Off Topic: Tech Awards For Uses of Technology to Help Humanity.

Interesting CNET news story HERE about award program for "uses of technology to help humanity". A few examples from the news story:

Winning the Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award was the Fair Wage Guide from the World of Good Development Organization. The free online tool helps artisans around the world make a decent living by calculating fair wages for their work.

The winner of the Microsoft Education Award went to the Akshaya Patra Foundation, a public-private partnership that uses innovative technology, smart engineering, and good management in kitchens to offer school lunches to children in India at a low cost. The program feeds millions of children lunches for $28 per child per year.

Seattle-based PATH offers Ultra Rice, which blends micronutrients like Vitamin A and iron with rice flour into grains that look, smell, and taste like traditional rice. The grain costs 2 percent to 5 percent more than regular rice, or about 41 cents per child per year in India.Every year in developing countries, Vitamin A deficiency causes about 1 million deaths, folic acid deficiency is responsible for about 200,000 severe birth defects, and more than 60,000 women die from iron deficiency during pregnancy and childbirth, according to PATH

Web site for the Tech Awards, starting with listing of this year's winners, is HERE.

One Laptop Per Child Orders Surge.

Good story today in Boston Globe HERE about One Laptop Per Child program progress.

Story says Peru has signed order for 260,000 laptops and that so far the Give One Get One donation campaign running through end of December, has produced 190,000 orders to date, with half going to donors and half being donated for kids in countries overseas. That suggests my earlier post projecting 200,000 donated laptops will almost certainly be substantially exceeded, with nearly full month left in donor campaign.

Based on email I saw as a donor, I expect to see my donor laptop arrive sometime after middle of month and will shoot and post some pics after arrival.

One Laptop Per Child Campaign Extended to Dec. 31; $$ Donated So Far May Already Pay for 50,000+ Laptops for Kids Overseas.

A One Laptop Per Child [OLPC] press release HERE announces that their “Give one, Get One” [GOGO] funding campaign for PC donations is being extended until December 31, roughly three times the length of the initial planned campaign period.

[My prior posting on GOGO is HERE; that posting discloses that I am a GOGO donor].

One take on this extension is that like an “extended sales period” ad one might see in the newspaper, this could signal that the GOGO campaign is falling short of expectations.

However, the press release suggests otherwise, indicating that donations of "$2 million per day" have been received. As the release also references the first "10 days" this would suggest total donations during that period of $20 Million.

At an assumed cost per PC of $200, $20M. in donations during the first 10 days would provide funding for 100,000 laptops; 50,000 laptops for donors and 50,000 laptops to be sent overseas. (My guess is that if $20M. is accurate more than 50,000 laptops will go overseas as some larger donors likely opted to NOT keep all of their “donor” laptops and to send them overseas instead).

Even If donations during the remaining two thirds+ of the campaign only equal what was donated during the first one third, that would still mean sufficient funding for 200,000 laptops, with at least 100,000 of those laptops going overseas. (These figures would be higher of course if donations are closer to the pace of the first ten days).

While I have seen no public information on GOGO goals, these hefty response levels suggest there is a very good chance that OLPC will look carefully at continuing and expanding this method of funding the cost of laptops to create incentives for more overseas governments to purchase laptops to help their children.

15 Day One laptop Per Child Promotion Window Opens: Multiple Benefits at a Modest Net Cost.

[Correction post should have read 15 day , not 12 day campaign]

Today began a 15 day “Give One Get One” promotion of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation.

I got up first thing this morning to make my donation the moment the window opened because I have long been an advocate of appropriate technology programs. That interest began more than 30 years ago when I read the seminal book, Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher when I was assigned to one of HUD's Assistant Secretary's in the Central Office in DC.

You $400 plus shipping cost donation produces four specific benefits:

1. One laptop is donated to help a child in a country overseas.
2. An identical laptop is sent to you.
3. You receive one year of free T-MOBILE hotspot service.(worth $300+).
4. You receive a $200 income tax deduction (for the computer donated overseas).

If you would like to consider this as part of your holiday gift options, details on the laptops and the 15 day promotion are HERE.