OLPC - One Laptop per Child

The mission of this non-profit association (One Laptop Per Child) is to develop a low-cost laptop - the "$100 Laptop" - a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Their goal is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves.

Created by faculty members of the MIT Media Lab, set up to oversee The Children's Machine project and the construction of the XO-1 "$100 laptop". The organization is chaired by Nicholas Negroponte who is the brainchild behind the project. Please watch this facinating movie.

The laptop has some incredibly awesome features. The LCD screen can be viewd in monochrome or color, and can be easily read in bright sunshine. The Linux 2.6 kernel and GNU software make up the operating system, but the graphical interface is called Sugar. It is a simplified graphical interface designed for children and the small screen provided by the XO laptop.

The laptop uses Flash memory for hard drives, consumes very little power, to operate, and can run off the battery for upto 12 hrs, and can be even charged by operating a hand-crank. It has very advanced wireless networking (WIFI) capabilities and has a built in digital camera.