First of all, I thought there already was one laptop per child, at least when they are sitting down.

Nicholas Negroponte’s ‘One Laptop per Child‘ (OLPC) program has had some delivery problems with their Give One/Get One program launched at the end of 2007. But who cares? His idea has been to design a useful, portable, low cost (ballpark $200) computer than can be given on a large scale to communities worldwide. As an enlightened, liberal American enamored with high tech, this is the charity I naturally gravitated to (which is another way of saying that my friends Reg and Julie kept sending me links about the campaign until I signed up).

I’m more than happy to wait for mine as long as they keep sending me pictures of towns and villages getting their computers. Like these from Ulaanbatar in Mongolia. The expressions on the faces of these kids tells the whole story for why this is a worthwhile effort.

Reg got his OLPC laptop … I am still waiting for mine … and loaned me his to check out. It is a solid machine that I think will readily appeal to kids. It’s not what I’d use for an everyday mobile machine (I’m holding out for the MacBook Pro), but it is just the thing that would aid a kid interested in images or music or programming or games or writing or community.

Lots of ways to participate … check it out.