From [IP] Alabama city (first in US) eyes developing-world laptops

Possibly the first OLPC buy for the US.  From Professor Dave Farbers IP list.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber
To: ip
Sent: 3/6/2008 9:38 AM
Subject: [IP] Ala. city eyes developing-world laptops

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne@warpspeed.com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: March 6, 2008 9:13:17 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy@warpspeed.com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Ala. city eyes developing-world laptops

[Note:  This item comes from friend Ken DiPietro.  DLH]

Ala. city eyes developing-world laptops

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press WriterWed Mar 5, 3:13 PM ET
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/health/research/05placebo.html?ex=136
2373200&en=7ce7bfab78a478d4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewant
ed=all
 >

If $200 laptop computers are good for kids in Peru and Mongolia, why 
not Alabama?

Birmingham's City Council has approved a $3.5 million plan to provide 
schoolchildren with 15,000 computers produced by the nonprofit One 
Laptop Per Child Foundation, which aims to spread laptops to poor 
children in developing countries.

The foundation says the deal marks the first time a U.S. city has 
agreed to buy the machines, which also are headed to such countries as 
Rwanda, Thailand, Brazil and Mexico in addition to Peru and Mongolia.

Birmingham's school board still must agree to the deal, and some 
members have reservations. They want more evidence that computers 
designed for the African bush or the mountains of South America would 
be a good fit for an American city.

Reviews of the foundation's green-and-white "XO" laptops have been 
mixed, with praise for their simplicity, ruggedness and low price but 
complaints that U.S. children may be turned off by the machines' 
particular configuration. The user interface is built on the Linux 
operating system rather than the more familiar Windows.

In hopes of getting past such objections, the City Council agreed to 
spend $3 million buying machines from Cambridge, Mass.-based One 
Laptop Per Child and to give schools $500,000 to sort out technical 
issues. A laptop will be available for every child in grades 1 through 
8.

[snip]
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