OLPC Set to go Full Production in July

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative that was born from the mind of Nicholas Negroponte when he was heading up the MIT Media Lab is nearing a significant milestone – shipment of the first machines to their intended recipients. Back in the end of November it was reported that the prototypes had come off the production line and had already been loaded up and played Doom. The AP reports today that the program is now looking at a predicted July delivery of some of the first laptops to the children who might use them.

We first were in awe when we heard that a $100 was going to come on the market – and be made widely available to children in countries who may not have access to like technologies on other circumstances. There was the hand crank/foot pedal to provide power to the machine in areas without electricity or at least reliable electricity. Now the reports are coming out with more details. OLPC has dubbed the new machine, which will debut at around $130, the XO model. They're also trying to diffuse the statements they've heard that "it's just a toy." The project has been hard at work in Cambridge rethinking what a laptop is and what productivity and learning mean to a population who hasn't been exposed to computers.

The OS and software aren't standard Windows, Word, and Excel – Negroponte wants them to be tools for social interaction and learning. Being creatures of habit and having sold our souls to Gates and Jobs years ago we're having a hard time comprehending what this might actually mean – maybe it's like introducing communism to a capitalistic society.

Image courtesy of OLPC's website - laptop.org