OLPC Heads to New Market

[Maikeru]

A small group of internet activists from New Zealand, Australia the Solomon Islands and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) plan to take the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative to the Pacific islands.

The OLPC scheme is the brainchild of a US non-profit organisation created by MIT Media Lab staff. It hopes to produce a basic laptop, which it calls the XO-1, equipped with a wi-fi connection, for US$100 (NZ$130).

The initiative has the support of major companies such as Google, Red Hat (whose Fedora Core Linux constitutes the machine’s operating system) and Nortel. Intel has also recently come on board.

A local not-for-profit, to be called OLPC Oceania, is planned but is yet to be formally constituted, says Ian Thomson, the New Zealand member of the initiative, best known for his work with the 2020 Communications Trust.

OLPC Oceania plans two programmes: first, a pilot deployment of 20 machines, to be given to Solomon Islands children to supplement their regular education. The initiative would then be widened-out to other parts of the Solomons, once the pilot had proved itself, says Thomson.

A second more ambitious project aims to deploy 100,000 of the laptops throughout a number of the Pacific islands. However, this would be done gradually, by equipping one village at a time. Here the aim would be to cater to the needs of children who can’t get to a school.

As an avid fan of the OLPC project - and any other project which aims to get technology in the hands of people not as fortunate - will typically be supported by me.

I am sure the Pacific Islands will treat the OLPC project well.

Cheers!

Maikeru Hatamoto