"I will purchase the $100 laptop at $300 but only if 100,000 other will do the same."
— Mike Liveright, digital charity supporter
Deadline to sign up by: 31st October 2006
3,677 people signed up, 96323 more were needed
More details
Nicholas Negroponte has previewed of the $100 laptop that he has designed for students in the developing world. " One Laptop Per Child - a Preview of the Hundred Dollar Laptop http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/00... "
The suggestion has been made that he also offer it for sale for ~$300 to the rest of us so that we do have an interesting machine and can help to support the cost computers for the developing world. If he does offer it, then I will buy one at three times the cost and thus contribute to supplying two to the proposed users.
I suggest that you might want to also pledge so that he would consider this "We Purchase, They Benefit" option.
See more pledges, and all about how PledgeBank works.

Mike Liveright, the Pledge Creator, joined by:
Comments on this pledge
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/00...
The official website is very sparse with information:
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
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We appreciate your interest in the $100 Laptop initiative.
If your message is related to purchasing: please note that the $100 laptops--not yet in production--will not be available for sale. The laptops will only be distributed to schools directly through large government initiatives.
Inquiries about buying the laptop regretfully cannot be answered.
Thank you.
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From: "Nicholas Negroponte"
thanks for your offer. I regret we are not able to commit to such at this time.
"At the same time, they say they are hoping to authorize a commercial version that would sell for around $200, with a share of the profits ideally used to subsidize the educational project. "We are in talks with large, brand-name companies," Mr. Negroponte says, noting it will be up to them to decide where and how to sell it. "I would not hold my breath for it to be in Best Buy," he says."
http://bengal.missouri.edu/~jbkvd6/polic...
it's not only a need on buying 300.000 laptops
in this case you've got to manage a huge organization not only in charge of laptop deployment but also on deploying infrastructure to connect them and primary in education for children.
giving your money to non governemental organization could be more efficient
I want my two children to have the same opportunities as those in the developing world. 1st world corporations are not offering me the machine I need! I want my children to have a muscle powered machine that requires elegant software design, and that is literally incapable of running commercial bloatware.
Good luck
In addition, it'll be funny when these out-sell Microsoft's "Origami" gadgets, especailly after Gates' unkind words on this entire $100 initiative.
Apart from anything else, the case is one thing that local communities would be able to fashion themselves from local materials.
Vik :v)
I will not enjoy the laptop as much as any child who will use it to learn, improve his skills and maybe thanks to it become a full-capable citizen of the new millenium.
@Felix: Read the pledge. Now read it again.
The idea is that I, as an individual, buy the laptop for three times its price, so the foundation can "give away" two laptops.
And as noted in above comments, this could expand to local initiatives. There are poor neighborhoods in the most socially advanced cities.
I think this two for one is a great idea. I would gladly buy a $300 laptop if I knew two were given away for free to underprivedged children. Count me in.
Jaqian
(Ireland)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete/sets/7...
I spread it posting the pledge to Slashdot and two of the most populated forums in my country.
Pledge: Buy the $100 laptop for $300
It's a fab. idea, and if the profit goes to help fund the program, so much the better!
Such an economical laptop will help others that are on limited (minimal wage) incomes
to get into computers and possibly into open source development!
Yeah, who wants to shell out near $800-1000's for a lowend laptop that will in two years or less be considered obsolete.
--chris
The thought of creating a win-win situation where we all get the same machine and making it possible for 1st world buyers to sponsor users in underdeveloped countries is a nice one though.
I grew up in a suburban middle-class environment in Malaysia, but I had classmates whose families struggled to get new school uniforms and received loaned textbooks and free lunches. If our schools could have distributed/loaned out nice little machines like this, it would have helped a lot for the kids whose families, unlike mine, couldn't afford their own computers. (The school computer labs were perpetually locked up for fear of theft...rendering the computers inside useless.)
The project gets my annual allocation for donations.
I've got an income under $20,000 and the idea that so many can be so rapidly equipped with such a useful machine for such a small cost makes me believe that Mammon may not yet always call the shots.
I don't need one of the machines, since I own a puter and I am connected to the net. I understand that the OLPC organisation has made it very clear that the OLPC machine will not be commercially available and so I am pleased that **3** puters and not just **2** may be supplied from my contribution.
Most importantly, the machines' benefits are clearly going to reach so much further than the schoolroom, out into communities and families.
Great work, OLPC.
This would fund the initiative and address needs of disadvantaged folks at the same time.
Before the issue of fraud is raised, please let us not major in the minors by allowing worry about a few units being pilfered in such a program stop what would be an effective, two-pronged effort to 1) get this product into production and 2) provide tools for disadvantaged folks to better their lives.
If the concept here is to show some distibutor that market demand exists, I still don't see the money, can they track any of us down to collect on this spur of the moment pledge?
I would happily put $300 in escrow if anybody can set that up, walking up to a distibutor and saying " I have $30,000,000 US that i can only spend on product X" would probably be a lot more likely to turn some heads then " we did this internet poll thing..."
