One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is a project that I`ve been eyeballing for some time now. The concept is very powerful. Provide a laptop to help the developing countries` children. Give them a tool to discover.
First I was skeptical about this. I would say, first lets feed them and then give them a laptop. But then my thoughts changed a bit. When you think about the greatest programmers, computer geniuses of this century, all of them had something in common. They had a computer.
Now let`s think about how many children in this world have access to computer, and how many don`t. To give us an idea, in the least developed countries the number of people who has internet access is 11 per 1000 person. roughly 1%. (WB/UN data) Out of that many who never had a computer, maybe one will use this computer and after X years, (s)he`ll develop an algorithm to make extensive data mining for health projects run twice faster. Maybe another one will develop an idea that will help his/her society… This laptop could be their first step. Technology is an enabler, even if we this is a shot in dark, we need to start somewhere.
This what you can do in the next 7 days. The laptop costs ~$200. You can buy one for your child and pay roughly $400.00 and a second laptop heads to a child in a developing country. It`s called Give one Get one. Give one Get one campaign ends on November 26th. For US citizens and tax payers this campaign is tax deductible.
You can get more information about this laptop built for learning and designed specifically the children in mind by visiting their FAQ section, Vision and Mission sections.
You the security enthusiast, if you want to know how you can secure a ten year old kid`s computer without using usernames, passwords, classic file permission structures, etc… please take a look at their Bitfrost Architecture. Very very good reading