Jooce, Global Internet Desktop

Paris startup Jooce has an idea: Instead of one laptop per child, why not many virtual desktops per public computer? Some people suggest perhaps the solution isn’t to put hardware into the hands of every person, but rather to maximize the number of people who have access to a PC. That’s the idea behind Paris startup Jooce (the name is a play on “juice,” as in electricity), which has devised a novel software system that lets many people use a single machine as though it were theirs alone.

Whether in an Internet café or village kiosk, a PC equipped with Jooce software gives each person who logs in a customized environment—complete with programs, preferences, bookmarks, buddy lists, and so forth. That way, even though many people may use the machine each day, it feels “personal” to each one. Jooce also lets subscribers securely store an unlimited number of documents, photos, videos, and other data—as well as gives them the ability to share those files easily with other Jooce users.