OLPC, Google, UNICEF launch “Our Stories” Initiative No comments yet

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“Every human being has a story that deserves to be heard” ~ Queen Rania on her welcoming message for OurStories.org

Today UNICEF, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), and Google announced the launch of “Our Stories” (www.ourstories.org), a joint initiative aiming to collect the stories of 5 millions individuals around the world and inviting people into the lives of the storytellers to build awareness of a shared humanity. OurStories.org will encourage young people to “bring voice to their wildest dreams.”

Using laptops, mobile phones and other recording devices, children will record, in their native languages, the stories of elders, family members and friends. These stories will be shared globally through the Our Stories website, where they can be found on a Google Map.By making these stories accessible around the world, the Our Stories project hopes to contribute to a better understanding of our shared humanity across countries and cultures, across religious traditions, across languages, and across generations.

Low-cost XO laptops by One Laptop per Child will serve as a foundation to help build this digital archive of personal stories by providing children in developing countries with easy-to-use technology to record their stories and interviews.“One Laptop per Child is very excited about partnering with Google and UNICEF and to capture the thoughts and feelings of children and their communities around the world,” said Walter Bender, President of Software and Content/COO, One Laptop per Child. “The XO laptop is a tool for sharing and collaboration and this project is a great way to build a global community.”

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The Our Stories website will initially include stories collected by Brazil’s Museum of the Person and stories recorded for UNICEF by young people in Ghana, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Our Stories has taken inspiration from the StoryCorps® project in the United States founded by MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay. “StoryCorps is proud to lend its experience in recording the conversations of nearly 30,000 Americans to this global undertaking,” said Isay. “These efforts teach us that the lives of everyone – whether they are in New York or Nairobi – matter, and that they will not be forgotten.”

More stories from more countries will be added to the site every month in an effort to preserve an oral history of humanity in the 21st Century.

“Google as both a company and as a culture loves a good story,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs for Google. “We’re proud to support the Our Stories global initiative and we hope that this collaboration will not just encourage better storytelling but
better listening to stories.

Leading figures have already lent their voices to the project: Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Queen of Jordan and UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children, and Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War and best-selling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, have all recorded messages welcoming users to the site and encouraging them to share their stories.”

How do you use social media to record your story?

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.