One Laptop Per Child is a supreme example of people from all walks of life coming together to complete a project for the good of humanity. The goal of the project is to produce a child-friendly laptop that can be priced at $100, and distributed en masse to children in developing nations. The laptop so far is a brilliant feat of engineering, with computer scientists, computer engineers, and other humanitarian-minded people coming together to design the computer.

The stated goal of the foundation (OLPC is a registered non-profit) is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves. To that end, OLPC is designing a laptop, educational software, manufacturing base, and distribution system to provide children outside of the first-world with otherwise unavailable technological learning opportunities.

OLPC espouses five core principles:

1. Child ownership
2. Low ages. The hardware and software are designed for elementary school children aged 6-12.
3. Saturation
4. Connection
5. Free and open source

Also, the laptop is being designed with the environment in mind. Though the production of computers is often associated with environmental and health hazard, OLPC has committed itself to an aim of being as environmentally friendly as it can. The battery (LiFeP) contains no toxic heavy metals. The screen backlight uses LEDs, and the plastic parts of the computer are color-coded for recycling. It has a Gold rating by EPEAT for environmental performance.

When the CTO Mary Lou Jepson recently left with the stated purpose of developing a competing project with the aim of producing a $75 computer, Chairman Nicholas Negroponte stated that the goal of the OLPC was to make laptops accessible to all children. Anyone who can make progress towards that aim has his blessing.

The current price of $200 is too much for many developing nations, who also have trouble developing the information infrastructure necessary to support computer use. So OLPC solved the problem with a fundraising event, Get 1 Give 1, where people would contribute $399, receive a laptop and sponsor an additional laptop to be sent to a child on their behalf. 167,000 laptops were distributed through this event, of 602,000 total laptops for OLPC.

The aim of the project, to produce affordable technology with the goal of educating under-privileged children, is an admirable one. The way many talented individuals came together to make this goal a reality shows the progress being made in society. Altogether a prime example of the mentality of giving.

For more about One Laptop Per Child, see the project website at <www.laptop.org>

Or read about it on wikipedia at <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC