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If You Do the OLPC Give/Get Thing, What Happens on the 'Give' End?
Now that One Laptop Per Child is teaming up with Amazon.com to relaunch the "Give 1 Get 1" laptop drive, most people are focused on the "Get 1" portion of that equation. After all, the OLPC XO is the cutest little computer this side of a Furby. And it's cheap at $399. The only way to buy one in the U.S. is to, essentially, buy two -- you get one, and the other goes to a kid in a rural village on the other side of the globe.
But what happens on the other end? Is the charity portion worthwhile? Do the XO machines make a difference for the kids? One of the best windows on all this comes from Laptop Magazine's Web site. The site bought 30 XOs and had them sent to a village in Mali, the followed what happened. Some of the stories are heartwarming, and some prove that the magnetic attraction between kids and computer screen can jump any geographic or cultural boundary.
As you're thinking about holiday gifts, Give 1 Get 1 is worth considering.
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