OLPC XO-2 to be open source hardware

According to a report from the Guardian, the next version of the OLPC (XO-2) will be open source hardware. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is a non-profit organisation who's mission is to provide children across the world access to modern education by providing laptops that they can use for learning.

The leader of the OLCP project, Nicholas Negroponte told the Guardian that the new XO-2 will be released under an "open source hardware programme" and is based on the feedback from the original XO-1 unit. "The XO-1 was really designed as if we were Apple. The XO-2 will be designed as if we were Google - we’ll want people to copy it. We’ll make the constituent parts available. We’ll try and get it out there using the exact opposite approach that we did with the XO-1."

The XO-2 is touted to be a $75.00, dual-screen device, that can be held like a book and used as an e-book reader and then turned so that one of the screens can become a keyboard. "The first generation is a laptop that can be a book; the next generation will a book that can be a laptop," Negroponte says. "That's the switch".

The new XO-2 being released under an open source hardware programme could mean that the device will be imitated, customised, and encourage early adoption, which could help drive the XO-2 to greater success than the original XO.

See also:

• 5,000 Refugee children in Gaza Strip to get OLPC Laptop, a heise online UK report
• OLPC project faces cutbacks, a heise online UK report

(crve)