This is exactly the reason, I think, behind Negroponte's stated intention to sell large blocks to countries: OPLC can just deliver them en masse and let the countries deal with dividing them up and allocating the resources to put them in the hands of the children that need them.
So, if we are to receive a laptop and either 1) subsidize the creation of two others, or 2) take receipt of three laptops and donate two, it is impingent upon _us_ the undersigned to create a support structure to manage the distribution of funds and materials as would the countries seeking to benefit from this arrangement.
If we can prove to OPLC that we as a block of consumers are able to fulfill this function, I believe they cannot say no.
If you would like to assist me in the creation of the necessary infrastructure and/or discuss to what end our $200 subsidy should be used, please join the OneLaptopPerChild discussion group on Google (link below).
I am concerned about giving any kind of advanced technology to third world children. It's the third world for a reason. Life is not valued in the third world. Giving a laptop like this, or any advanced technology that would make them seem more important than their peers or leaders, to a child in coutries in the third world, is giving them something that could easily get them killed.
"Who do you think you are, little one? Better than the rest of us? I'll teach you THAT lesson!"
I don't want to be the person who put that laptop in that child's hands.
1. Only if we get to the point where Mr. Negroponte decides he thinks it's a good idea. He's in the thick of this, and we should respect that he knows more about what's going on with this project and its acceptance in various places than we do. If he's not in favor ultimately, my pledge is to donate the cost of two laptops directly to the OLPC initiative (initially I think that's going to be $270, as they're starting out at about $135 apiece with the goal of hitting $100 by 2008).
2. I'll only take delivery of mine when production is really rolling; otherwise, I'm delaying one getting to a child somewhere, and that's really not what this is about.
The money would be better spent on teachers and training rather than introducing a harmful device into the population, only to indoctrinate them with typical Western education (which isn't worth the paper it is written on).
The only people who benefit from this scam is those manufacturing and selling the laptops.
What a rip off.
also i recognised that feeling responsible for things is not very common here. so maintenance and so on will be a problem. what if the computer doesnt work one day? recognised that people are much more careful with something they earned than just getting for free.
think the 300$ you better pay school fees for a child in the 3rd world, so that they can read and write before they have to use a computer. or you give someone a loan to start his/her own business and getting independent from funds and donations. or sponsor operations for very sick people. i think there are a lot of things people might need before they can use the laptop.
i don't say that you shouldnt put the computers in schools etc in the 3rd world, but i think the whole project should be well thought about. otherwise its just another project where a lot of money is just wasted. often i think that people are just driven by feelings for helping and humanity, donating endless money but don't think really ahead (about how is money used, how much money goes to whom, questioning the projects)... the last thing we need is making the 3rd world more depending on the 1st than it is already.
and when i read in one statement "let the countries deal with dividing them up" ... oooh, i get very worried. there is corruption everywhere. these governments are not trustworthy at all. so giving laptops in their hands is like giving them cash money, and now think where they will end up. for sure not in the schools.
At 100,000, this pledge is very unlikely to meet it's target and that's a very sad thing.
For this device to be a success it needs lots and lots of software written for it. A very large fraction of the people who would take up this deal would likely be software geeks who already know Linux and contribute to OpenSource development. The more of those people have this device - the more software will be written for it or ported onto it.
But even without that - if more people own the things then maybe there will even be a market for commercial software for the device - and who knows where that could lead. If software houses would sign up to a similar pledge ("Buy a copy of our software and we'll give away two copies to needy kids with these machines").
1. What softwares are going to be available for them for $100?
2. Without the softwares, how can they practice any useful I.T. skills?
3. I find that the usefulness of a computer is greatly enhanced by the internet: i can find almost any information i want and i can communicate with people across the world. However, I dont think these under-previledged kids have access to internet which significantly limit the usefulness of a laptop.
4. When food, living expenses and school fees are probably of more concern to these kids, how does a $100 laptop help them exactly? and who gets to decide who gets one and who doesnt? with corruption being such a big issue in the third world countries, I am just speculating that some of these laptops could end up in the hands of better off kids or as some have suggested - ebay.
5. What are these kids going to do with their laptops? Even if donating computers to third world countries is the way to go, I think perhaps it would be better to donate desktops to schools rather than laptops to the kids, who might use the laptop as a game toy. Desktops are also cheaper to construct so each $100 would get more hardware for these kids.
5. $100 in a third world country is enough to secure a good quantity of books. It would give the kids a lot of other skills to learn than the I.T. skills a basic spec laptop can teach them.
I think it is a rip-off to buy these laptops that cost $100 to make for $300. If I am donating $200 to help 2 kids, I would buy them books or just give them the money.
The Chinese are so good at maths precisely because they don't give the kids laptops and desktops at school so they had to calculate everything in their heads.
The answers to these questions and more at One Laptop Per Child News http://www.olpcnews.com
However, even at this conceptual stage, I'd like to know more about the plans on distributing the computers to the children. Which nations, communities or aide bodies will be doing this. I want to know that my efforts will prove to be fruitful and beneficial verses throwing my money someplace and not knowing where and how it is being used. Then I'd be more than happy to join in and pledge my money.
a crank system or solar etc. is a genius idea. without that its no better than sending them the low-spec laptops we already throw out. why build new models then? send them our old ones.
