What are the Potential Social and Ethical Implications of the $100 Laptop?

That's the topic for the most recent Schubmehl-Prein Prize for Best Essay on Social Impact of Computing.

The Schubmehl-Prein Prize for best analysis of the social impact of a particular aspect of computing technology will be awarded to a student who is a high school junior in academic year 2009-2010. The first-place award is $1,000, the second-place award is $500, and the third-place award is $250. Winning entries are traditionally published in the Association for Computing Machinery's Computers and Society online magazine.

The winners of the 2009 contest are published in the most recent ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, volume 40, issue 1. (Subscription needed.)

• Schubmehl-Prein essay competition: "What are the Potential Social and Ethical Implications of the $100 Laptop?" by Kevin W. Bowyer
• A nice attempt by Katherine Heit (1st))
• The $100 laptop: a cyberspace playground by Danielle Harris (2nd)
• One Laptop per Child: a misdirection of humanitarian effort by David Purington (3rd)