Bill Says send Meds, not Windows

Wired has a Story on the Digital Dividends conference. A gaggle of important rich geeks and bankers got together to talk about using information technologies to spur development and create markets among the world\’s poor [Read: How to make money off the 3rd world]. It took Bill Gates to set them straight. He says to fix problems of disease and literacy first, then maybe worry about computers later.

\”The percent of growth that an IT firm like Hewlett-Packard will get from people who make less than a dollar a day is minimal,\” Gates said. \”Do people have any concept of what it means to live on less than a dollar a day? There\’s no electricity. Do they have PCs that don\’t use electricity?\”