Back in November I attempted to buy a One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computer under the Give One Get One programme, which allows buyers to purchase two units, one of which is donated to a child in either Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Mongolia or Rwanda. The offer, however, was limited to US and Canadian buyers and even though I was paying through my PayPal account (which is connected to a US bank account) the system seemed to detect that my shipping address was that of my freight forwarder in Miami and refused to let the transaction go through (the US Apple Store does likewise, though most other merchants realise my money’s as good as the other person’s). Needless to say, the incident didn’t inspire warm feelings about the OLPC project’s sales policies. While there may well have been practical reasons to limit participation in the programme to the US and Canada, I find the idea philosophically distasteful and steeped in on-behalfism. Why shouldn’t a Trinidadian be able to donate a laptop to a child in Mongolia or Haiti?
Today, however, I learned that there may be a few OLPCs entering the region after all. An organisation in Dominica called the Dominica Academy of Arts and Sciences (DAAS), reports Caribbean Net News, has embarked on a project to purchase a minimum of 100 units, and is accepting donations via its web site. From the look of the site, I’d wager that the DAAS is an NGO, which is interesting in light of this entry relating to Caribbean participation in the OLPC programme on the OLPC wiki.
The Give One Get One programme, incidentally, has been extended until December 31, though it’s still open only to the US and Canada. Which also means that the pressing problem of what to give my godson for Christmas remains unsolved. Bah humbug.
Technorati Tags: olpc, caribbean, one laptop per child, dominica
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The TTCS has one of the OLPC laptops in Trinidad.
As to Christmas gifts,
- install Tuxpaint (http://www.tuxpaint.org/)
- if the godson is older, perhaps a Asus eeePC
for $399 or $499?
Thanks, Dev. Will definitely stop by and check out the OLPC. The godson thing was partly tongue in cheek (hope the godson doesn’t read this blog!) but I have been wondering about the Asus eeePC. Does the TTCS have one of those as well?
Comment by Georgia 12.18.07 @ 11:24 amActually they did open up for orders from the whole world a few days into the G1G1 offer. You just still had to provide a shipping address in the United States, which is still pretty silly.
http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/g1g1/giving_thanks_g1g1_global.html
Their whole logistics operation and customer services awful. I ordered one on the first day and still have no idea when they plan to ship it. Spent an hour on hold to their customer services last week. They do not answer emails.
They seem completely unprepared for the deluge of orders leading up to Xmas which is the only good reason I could think to keep it limited to one geographic area rather than the whole world.
Comment by Solanasaurus 12.22.07 @ 10:27 am[...] One Get One program . However, when I tried to order one online, I encountered the same problem as CFR : you’re required to create a Paypal account and the online web form is meant for US and [...]
Pingback by Ordering an OLPC laptop from Trinidad « Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society 12.31.07 @ 4:28 pm 
One of our members does…who bought it to the December 15th, 2007 meeting….he probably will be bringing it to future TTCS meetings. Happy New Year!
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