Peru signs up for 260,000 OLPC laptops

Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.

Peru signs up for 260,000 OLPC laptops | CNET News.com

One month after the One Laptop Per Child charity went into mass production with its $188 laptop, the Peruvian government has signed a contract to purchase 260,000 units. Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT professor and founder of the project, announced the deal on Saturday. He also revealed that Mexican billionaire and longtime friend, Carlos Slim, had ordered 50,000 units for distribution in Mexico.

In November, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) charity contracted Taiwan’s Quanta Computer to start producing the green-and-white computer in its new Changshu manufacturing center, which is located north-west of Shanghai. The first countries to place mass orders for the rugged green-and-white laptops were Uruguay and Mongolia. Ivan Krstic, the director of security architecture for the OLPC project, has said that Uruguayan water and mobile-phone utility companies have allowed the organization to plant wireless access points on existing towers to facilitate the laptop’s use.

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Birmingham City Schools will be first in USA to get XO laptops

Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.

Birmingham City Schools will be first in nation to get $200 XO laptops - Breaking News from The Birmingham News - al.com

Birmingham city schools will be the first in the nation to receive laptop computers designed for children in third-world countries under an agreement completed over the weekend, Mayor Larry Langford announced Monday.

Langford signed a purchase agreement for 15,000 laptops from One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit foundation whose goal is to provide every child in the world with access to technology.

“We live in a digital age, so it is important that all our children have equal access to technology and are able to integrate it into all aspects of their lives,” Langford said. “We are proud that Birmingham is on its way to eliminating the so-called `digital divide’ and to ensuring that our children have state-of-the-art tools for education.”

Under the agreement, the city will buy 15,000 laptops for $200 each, Langford said. The $3 million deal will allow every child in grades one through eight in Birmingham city schools to receive a laptop, he said.

Slashdot | Alabama Schools to be First in US to Get XO Laptop