Monday, November 12, 2007

Give One, Get One

Some of you may be familiar with the One Laptop Per Child movement, which aims to replace expensive and easily outdated textbooks in the developing world with an inexpensive easily powered laptop that can access information on the internet, as well as mesh wireless allowing students to talk to each other as well as the world.

It is developed to be fairly self-sufficient, taking rechargeable batteries, direct power from solar panels, or human power via a hand crank. And it runs on open source software, eliminating the need for expensive software to function in the world. For reference, one Microsoft product would cost the equivalent of an entire year's crop of soybeans in Brazil. For the cost of access to download, the same Brazilian can load open source and take off into the bright world of technology.

But what you may not know, is that starting today through Thanksgiving, there is a program called Give One Get One from One Laptop. For $399 US, you can give a laptop to a child in the developing world, and then get one for a child in your life. That's right, for the price of a less expensive desktop, you can give two kids a laptop that could be the key to their future.

Here is the link. I hope that you find it interesting.

http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php

What does it have to do with knitting? Nothing. It does have an awful lot to do with saving the world though, one child at a time. How? Well, textbooks cost money, time, paper, and other limited resources. With a laptop though, a child can access an entire education. Less waste, more productivity, more current information about a world that is constantly changing.

And the best part? No child is left behind. Really.

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