One Laptop Per Child
As citizens of wealthy Western societies we seldom stop to consider the importance of even the most rudimentary learning tools: pens, pencils and paper; but no one would argue the importance of these tools for developing minds. Over the past 20 years computers have become an increasingly common educational tool for children in first world nations, earning a place beside the pen and paper of my youth.
Computers allow easy access to a vast pool of knowledge, a means to improve literacy, and a path to an ever expanding array of career opportunities. Unfortunately, while computers are increasingly common in developed world homes, they are often well out of reach of the children of developing 'second world' nations.
For the last year one organisation has worked to rectify this situation: One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). Their goal: to produce a simple yet rugged and functional laptop for less than US$100 to be distributed throughout the second world. The OLPC is a non-profit organisation founded by Nicholas Negroponte in 2005 and funded by AMD, Google, Nortel, Red Hat, News Corporation and Brightstar. It has also received the endorsement of the UN and the World Economic Forum.
Despite the low cost of the $100 laptop, it will be a fully functional tool and offer a new world of opportunities for children and young people in developing states. Each ruggedly-built 500MHz laptop will run on the open-source Linux operating system and include a high resolution colour display, 1GB of flash memory and integrated wireless broadband. This wireless broadband will allow the laptops within a community to act as a 'daisy-chain' peer-to-peer social network, connecting computers to one another and to the Internet. The laptops will be powered by integrated mechanical 'wind-up' generators, eliminating the need for a reliable electricity infrastructure.
These laptops will be sold not to individuals but to governments, many of which understand the educational, financial and social benefits of such a programme. Parties that have expressed a desire to participate in the project include the governments of China, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, Egypt and Thailand.
Synapsys concerns itself with the business of education and knowledge management, often with the aid of computer technology, making this project particularly close to our hearts. To learn more about the OLPC project, visit their website at www.laptop.org. Images of functioning laptop prototypes manufactured by Quanta, the world's largest manufacturer of laptop computers, unveiled on May 27 2006 can also be found at this site.
Posted by Adam Barratt at June 1, 2006 12:07 PM
