I've just posted a reply to a discussion topic in the Health Information Technology community:

The One Laptop per Child education project has new technology that advanced to mass production of laptops in November 2007. In a special Give 1 Get 1 program, over 150,000 laptops have been sold to donors in the USA and Canada for US$ 399 ($ 199 for a personal laptop, and $ 200 for a laptop to be given to a child in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mongolia, or Rwanda).

The compact, but advanced, hardware and software is being used to build a new computing, networking, and learning environment to especially support children in the developing world.

With so many people interested in the project, new communities have formed to address a wide range of technical and social issues. A Health focus team has been recently energized with teams and individuals collecting and preparing content for software, hardware (including telemedicine), and training activities. An advisory group has just been named, and an introductory conference call was held on Sunday 10 February 2008.

The project maintains a wiki at wiki.laptop.org where anyone may participate, learn about, or contribute to the project.

This is an ambitious project, but one that has captured a lot of interest and enthusiasm, and one with significant potential to influence the future in many areas.

Frederick Grose, MPH, CIH