Sunday, May 11, 2008

One Laptop Per Child

I have found an incredible project - One Laptop per Child.

It is project set up by Nick Negroponte (from MIT's Media Lab) and the aim is to give one laptop to every child on the planet. Yes they are internet connected. Yes they use free open source software. Yes the kids can fix them. No you don't need electricity to run them. Yes they have a language specific keyboard! Yes they are Microsoft compatible! And all of this for $100! BTW the internet connection costs 10 cents per month!

Okay they are a bit more than that ($175) just at the moment, but $100 was always the aim so they are well on their way. And $175 for a laptop still isn't expensive. And you know how the price of technology drops :-)

A transcript of the interview Professor Negroponte can be found here.

BTW, you can buy one and the Project will arrange to give it to a child in a country that can't afford to buy them :-) More info here :-)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Says a lot about the present debate where the government has allocated $1000 per laptop and everyone is screaming they will need to put in another $500 to make it viable ...

Unknown said...

What a Marvellous idea!

Here we need to struggle to get a laptop for a dyslectic child. And when we have ione, it's only allowed at school, so making homework on it at home is out of the question. Grrrr...

Unknown said...

You can also buy them for yourself laane :-)

Chelsea + Shiloh said...

Wonder is Sassy has seen this, you might want to let her know MG...?

pita-woman said...

I heard about this program (or one similar) a few months ago. On one hand, I think it's a good idea, as kids certainly need a computer to help them get ahead in this day & age, but on the other hand, I can't help but wonder how many will be abused, lost or bartered(computers that is) and then the gov't will keep replacing them, at taxpayers expense.