I just dropped my daughter at my mum’s house. They’ll hang out for the day, and probably watch a lot of dumbo.

On the way back I listened to a TED presentation by Nicholas Negroponte.

I owe a lot to Negroponte. He inspired my recent career moves with his Being Digital book, and articles in Wired. So when I noticed the TED presentation I had to make the time to listen.

What Negroponte, and the OLPC team are doing is amazing.

OLPC, One Laptop per Child is an organisation dedicated to getting a laptop into the hands over every child. Why does this matter? Well, in their words, “Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to learn learning through independent interaction and exploration.”

In the TED presentation Negroponte explains that in some houses with the laptop there is no electricity, and the brightest source of light becomes the laptop. He also says that some children’s first english words are Google. Truancy has dropped to zero in schools with the laptops, and the servers have to be shut down because students are emailing their teachers so much.

This isn’t just about putting technology in everybody’s reach, it’s much more than that. This is building a true open communications platform for the world’s children to teach themselves and each other.

On the site is a world map. It shows the countries planning to pilot, the countries who have expressed interest at the Ministry-of-Education level or higher, and those that are currently seeking government support. I realise that Australian isn’t in as much need as many other countries, but what in the world is wrong with us. WE SHOULD ALREADY HAVE OUR GOVERNMENT’S SUPPORT.