Learn, Create, Share: One Laptop Per Child
Inspired? Have questions? Want to get involved?
Here's what you can do now:
Ask the Red Hat One Laptop team a question. We'll not only answer you, we'll post the questions and answers to this page.
onelaptop@redhat.com
Want to help?
The laptop is still in the development phase, so much of the work is based on software and hardware design and development. If you're not an engineer, but still want to help, check up on this page to see the project's to-do list. Includes software needs, quality assurance checks, and translation needs.
http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Getting_involved_in_OLPC
FAQ
General:
Q. Why is it targeted at only large developing countries?
A. The first wave of the project needs to generate high volumes, to secure low cost points of components and manufacturing. The current plan is for 5-10 major governments to sponsor a minimum of 1 million units each. This allows One Laptop per Child to gain the volumes in parts and manufacturing to enable the low cost per laptop.
The goal is to be able to make systems like this available to anyone in the world who wants them, over time. We expect there will be methods for participation more broadly than this as the project rolls out. Please check back in 4-6 months to see what might have changed on this topic.
Q. Can I buy one in my country?
A. At this stage of the effort, the One Laptop per Child organization is only taking requests for participation from various countries. The One Laptop per Child team is focused on starting with a manageable number of countries, with large needs and at high levels of the government, to help get the logistics of distributing and implementing them right, before broadening distribution.
There is a possibility One Laptop per Child might make it possible to buy one of the laptops in developed countries at a higher price, buying one for you and one for someone in the developing world.
Q. Can I donate money to the One Laptop per Child initiative?
A. Not yet, but the ability to make a charitable donation should be available in the near future. Please check back in 3-4 weeks for more specifics on this topic.
Technical:
Q. I'm a child interested in learning about programming. How can I get started?
A. Your interest at a young age is admirable. The best advice, if you
want to learn to program, is to just try to do it. Read everything you
can, if you have computer install tools that let you build programs on
the operating system. If you don't, and you speak pretty good English,
you might want to start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_programming_language
There's a short introduction there that gets you started with some very
simple programs. At the bottom of the page you will find a large number
of links that lets you try out logo programs and learn about programming
in that language.
You can also try some examples directly on the web:
http://www.logowiki.net/
Then, you can take examples from the wikipedia page and try them directly in your browser.
Q. Will there be audio/video recording software on the laptop?
A. The discussion of whether or not a camera will be included on the laptop is still ongoing. When a decision has been made, we'll make it public.
See the following link for the latest information on the hardware specifications:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware_specification
