world evangelizing the cause of bringing PCs to the world's poor. "There are lots of opportunities for us to work together," Barrett said on the long-running television program. "That's why when you say this is competition, we're tying to drive him out of business: this is crazy."

Negroponte thinks the real problem is that the One Laptop uses a chip from Advanced Micro Devices, and that Intel wants to lock in the next generation of PC customers. While there's probably something to that, surely there's more than one way to bring low-cost PCs to the rest of the world.

AMD tried its own Personal Internet Communicator, and while that product failed to take off, it did help stimulate the conversation. Another group called Project Inkwell is investigating ways to hook up classrooms around the world. And, perhaps a company or organization in one of those poor emerging nations might actually figure out how to design a low-cost PC for its own people, rather than letting outsiders--no matter what their motivation--dictate what type of technology they should use.

It sounds too good to be true, but the Human Resources Development ministry in India is trying to get engineers to devise a $10 laptop.

So far, the ministry is looking at two different designs: one from an engineering student at the Vellore Institute of Technology and another from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, according to the Times of India. (The Institute of Science, by the way, is not the colleges that are part of the Indian Institute of Technology. The Institute of Science is a grad school. Out of over 100,000 annual applications, it takes about 350.)

So far, one of the laptops, even after factoring in labor charges, costs about $47.

The cost is encouraging and we are hopeful it would come down to $10. We would also look into the possibility of some Indian company manufacturing the parts,? an official said.

Even though labor is cheap in India, getting a laptop to this level will be tough. A laptop is made from components, after all, which have to be made in factories. The $100 laptop from Nicholas Negroponte has ballooned up to $175. These laptops will be made on a single board. And most likely, it will be made with old, discarded component. You and I may not want them, but a lot of old components are pretty good. A 1GHz processor is considered out-of-date these days.

Thursday's briefing by Nicholas Negroponte on the One Laptop Per Child initiative seems to have meant different things to different folks.

The Associated Press led with the rising price of the laptop, designed for school-age tots in developing nations ("'$100 laptop' to cost $175"), while the Reuters news agency focused on the potential for use closer to home ("U.S. schools may join inexpensive laptop project"). And The Boston Globe, for which the just-across-the-Charles-River OLPC is in part a local business story, got caught up with the laptop's sense of fun, style and mission ("It's cute, green--and may change world").

The OLPC group says software efforts remain focused on the Linux operating system, even as some of the news reports suggested a looming role for Windows. And the price, backers say, will start to drop once high-volume manufacture and distribution are a reality.

For now, the system once touted as the "$100 laptop" remains very much a work in progress, with a little something for everybody--including schoolchildren in Nigeria who are already trying out the laptops.

Blog community response:

"Got to say, still excited about this project. Last time I held a computer class in the DR, a massive power surge nearly killed me when the computer in question was powered up... These little things should be able to take the abuse, and the unstable power grids of many of these developing countries. Still cannot wait until a consumer model is released, so I can prepair a few classes on them for next time I go down."
--Slashdot user Upaut

"Microsoft clearly doesn't want to see millions of OLPC machines running Linux and has now offered an alternative."
--Hardware 2.0

"The realities of manufacturing and designing mass market products has set in, but the result is still pretty good, don't you think? I saw a prototype a few weeks ago, and they ditched the crank now too. Hopefully they keep the wireless mesh."
--GigaOm

"Negroponte does not try to compete on the market, he pushes his laptops through governments and schools on powerless students."
--TechNewLogy

At the Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital Conference in Carlsbad, Calif., Nicholas Negroponte showed off the latest prototypes of the fabled $100 PC for developing nations. It's no longer a $100 PC, however.

The ruggedized, 2-pound Linux desktop (Fedora) system with mesh networking will sell for about $130 to $140 (sans shipping) to governments starting in April 2007. As he has previously stated, Negroponte expects to reach the $100 price point by the end of 2008. The colorful system can turn into a tablet, and Negroponte said it "will run like a bat out of hell."

Pricing depends on the amount of RAM, but the key is the display, he added. "It has to be sunlight-readable. That won't be done until August/September." Then there will be a beauty contest among three systems and the machine will go into manufacturing for shipping, he said. Currently, seven countries are evaluating the system. The most enthusiastic are Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand and Argentina. In addition, China, India and Egypt have shown interest, as well as Russia, Mexico and Indonesia. Negroponte said that manufacturing has to reach 5 to 6 million to get scale pricing.