Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) will offer "Give 1 Get 1" programme in which individual donors will be able to purchase XO laptops for personal use when also buying one for a child in a developing nation. The mission of the project is to provide a means for learning, self-expression and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education. "For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops - one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home," writes OLPC project founder Nicholas Negroponte in an open letter on the new XO Giving web site.

27 September 2007 – With only about 14,000 of the world’s estimated 170,000 community e-centres in Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations opened a two-day meeting today on establishing a regional knowledge network of the centres where people in the poorest and remotest areas, from farmers to students, gain access to computers and the Internet.

The meeting, hosted by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok, seeks to help poor communities to make the most out of these e-centres, and to learn from each other’s good experiences. The number of such centres is expected to jump 10-fold in the next five years.

UNESCAP Information, Communication and Space Technology Division Director Sivasankaran Thampi stressed that the meeting aims to enhance interconnection and collaboration.

Community e-centres, also known by different names such as telecentres or community information centres, have already helped people living in remote areas to get much needed information and knowledge to improve their lives.

Farmers, for examples, find crop market information to get better prices for their produce, students learn how to use computers to tap the vast source of information available in the Internet which places them in a better position in the job market, and women are empowered by the use of technology.

The proposed regional knowledge network of e-centres aims to improve their effectiveness as a development tool and to maximize limited resources by networking with each other to share experience and products, including content such as market information and training materials.

Around 30 representatives of UN agencies, information and communication technology ministries, telecentres and telecentre associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are participating in the meeting which is part of a project on knowledge networking through access points for disadvantaged communities being implemented by the UN through its five Regional Commissions in Africa, Europe, West Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific.

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GENEVA, 27 September (United Nations Information Service) -- Young people attending a United Nations-backed summit in Geneva have asked to be involved in initiatives that utilize information and communications technology (ICT) to tackle global challenges.

“Many youth organizations”, said Sarbuland Khan, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, “have come forward to tell us that they want to remain engaged in creating youth centres of excellence and global youth networks that place ICT in the service of development.”

At the three-day Global Forum on Youth and ICT for Development, which concluded yesterday at the Centre International de Conférences, young people from around the world proposed measures for addressing the impact of the ICT explosion on their lives.

Forum participants adopted a manifesto, “A Declaration to and for the Youth of the World”, stating young people’s commitment “to eradicate poverty”, to share innovative technological tools, to aid development by promoting “equal and unrestricted access”, and to “leverage our familiarity with technology to improve the lives of the impoverished”.

Information technology, speakers said, should be a tool for addressing youth unemployment and lack of political and social participation. In a changing global economy that can make young people feel displaced at the workplace and in society, information and communications technology “can offer opportunities to stay connected with the world”, one speaker said.

“After the formal opening, the young participants and youth organizations took over the management and running of the Forum,” Mr. Khan said. “Participation in the discussions and panels has been intense and energizing,” he said, on issues ranging from health to education, participation, empowerment and economics.

More than 600 participants from youth organizations, Government, the private sector, civil society and the technology community attended the Forum’s 6 plenary sessions and 28 workshops, panels and roundtables. A marketplace featured 12 events and 16 exhibits that showcased young people’s innovations in the use of technology.

Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt, told participants she was bringing a message of peace and hope from Sharm el-Sheikh, where she had convened an international youth forum on information and communications technology for peace in early September. At Sharm el-Sheikh, young people from around the world, with “contagious energy”, had exchanged ideas on ways to eliminate violence, celebrate their diversity and promote innovative strategies for enhancing security.

“Without peace, youth cannot have aspirations for the future,” Ms. Mubarak said, adding that the critical link between information and communications technology and peace offered “a window into a world of infinite possibilities”. Stressing that young people are key players in promoting peace, she called on Forum participants to join in ongoing efforts.

International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said the serious development challenges in the world “share inequality as their common element”. Information and communications technology was an enabler of progress, and young people were well-equipped to lead progress, he said, calling on Forum participants to be innovative in finding solutions to development challenges.

For Carlo Ottaviani, President of ST Microelectronics Foundation, the Forum was “a precious occasion for youth to confront important actors, but more importantly to give us all a chance to hear their perspectives and opinions and listen to what they have to show and recommend. Their perspectives were profound, their documents remarkable, their recommendations well-documented.”

“I am proud to witness first-hand some of the most exciting ideas for the betterment of the global youth community”, said Johan Farid Khairuddin, a youth participant from Malaysia’s media company Astro All Asia Networks. “Through this forum, I look forward to turn these into action.”

The three-day gathering was co-hosted by the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development and the International Telecommunication Union, in partnership with several non-governmental organizations and United Nations bodies.

source: www.un.org