Boyung.com

The One Laptop Per Child initiative has roots going back many years, but really started in January 2005.  That's when the program and the goal of the $100 laptop were officially announced.  Since then, there have been little rumblings every once and a while, but for the most part, it was forgotten about by the media and just about everyone not actively working on the project.  That all changed in the last few weeks when mass production started on the laptops.  It turns out that the $100 goal has not been met, it's closer to $200 right now, but it's still a pretty impressive feat.

The goal of the program is to provide computers to children in developing countries around the world.  This, obviously, has some unique problems to address.  First of all, electrical power is at a premium in many of these places, so an alternate form of power is required.  The solution is a laptop battery that can be solar powered and also human powered (crank or foot pedal).  The next problem is that they wanted to provide some form of access to the internet, to help provide even more opportunities for learning.  To this end, the laptop automatically creates a mesh network across all of the other machines in range.  The laptop is a wireless router, so each one can connect to each other without issue.  If you take these unique constraints into account, it really is amazing that this laptop has actually been able to be built at all, let alone at a price as low as $200.

The software on the machine is all free software, obviously.  It's running a form of Linux, and will include a web browser, word processor, e-mail client, graphics programs, programming environments, and just about every other type of application that you can think of, including games.  Just last week, Electronic Arts announced that they will be donating the original SimCity for install on all of the laptops.  Granted, this is a game that is nearly twenty years old, but I still believe that it is still quite fun and is also an excellent learning tool.  Resource management, time management, advance planning: all great things to teach children.  Also, if you really think about it, the basics of the game are not really that different from its newest sequels.

I'm a really big fan of the program, and if you are too, you can always find out more about participating, either by donating or volunteering.  Even if you don't want to actively participate, I encourage you to go and learn more about the program, and spread the word out to others in one form or another.