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E-mail a friendYOUNG VOICES
Give One, Get One
Can a laptop change the world? If you ask Nicholas Negroponte, creator of the One Laptop per Child initiative, the answer is a resounding yes. Negroponte, and his collaborators at the Massachusetts-based nonprofit, have spent years designing the perfect computer for the third world's children. His fabled “$100 laptop”, the XO, is small, energy-efficient, exceptionally durable, and the cleverest technological innovation in years. It promises to connect children in remote areas to each other and the Internet, provide them with tools for learning and creativity, and assist in the education of some of the world's neediest kids.
Among the laptop's marvels are a super long-lasting battery that can be charged with solar or human power, a high resolution screen that can be read in bright sunlight, and a rugged construction free of toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
This month mark's the XO's official release, and for a limited time One Laptop per Child is offering their revolutionary machine to anyone who wants one. The deal is this: Buy one laptop, and one will be donated to a youngster in the third world.
Negroponte's organization has been criticized for giving technology to the world's poorest people instead of, say, food or medicine. His answer to these critics is a simple one: “Education happens to be a solution to all of those problems.”