Giving kids a chance!

As we all know one of the greatest gifts we can provide a child is an education. Nicholas Negroponte a professor from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several other colleagues and partners have created a visionary company called One Computer Per Child (OLPC). This initiative is attempting to provide a very affordable laptop computer to children in developing countries therefore giving them the opportunity of an education. The bright colored XO is a virtual indestructible computer. It will cost $176 with plans to reduce the cost to $100 within two years. Countries will be able to purchase the computers in minimum lots of 250,000. A program for the poor in developed counties is being considered. The XO laptop will have a minimum 500MHz processor AMD processor (Intel competitor) and a 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory. The computer will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports and an SD slot so that Windows and office can be inserted into the machine. The laptops will use innovative power, including wind-up. The laptops will have wireless broadband that will allow them to work as a mesh network. Each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc and local area network, thus a digital village. The initiative which is not for profit, has attracted attention and recently Intel has introduced its low cost laptop and has begun to compete against OLPC. The project described in this video aims to bring kids into the computer age, make schooling available to the least fortunate in our world and I do hope to see them succeed in spite of the extra competition.