Smart Mobs: French sticks

Smart Mobs: French sticks:

"'French authorities will give out 175,000 USB memory sticks loaded with open-source software to Parisian high-school students at the start of the next school year,'yahoo news reports.'The sticks will give the students, aged 15 and 16, the freedom to access their e-mail, browser bookmarks and other documents on computers at school, home, a friend's house or in an Internet café -- but at a much lower cost than providing notebook computers for all, a spokesman for the Greater Paris Regional Council said Friday.It's a way to reduce the digital divide, said spokesman Jean-Baptiste Roger.The sticks will probably contain the Firefox 2 Web browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, an office productivity suite such as OpenOffice.org 2, an audio and video player, and software for instant messaging, he said'."