Merry Christmas! Here’s a roundup of links from the past week.
OLPC a Hit in Remote Peruvian Village
Doubts about whether poor, rural children really can benefit from quirky little computers evaporate as quickly as the morning dew in this hilltop Andean village, where 50 primary school children got machines from the One Laptop Per Child project six months ago. Link
Chevron Sued Over Green Washing
The suit also claims that while Chevron used its involvement to “green wash†their media image they withheld financial and technical assistance. Green washing involves the exaggeration and misrepresentation of a company’s commitment and actions to be environmentally conscious.
2 Young Hedge-Fund Veterans Stir Up the World of Philanthropy
GiveWell’s findings are available on the Internet, without charge, at www.givewell.net. In evaluating charities, Mr. Karnofsky and Mr. Hassenfeld press them for information, analyzing the numbers in much the same way they did at Bridgewater. The Smile Train, for instance, a charity that repairs cleft palates, was asked how much it spent in each region and each country to treat how many patients in each.
Social laptops for xmas: Lenovo vs. OLPC
Some background on the Lenovo program from NYTimes (sorry no link)– “Lenovo has announced they are gearing up to sell a basic personal computer for ‘China’s vast but poor rural market’. The pricetag could be as low as $199. ‘The new Lenovo unit will include a processor and a keyboard and will use a buyer’s television set as a monitor, Chen said. He said he had no details on the processor size or other features. The new PC goes on sale later this year at prices of 1,499 to 2,999 yuan ($199-$399), Chen said. Lenovo is the world’s third-largest PC manufacturer, behind U.S.-based Hewlett Packard Inc. and No. 2 Dell.'”