In November 2002, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a Challenge to Silicon Valley[1] to create nearly up-to-date computers and communications systems that would enable villages to afford Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). Some examples from around the world were:
- the Simputer movement in India
- Pocket PC from Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, United States
- free metropolitan wireless systems
- the MIT Media Lab program to create a $100 laptop
- localization of Linux into languages not supported by commercial vendors
