I've been eyeing the One Laptop Per Child project for a while now. It's an engineering triumph: Solar or crank powered, readable in sunlight and a rugged design. It runs on free Linux OS, is three pounds and I have been itching to play with one.
From now until Nov 26th, they have a Give One, Get One program. For $400, you can sponsor a laptop for the developing world and get one all for yourself. I'm sooo tempted, but I'm in this frantic anti-clutter mode. It's for a good cause though!!
8 comments:
There's always a means of justification if you really need/want something. :-)
Didn't mention wireless and what type of battery life (recharging or lots of batteries to the junk yard).
I'm really iffy on this project. On the one hand, yes, computers can help expand the mind and help a child feel connected to the world. On the other hand, the world a lot of these children live in don't have the basic necessities, I'd much rather see them learning skills marketable and useful for their corner of the world than to see them (horrible as it sounds ) dreaming of circuit boards and routers.
Thanks for the note, so they do have wireless and recharge batteries.
You should get one. If you get rid of a bunch of other stuff, you're still decluttering. :)
Krista,
I agree. Computers are tools, and won't be any use if they are not accompanied by the right education. The XO laptop team is having trouble getting the laptops adopted in developing countries because they haven't been able to kick off a successful, large scale pilot program yet. I think they are using this give one, get one program to spread the word and get a network of informal tech support.
It's tough to get a radical new program off the ground. You have to have investors that understand the risk/possibility of failure.
I'm much more excited about the technological breakthroughs that the laptop has made. I do think that being able to use a computer (tool or not) is essential if some of these kids want to come to the US for college.
Here's a recent blog entry about
OLPC making positive contributions in Peru: http://radian.org/notebook/astounded-in-arahuay
Hi Anonymous,
That's really cool. Amazing to see that OLPC has such transformative power. Can't wait to see how it rolls out further.
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