One Laptop Per Child

[ I know. I know. It's supposed to be all Giveaways, all the time this week. But I can't resist sharing some good old regular blog posts along the way. ]

Have you heard of the One Laptop Per Child program? It's super cool. From the vision of MIT professor Nicolas Negroponte, these super-sturdy, real world, really simple laptops were designed and built especially for children in developing countries. Apparently they're created with an open-source non-desktop format and are supposed to be incredibly intuitive. If there is more than one of these laptops in the same area, they are automatically networked wirelessly. And they have a bunch of other cool features that I'm too non-techy to understand.

Anyway. The program is incredibly appealing and you can read all about the laptops here.

These laptops aren't really available for personal purchase. You can donate $200 to give one to a child in need, but from what I understand, you can't pick one up for your own child at a retail outlet. So, to help spread the word and get these laptops into the hands of children around the world, One Laptop Per Child implemented a Give One Get One promotion. Donate $399 ($200 is tax deductible) and you'll get a laptop into a child's hands in a developing nation, plus get a laptop for a child in your own life.

My brother Josh originally told Ben and me about these — we get most of our tech news from Josh — and we were very interested. We immediately made the decision to participate in the Give One Get One dealio. And then promptly forgot. And then remembered right at the last minute and placed our order. The promotion was supposed to end on November 26th, and we only remembered just in time to buy one.

But happily, they've extended the promotion until December 31st. So if this is something that appeals to you, it's not too late to get in on it. I'm hoping that by ordering this early, the laptop will be here for Christmas morning.