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thatcrazycajunAs BusinessWeek Online reports here, Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project is having some problems. For one, they still haven't been able to get the damn things built for less than $188 per unit—nearly twice the $100 target price—due to higher-than-anticipated costs for its over 800 parts. (The hope is that time and mass orders will help drive the cost down closer to target.) For another, several heads of state of developing nations, whose schoolchildren OLPC was designed to help, have talked a great game of supporting it and buying in...but no actual checks have been cut. Whether this is due to dishonesty on the leaders' part or simply problems getting the idea past their national legislatures' budget hawks, no one on the outside can say. There may also be alternatives for them to consider: a North Carolina company is launching a similar, for-profit project, feeling that OLPC's plan of depending on the kindness of strangers won't cut it when it comes to the network of support and supplies a fully laptop-equipped school needs.
But now Nick and Co. have come up with a way to capitalize on the fascination of gadget lovers and techies in this country with OLPC's flagship product, now called the XO Laptop. Where before they'd had no plans to offer the XO at all in the States, now they're trying to convince US computer users eager to try an XO to buy one for a poor kid elsewhere in exchange for being allowed to buy a second one for themselves. It's called "Give 1 Get 1," and it costs around $400 to buy both. They're also offering more altruistically-minded Americans the chance to donate one outright for half that cost.
If you have the scratch, it's worth checking out; OLPC is offering Third World educators the option of either simply giving kids the laptops and letting them decide how to use them, or issuing them as "digital textbooks" carrying already-existing lessons and materials. Either way, it's an inspired means of decreasing the digital divide—both in this country and elsewhere.
But now Nick and Co. have come up with a way to capitalize on the fascination of gadget lovers and techies in this country with OLPC's flagship product, now called the XO Laptop. Where before they'd had no plans to offer the XO at all in the States, now they're trying to convince US computer users eager to try an XO to buy one for a poor kid elsewhere in exchange for being allowed to buy a second one for themselves. It's called "Give 1 Get 1," and it costs around $400 to buy both. They're also offering more altruistically-minded Americans the chance to donate one outright for half that cost.
If you have the scratch, it's worth checking out; OLPC is offering Third World educators the option of either simply giving kids the laptops and letting them decide how to use them, or issuing them as "digital textbooks" carrying already-existing lessons and materials. Either way, it's an inspired means of decreasing the digital divide—both in this country and elsewhere.
