The One-Laptop-Per-Child program (see
laptop.org) is a long running effort to make an internet-accessible computer available to the masses at an affordable sub-one-hundred-dollar price point. Decades in the making, this is one of the greatest humanitarian efforts towards improved education ever, and will certainly be used by children worldwide in the near future.
The program turned down the free and
almighty ubiquitous Linux
ALL HAIL! and other commercial software systems in favor of a proprietary one, yet they accepted a meaningful donation from one of the biggest companies in the video game industry. Electronic Arts is donating the original
SimCity to the OLPC program. The "SimCity" and "Sims" franchises are the largest PC game franchises ever created. In education, it found use in over 10,000 classrooms and even some national tournaments.
Originally released in 1989,
SimCity was originally a game where the user could control his own municipality. The unintended benefit to players was that they learned about real-world community services and how to properly manage resources. The appeal of the game was the complex balance of how to: manage taxes and the economy, design roadways, supply water and energy to business and residences, provide law enforcement and medical services, and be prepared for fires or natural disasters. Decades after initial release, the game is expected to be a welcome introduction to children getting acquainted with their new laptops.
Source:
Business Wire
