OLPC group turns attention to US children
updated 12:40 pm EST, Mon January 14, 2008
OLPC turns to US children
The One Laptop Per Child project will soon turn its attention toward poor American children, officials have announced. The group's XO notebook was originally built to be a $100 system for schools in Third World countries, granting computer access which might otherwise be too expensive; the final system is selling to foreign governments for $188, while Americans can get their own by buying one for themselves as well as another country. The Give 1 Get 1 bundle costs $400, however, which may still be more than some American families can afford to budget.
OLPC's founder, Nicholas Negroponte, now says that the group has already picked a director and chairman for an American office, and hopes to begin distributing notebooks to poor American children later in 2008. Various state governments have been contacted in advance, Negroponte notes. The group has for some time resisted working in the US, claiming that even many deprived American families can afford a basic notebook. [via BBC News]
