The One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) is a non-profit organization creating, designing, and selling a $100 laptop to governments across the world. 

The $100 laptop organization:

• Designed by the faculty of the MIT media lab

• Founding corporate members:

  • Run by Nicholas Negroponte (wrote "Being Digital")

  • Seymour Papert - pioneered learning theory "Constructivism"

  • Alan Kay

• 5 corporate members

  • News Corp

  • Google

  • Red Hat

  • AMD

  • BrightStar  

• Based on Prahalad's educational ideas in the book, The Fortune At the Bottom of the Pyaramid 

  • The $100 laptop idea is strictly non-profit

  • The idea behind the book is that the private sector can help the bottom of the pyramid come up towards the top

• Partly based on the spirit of the 50/15 initiative

Distribution:

• Committed distribution sites:

  • Brazil

  • Egypt

  • Massachusetts

  • Thailand

  • Costa Rica

  • Cambodia

  • Tunisia

• Only sold to governments 

• The Ministries of Education will distribute each $100 laptop

• The governments have to have to policy of "one laptop per child"

$100 laptop availability

• Only sold to governments, not to individuals

• Prototypes come out in November

• Production models come out in late 2006 or early 2007

• Commercial version may be available later for $200-$300

• Plans to keep the $100 laptop off the grey market

Each $100 laptop will be:

• Based in Linux (the variant is undecided)

  • Eliminate the need for 2/3 of the software on a traditional laptop

• Energy efficient (can be run with a hand-crank)

• Extremely rugged with a rubber casing

• Have internet access with WiFi

• VoIP

• Full screen

  • Flat LCD screen

  • Original announcement was that a SVGA 7" diagonal would be used which would be about $35 of the total cost

  • New dual-mode, flexible LCD display being developed at M.I.T. may provide a 12-inch screen that costs only $12 to build

  • Dual LCD color 

• Can be switched to black and white for easier outdoor viewing

• Later, electronic paper

• MIT Media Lab's E-ink

• Separate writing pad

• Touch screen

• Full color

• 4 USB ports

• 1 mega-pixel camera

• The AC cord will also be a carry strap

• The hand crank will provide 10 minutes of power for 1 minute of cranking

• 1 BG of flash memory (there will be no hard drive at all)

• 128 MB of DRAM

• Processor

  • 500 MHz CPU

  • Created by Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

• Upcoming generations will be even less sophisticated and cheaper

Frequently Asked Questions (link to MIT Media Lab)

• 10/20/04:  AMD's low end internet machine - predecessor to the $100 laptop?
• 9/8/05:  The $100 laptop moves closer to reality

Upcoming:

• November - Unveiling at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

Variations - The $100 laptop can be configured:

• Handheld
• E-book
• Laptop
• Writing pad
• Theater
• Tablet

Images are from Wikipedia