OLPC comes to America’s poor children in 2008
By Leslie Poston
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is finally bringing its program to the poor and disenfranchised children of America in 2008. When the program first opened it received some disgruntled comments from people here in the States who thought the program should include the children who needed it here as well as the children of other countries. It looks like those people are finally getting their wish.
There are a lot of changes in the OLPC program. The SIms is coming to One Laptop Per Child in 2008 as well, with a free copy on each laptop given out. SimCity will be on the OLPC XO model.
The OLPC will create a new division to run the OLPC America program. The OLPC America program will likely be based out of Washington, DC, in spite of the fact that the OLPC laptop idea was originally born in the think tank at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The division will oversee the program in all 50 states and has been described as being “state centric” by the current OLPC international program director.
When asked about the length of time it took to bring OLPC’s program tot he states, Negroponte said it had always been in the works:
“To have the United Sates be the only country that’s not in the OLPC agenda would be kind of ridiculous,” Negroponte said.
The focus on empowering the States in the OLPC America program is a smart approach in the current political climate. It will automatically address any possible issues with funding in future, and is smarter than tying up a special program like this in the Washington red tape entanglement.
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