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf
It was not properly promoted
Promote this idea more. We need mass media targeting for public action on a national/international scale. People care. People want to do this. Tell them!
If you're sad that this pledge failed, why not try this variant using a new, hip and, erm, unfinished new PledgeBank feature called cascading Pledges.
Check it out!
http://www.pledgebank.com/olpchackers
best,
Tom from PledgeBank
I would pledge in a heartbeat, but I (like many others) didn't find out about it until I saw the news that it failed.
EXTEND THE PLEDGE and see what happens.
Can I still sign up ?
I'd suggest - extend the pledge, and couple it with some smart viral marketing. That should do the trick.
There are enough technology lovers who could support this cause.
What a poor job at advertising this thing. I'm glad that once it was finally over it made it to slashdot. Sure it was on slashback, but c'mon lumped together with crap stories.
What this petition needs is about $4000 to put ads in wired, linux journal, make, and a few other magazines.
I am all for the idea.
I'm not suggesting that 96,000 more people would sign up if you kept it open another month but I don't see the reason for any deadline ever. When you get 100,000 pledges, you start collecting money. Until then, you collect pledges. Some things build momentum slowly but after they do keep it up for a long time. Why not ospen this back up? Oct. 31, 2006 is arbitrary and unnecesary. Those kids deserve the computers regardless of how long it takes.
I'm not suggesting that 96,000 more people would sign up if you kept it open another month but I don't see the reason for any deadline ever. When you get 100,000 pledges, you start collecting money. Until then, you collect pledges. Some things build momentum slowly but after they do keep it up for a long time. Why not ospen this back up? Oct. 31, 2006 is arbitrary and unnecesary. Those kids deserve the computers regardless of
how long it takes.
Good Luck, I believe this is a truly noble project, and I wish you great success.
John
1. Shipping and insurance
2. Logistics
3. Training & support
4. Administrative & management cost?
Or will it (100$) cover everything (all of above)? Who will pay for the Laptops? Who will pay for after sales support? Who is going to gain from this project - The country spending some 150 million dollar (+ongoing support cost) for a million Laptops or the country receiving some 150 million dollar for a million Laptops?
And a kid who's starving won't be taking the time to read. Even Bill Gates Sr. figured this out when some time ago he took a trip to Africa and was shown a poor village's proudest posession, a single workstation hooked up to the village's sole electrical outlet. He realised that what village needed most at that time was not a computer, but a refrigerator.
Tech toys like these have theire place and moment can help but the basick foundation of the pyramid must be built first. You need decent health, places to sleep, and a dependable food supply before cranking laptops become not only a luxury but a dangerous drain on time and energy that must be spent on survival.
Africa and the Third World aren't just poorer versions of your hometown, they're places in deep distress with a profound lack of the basic neccessities of life, and sweeping plagues which are taking an enormous toll. These are the problems that must be solved FIRST and foremost before the higher goals can be tackled.
starving won't be taking the time to read."
I disagree. At least some of the kids are getting by on the little food they have. Yes, they need food, but that's enough. When I read books in the library, I get so absorbed that I forget to eat.
"You need decent health, places
to sleep, and a dependable food supply before cranking laptops
become not only a luxury but a dangerous drain on time and
energy that must be spent on survival."
I disagree. Laptops (or computers) means access to information and education. This will lead to decent health and better economic understanding. This knowledge and motivation is what is needed to not only survive, but thrive.
"These are the problems that must be solved FIRST
and foremost before the higher goals can be tackled."
I don't think this is a "higher goal." A higher goal would be supercomputers and computing research centers. These are very cheap, very basic laptops. They offer a whole world of ideas and knowledge that they need to enrich their lives and improve all areas of the process of survival.
suggest: restart the thing!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and make "more noise about it" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i'd like to participate, too!!, thomas
I vouch to buy one of these for $300+ if my purchase gets TWO OTHERS into the hands of a poor child for free!!!
regards,
Wayne
what I think for the Microsoft to do, is
to make larger LCD with Windows OS,and make the memory card 4GB slot options,
so the price cost for OLPC,12in LCD.Win.OS,SD 4GB slot card,total =
150$+25$
Total will be 175$ wholesale and retail sale 200$.the child will pay 100$ and his government the other 100$
And I think as an expirt in microelectronics technology this can be made,in the comming soon future.
In 2006 we had new cheap color e-ink
larg size screen and fast cheap flash memory up to 4GB ,when we ask about cheap cost
notebook pc we must expect pc less than
the laptop we see in the market now,the poor children see it only not use it.
I ask Mr.Bill at microsoft to start produce the second OLPC version,and to helpe the children in poor world in action not just talking,and if Mr.Bill move to do it I will give his company my new invention free to add it to OLPC to be the best in design ,for the poor children ,the larg 12in screen is very important for the child to use in education.
Zaky