Give One, Get One from laptopgiving.org
A group from MIT started a project a few years ago, which has finally started to go active. It’s the One Laptop Per Child program, where they make very low-cost laptops (the end goal is for them to cost US$100) suitable for primary-school-aged children in developing countries (no moving parts; water- and dust- resistant, usable in bright sunlight, etc.).
Until 31 December, the OLPC group is running the Give One, Get One program for people in the US and Canada. You sign up to buy two laptops for $400. They ship you one, and one gets donated to one of the countries that has signed up to be part of the program. Not only do you get a laptop, you get a $200 tax-deductible receipt, since the OLPC group is a registered 501(c)(3) charity.
I think the response to this has been pretty amazing. Our friends bought one. We bought one. A coworker (a grad student!) bought one. I told our day care about this program, and they bought two. So if you’ve been wanting a small laptop that has a wireless card in it, for some dedicated task, like, say sticking it in the kitchen (you know who you are), I urge you to go for it! Send a laptop to a child who could benefit from a really flexible learning tool. Follow the link above, poke around, learn about the program, and what they’re trying to do.
I will be very interested to see if OLPC releases a total number of orders for the G1G1 program in 2008. I hope it’s in the thousands.