The $100 Laptop for children in the Third World

The "One Laptop Per Child" project aims to supply children in the developing world with laptops to help improve their education and provide a link to the technological world. The XO laptop is designed especially for children, being extremely rugged and easy to maintain with a long battery life. However, this laptop still includes many features, such as an integrated camera and wi-fi access. Currently priced at $176 (approximately £90), the organisation soon hopes to be able to reduce this cost to around $100 in the near future as more governments order a supply for their country's classrooms.

Here the founder of the project, Nicholas Negroponte, discusses criticism against his charitable intentions as others suggest the funding could be used for better means.

(Source: BBC Technology)

Whatever the criticism of this project, I find this a wonderful and awe-inspiring idea. Recently, Intel have also joined forced with the OLPC project in order to share ideas, technology and software in the development of budget laptops for children in poorer countries. I only hope that OLPC's standing on open source software and reduced costs remain in place as the partnership develops in order to give these children a fair and forward-looking education.

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