OLPC Goes Open Source

One Laptop Per Child has announced it will open source its hardware design and actively invite others to copy it.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) famously aimed to create the $100 laptop and make it available to schoolchildren throughout the world. It never reached that cost target – the actual figure is close to double that – but it’s made a big impact, and now it hopes to make and even bigger one.

Speaking at the TED 2009 conference, founder Nicholas Negroponte announced that the company would open source its hardware design and encourage others to a copy it, according to blogger Ethan Zuckerman.

In fact, Negroponte feels the copying has already begun, with the advent of lower-cost netbooks, whose corollary effect has been a fall in the price of laptops. He feels that the open sourcing initiative could mean companies producing up to six million similar machines each month – that’s a huge rise over the half million OLPC produces.

The company now offers an XP version of its laptop, but it’s experienced the same tough times as everyone else, laying off 50% of its staff last month.