
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
January 2005, Nicholas Negroponte unveiled the idea
of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a $100 PC that would
transform education for the world’s disadvantaged
schoolchildren by giving them the means to teach
themselves and each other. He estimated that up
to 150 million of these laptops could be shipped
annually by the end of 2007.
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With $20 million in
startup investment, sponsorships and partnerships
with major IT industry players, and interest from
developing countries, the nonproft OLPC project
generated excitement among international leaders
and the world media. Yet as of June 2009 only a few
hundred thousand laptops have been distributed
(they were frst available in 2007), and OLPC has been
forced to dramatically scale back its ambitions.