XO Laptop: Giving every child in the world access to social media No comments yet

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) announced their Give 1 Get 1 program on Monday, September 24th. The Give 1 Get 1 program will run for two weeks starting November 12 and will enable U.S. and Canadian customers to pay $399 to buy two XO Laptops-one for themselves and one to be shipped to a child in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti or Rwanda.

The Right Idea

The OLPC mission is to breach the digital divide by giving every child in the world access to “new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression” in the form of an innovative educational tool: the XO Laptop. This concept is pure genius, nothing less than to be expected from MIT’ s Nicholas Negroponte. Negroponte has built an organization around a rather lofty yet idealistic concept: bringing every child in the developing world up to par with children in developed nations. This generation and the generation to follow will be highly depended on the internet and the technologies and applications that it provides. Negroponte recognizes that if we don’t do something to educate children now, they will irreparable disparities to face in the future.

Challenges

1. How will poor communities in developing countries set up and support internet access and electricity?

XO Laptops consume very little electricity. However, I believe the ticket to success lays in OLPC’s ability to create partnerships with other corporations in order to have the resources and man power to create teams of volunteers to plan and implement the necessary systems within these villages. The OLPC initiative already has plenty of support from Google, AMD, eBay, Intel and News Corp. A massive employee volunteerism between all of these companies would make history.

2. Getting governments to buy

Peru, Uruguay and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu have pledged to buy and donate hundreds of thousands of XO Laptops. They need more government support! Partnering with high profile NGO’s and outreaching to like minded politicians would be my first suggestion.

3. Training children and educators

This goes along with the same corporate partnership ideas and employee volunteerism programs.

4. No longer the $100 laptop

The Give 1 Get 1 is a clever marketing move to target the price hike ($100-$188). Once a steady channel of distribution is established, the XO Laptops will surely get cheaper.

OLPC is a new idea and, like most world changing innovations, Negroponte’s mission to breach the digital divide has met significant challenges and criticism. OLPC is moving forward and the momentum of its growth will become exponential upon the world’s first glance at the results.