One Laptop Per Child Scheme to Launch new Give One, Get One Scheme in Europe

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), the scheme aimed at delivering connected computing to remote, poor and underserved regions of the world, is to launch its 'Give One, Get One' scheme in Europe this year as well as the United States, the project's founder, Professor Nicholas Negroponte told delegates at the World of Health IT conference in Copenhagen.

The campaign, which is being run exclusively through Amazon and will finish on December 31, offers consumers the chance to buy a laptop for US$399, for which price OLPC contributes a second laptop to recipients in developing countries. OLPC is concentrating its donations on the fifty poorest countries as well as post-war conflict zones and other areas where there are displaced populations.

This year's campaign aims to build on the successes achieved by the first Give One, Get One initiative, which took place in the US last year. Negroponte said this year the campaign - which will be supported by a major advertising push - could see half a million Laptops sold.

The laptops that are supplied to developing nations come supplied with one million books as well as games and other content. The principle behind them is to encourage learning, computer literacy and social development among the world's most disadvantaged people.

Negroponte also said that OLPC was currently developing a second generation device, which will feature open-source software and an innovative eBook-style design, and that OLPC was aiming to bring down the cost of basic laptops to US$100 in the US by the end of 2009. Professor Negroponte added that OLPC had already been successful in bringing down the costs of laptops in developed markets by forcing laptop makers to launch new, low-end devices.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.worldofhealthit.org

Related news articles:

About World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition
The World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition has been developed for leaders and experts in health IT from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). It has been designed for and by the healthcare IT community in the EMEA region: technology users, buyers, vendors, providers or healthcare regulators. Addressing the perspectives of clinicians, directors and other healthcare professionals, The World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition offers educational sessions, vendor exhibitions, best practice exchange networking sessions and other professional development opportunities. The WoHIT Organising Committee comprises the EC (European Commission), HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), EUROREC (European Institute for Health Records), COCIR (European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry), EHTEL (European Health Telematics Association), HINE (Health Information Network Europe), and now EFMI (European Federation for Medical Informatics). For further information, please visit http://www.worldofhealthit.com.

Most Popular Now

Philips and Medtronic Advocacy Partnersh…

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, and Medtronic Neurovascular, a leading innovator in neurovascular therapies, today announced a strategic advocacy partnership. Delivering timely stroke...

New AI Tool Predicts Protein-Protein Int…

Scientists from Cleveland Clinic and Cornell University have designed a publicly-available software and web database to break down barriers to identifying key protein-protein interactions to treat with medication. The computational tool...

AI for Real-Rime, Patient-Focused Insigh…

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but still... they both have a lot of work to do to catch up to BiomedGPT. Covered recently in the prestigious journal Nature...

New Research Shows Promise and Limitatio…

Published in JAMA Network Open, a collaborative team of researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Stanford University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the University of Virginia studied...

G-Cloud 14 Makes it Easier for NHS to Bu…

NHS organisations will be able to save valuable time and resource in the procurement of technologies that can make a significant difference to patient experience, in the latest iteration of...

Start-Ups will Once Again Have a Starrin…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. The finalists in the 16th Healthcare Innovation World Cup and the 13th MEDICA START-UP COMPETITION have advanced from around 550 candidates based in 62...

Hampshire Emergency Departments Digitise…

Emergency departments in three hospitals across Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have deployed Alcidion's Miya Emergency, digitising paper processes, saving clinical teams time, automating tasks, and providing trust-wide visibility of...

MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM: Success in Maste…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. How can innovations help to master the great challenges and demands with which healthcare is confronted across international borders? This central question will be...

A "Chemical ChatGPT" for New M…

Researchers from the University of Bonn have trained an AI process to predict potential active ingredients with special properties. Therefore, they derived a chemical language model - a kind of...

Siemens Healthineers co-leads EU Project…

Siemens Healthineers is joining forces with more than 20 industry and public partners, including seven leading stroke hospitals, to improve stroke management for patients all over Europe. With a total...

MEDICA and COMPAMED 2024: Shining a Ligh…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. Christian Grosser, Director Health & Medical Technologies, is looking forward to events getting under way: "From next Monday to Thursday, we will once again...

In 10 Seconds, an AI Model Detects Cance…

Researchers have developed an AI powered model that - in 10 seconds - can determine during surgery if any part of a cancerous brain tumor that could be removed remains...