OLPC Launches Buy One, Give One Free Program

Tha_Big_Guy23 writes "For the first time, and for a limited period only, people in North America will be able to get their hands on the XO, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's rugged little laptop that's designed specifically for children. And for each cutting-edge XO purchased in the West, another will be given to a child in a developing country. For $399, customers can order a laptop for themselves; bundled into the price is the cost of delivering a second XO to a child a poor country."

Comments

Other options?

[ScorpFromHell]

With so many other options for low cost linux based laptops coming up, how many would lap up the XOs? Yeah some geeks & some philanthropists ... the tech loving & God fearing maybe ... but will it sell like the Dells?

Re:North America has poor folks too!

[kebes]

I wonder why the OLPC folks think everyone in America can afford this PC. OLPC is a non-profit who will sell large shipments of XO laptops to any educational customer requesting them. Nothing stops the US from putting in an order for a bunch of laptops for underprivileged children. In fact, apparently Massachusetts and Maine are already involved.

Yes, OLPC is focusing their efforts on third-world countries, but also the US education system is mostly ignoring OLPC. The "why" is fairly simple: it's not because US children do not deserve a good education, and not because they wouldn't benefit from computer access. But, the fact is that the US is structured such that OLPC may not be the "best fit." For instance many libraries in the US have computers in them, and many schools do also. It would appear that in the US the effort is being put into these kinds of educational resources. Whether or not that is the best way to spend US education dollars is of course up for debate.

But it's not really fair to imply that OLPC is ignoring US education. As I said, educational institutes in the US are free to make a case for funding such projects. OLPC will gladly ship the units.

Re:Is this really a good idea?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes it is.
I sponsor a teacher in a school in South Eastern Madagascar. By this, I mean that I pay for her board & lodgings. The government pays her salay (approx $500/year) I have done this for the past 4 years.
The village where she teaches is 4 hours by 4WD vehicle to the nearest tarmaced road. They have plenty of food, clean fresh water etc. What they lack is the rest of the things that connect them with the outside world. There is 1 TV in the village. I supplied it alone with a solar panel, some car batteries and an inverter. They have a pirated Satellite encoder and can now stay in touch with the outside world. The thirst for knowledge of the children is fantastic. If I were in the US I would buy several of these units for the village.
The lack of infrastructure(ie no Electricity) is irrelevant for the OLPC. That said, next year I'm hoping to get a small water turbine installed and connected up to a generator. They will have electric light for the first time. Then we can start to make changes to the houses so that the epidemic of lung diseases can be tackled. This is due to the houses not having chimneys and all cooking is done over an open charcoal fire.
I visited the village again in October. I took supplied of pencils and paper (bought in-country) I also took pictures of the children and printed them out in front of them. They took them home to very proud parents.
The OLPC concept will help bridge the gap between the 1st world and the bottom parts of the 3rd world.

Re:USA? Black Friday...

[mwvdlee]

You seem to be under the faulty impression that the OLPC laptop is meant to teach children how to use computers. It actually tries to teach them far more basic (and important) skills than that; reading, writing, math, etc. Things that will give these children a way to earn money and escape poverty in the future. That they'll also be able to learn about computers and the internet is just a bonus but irrelevant to whether the OLPC will be succesfull.