After much hullabaloo and criticism for the One Laptop Per Child Project, production has finally started and the earliest batch should be ready by this October.

 

For those unfamiliar with the OLPC, it's a non-profit organization set out to revolutionize the standards and methods of education for children the world over. It particularly targets regions that can't afford the luxuries of a decent education. The project is just about what it's named after: to provide a laptop for each child. The laptop, dubbed XO, currently costs US$ 176 but is aimed to be sold for the initial goal of US $100.

Let's look at what it actually offers for the US$ 100:

• It's tough, set to survive in harsh conditions. It's case is waterproof and guess how they test it? They put the laptops in ovens at 50 degrees.
• It can be manually powered. That's right, it can be powered through solar energy, by a foot-pump or even by pull-string. You don't have a lot of sockets available in Nigeria.
  
• It has 1GB of memory using open-source software. You can't use it to make your office presentations, but think how many books you can fit in there.
• It has WiFi and a camera.

That's pretty good, and kids would certainly benefit from it greatly. The idea has been widely criticized, much for the goal that seems like an idealist's dream and for the seeming impossibility of such an undertaking. However, the dream has been realized and even Kofi Annan, ex-secretary general of the United Nations, commends the laptop as an "expression of global solidarity."