One Laptop Per Child
(OLPC)
1. Intro
2. Mission statement
3. History
4. Features
5. Future
6. Findings

1. Intro
Started as a collaboration with Media Lab at MIT to design a low cost
laptop intended for use by children in developing nations.
To empower and educate children through the use of technology, and
connect the world’s next generation of thinkers.
Nicholas Negroponte, Founder & Chairman

1. Mission Statement
Five Principles:
1. Kids keep the laptops
the laptop is coupled with the responsibility of protecting, caring for, and sharing at
home
2. Focus on early education, 6-12 year-olds
children don’t need to read or write to use the machine
playing is the basis of human learning, helps teach reading/writing skills
3. Saturation
whole country, a region, a municipality, a village, a classroom - every child owns a
laptop
4. Connection
out of box the laptops will connect with each other, without internet
if one laptop is connected to the internet, all others will follow
5. Free and open source software
for growth and adaptation

3. History
2005 - The $100 Laptop (previously 2B1)
The first early prototype was unveiled by the project’s founder Nicholas
Negroponte and then-United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan on
November 19, 2005 at the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) in Tunis, Tunisia
When Negroponte first announced the project, he was aiming for a price
tag of $100 per device. This prompted the project to be nicknamed the
‘$100 laptop’.
The first units are expected to cost around $140, with prices dropping
as production ramps up and component prices decrease.

2006 - Children’s Machine 1 (CM1)
The “green machine” included a
hand- crank generator, making it
self-powered. Part of the orignal
design, the crank was no longer
integrated into the laptop itself, but
a similar device could be optionally
available as a hand or foot operated
generator.

2007 - XO-1
Full scale production started in
November 2007. Quanta computer,
the projects manufacturer,
confirmed orders totally 1 million
units. Quanta indicated that it
could ship five million to ten
million units that year because
seven nations had committed
to buy the XO-1 for their
schoolchildren: Argentina, Brazil,
Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand,
and Uruguay.

2007 - XO-1
There were no plans to release it commercially, but as a Christmas
promotion, they started the Give 1 Get 1 project (G1G1) for residents
of US and Canada. The price was $399, paying for two laptops, one
given to a developing country, and one for the consumer to keep. The
program, which ran for an inital 2 weeks and was extended, grossed
approximately 2 million dollars per day in “donations.” The program was
re-introduced for 2008, available to more countries.
Prices remained $199 for both the winter 2007 and winter 2008 Give
One, Get One campaigns (and thus $398 per pair).

2008 - present
On May 20, 2008, OLPC announced the next generation of XO, OLPC
XO-2, a smaller 2.0 version, scheduled for release in 2010, in which
dual touch screens will replace the keypad. In late 2008, the NYC De-
partment of Education began a project to purchase large numbers of XO
computers for use by New York schoolchildren.
Current versions will have Microsoft Windows installed - where previ-
ously the machines only ran on Linux. XP was delayed for almost a year.
Microsoft had to build new sets of drivers that could fit to the very small
storage capacity of the XO. With this version of XO, the mesh networking
may not be available. Although XP has been squeezed to the bare es-
sentials, it still wouldn’t fit to the 1GB storage capacity. Instead, expect
that XO will be released with a preloaded 2GB SD card.

4. Features
1GB Flash memory (no hard drive)
Fedora-based (Linux) OS, Microsoft Windows
256MB memory
1200x900 7.5” display - reflective (backlight off) monochrome mode
for low-power use in sunlight; backlit color mode, rgb
Wi-Fi
Internal SD card (for microsoft)
built-in color camera (640x480; 30fps)
built-in speakers
microphone
3 external usb ports
power: rechargable battery, external manual power options

Display
The screen is composed of several layers. Starting at the back, there is a
white LED backlight, a 1200x900 grid of color filters, a semi-reflective
layer, and a 1200x900 LCD.
• In direct sun, you see only reflected light. The backlight setting
doesn’t matter.
• In a completely dark room, there is no reflected light. So you only
see the backlight, and if you turn it off, you see nothing.
• In between, you see some mix.
Each pixel is capable of either R, G, or B. Only one. It relies on its
neighbors to provide the others. So each pixel has:

Power

Sugar
Sugar is a free desktop environment designed with the goal of being
used by children for learning
Sugar does not use the “desktop” “folder” and “window” metaphors.
Instead Sugar’s default full-screen activities require users to focus on
only one program at a time
File handling metaphor is known as a “journal” which automatically
saves the user’s running program session, allowing them to later use an
interface to pull up their past work by date, activity, or file type
Also available on Linux distributions ubuntu and Fedora
Released under the GNU GPL (General Public License)

Sugar Cont.
programs are called “activities”
intentionally designed to encourage the modification of its activities and
core functionality by users (open source)
“low floor, no ceiling” low floor for the inexperienced, but doesn’t
impose a ceiling upon those who are

Sugar Cont.

Sugar Cont.

Sugar Cont.

Sugar Cont.
Sugar Groups View Sugar Neighborhood View

5. Future
Pursuing a smaller 2.0 version,
scheduled for release in 2010,
in which dual touch screens will
replace the keypad. The new
version will have lower power
consumption and a $75 price-
-a figure that OLPC claims is
achievable despite the fact that
the current model, the XO, sells for
nearly double the sum mentioned
in its "$100 laptop" moniker.

6. Findings
1. Theft and Grey (or gray) Market
2. Re-selling (Black Market)
The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by
schools on a basis of “one laptop per child.”
The Uruguay programme has cost the state $260 (£159) per child,
including maintenance costs, equipment repairs, training for the
teachers and internet connection. The total figure represents less than
5% of the country’s education budget.
Around 70% of the XO model laptops handed out by the government
were given to children who did not have computers at home
The annual cost of maintaining the programme, including an information
portal for pupils and teachers, will be US$21 (£13) per child.

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