Update: We are shipping G1G1 Internationally to 45 countries, through December 31st this year. See details on the late-November countries post.
We have spent the past two weeks preparing for the Give One, Get One fundraising campaign starting on Monday. Â Last year’s donors (thank you!) were critical to launching projects in Rwanda, Haiti, Ethiopia, Oceania, Afghanistan*, and Mongolia. Â This year’s campaign will begin a new wave of OLPC projects.
The biggest difference this year is that G1G1’s donors are also going global — we are launching the campaign simultaneously in the US and Europe at 11am UTC (6am EST) on the 17th. (UPDATE: Amazon.com information pages are up, and it is possible to put in a G1G1 request now, but the Give Only and other pages will not be up until later this afternoon.)
Donors in the US will be able to donate and Give a laptop through Laptop.org/xo. The Get laptops going to recipients in the US will be fulfilled right away. Donors outside the US will be able to donate through Amazon.co.uk, where G1G1 will cost £275 (currently just over 322 Euros) plus shipping. The Get laptops for recipients outside the US will be fulfilled as soon as possible. stay tuned to this blog for more details in the coming days.
Update: the Christmas round of shipments was sent out last week; everyone who donated by December 16th should have received their XO by now, unless we are still waiting on clearance to ship to their country [sorry, Japan! Fumi, where are you when we need you?].  A final batch of machines will be sent out in January; the program is expected to end on December 31.
Update 2: donors in Australia, Hong Kong, and France are encouraged to donate through pages specifically set up for your country for a tax deduction.
The benefit of working with leading industry partners like Amazon to expand our reach is that our mission becomes clearer, letting OLPC focus on its real purpose: giving One Laptop per Child — at a global level.
I am very talented out growing student. But at this time laptop is the most essential thing to me inorder to share information globally & to increase my performance. So, “for the sake of humanity give me one laptop.” thank you very much. God bless you!
Hi CG,
Great comments by yourself and other Canadian G1G1 ‘potential’ donors regarding the logistics of using the Amazon.uk site for the 2008 program. I was a 2007 G1G1 donor, my daughter’s XO arrived here in Saskatchewan in late February, 2008 after several calls to the 2007 US distributor. But her laptop did make it here, not without some angst however! So I also was excited to hear that OLPC would be using an internatinal distributor to eliminate last years delivery prolems…well that is, if you live anywhere else but in Canada. I cannot imagine having to deal with our Canada Customs to get your XO imported from the U.K.? Maybe the 2009 program will include us again. But please, don’t give up, this is truly an educational project not matched in our history. I have great respect for the OLPC team and know they will do what they can to rectify this insight.
Cheers James.
Pat – A few details are now in this post; there is a more complete update here: http://blog.laptop.org/2008/12/24/g1g1-international-update/
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SJ: Where are the details you promised in your Nov. 21 post?
I would like to be able to find out more about this laptop, it’s specs , does it come with instructions, where to get one etc. I have found several sites about it but none that offered this type of information or a place to find it . any help would be appreciated.
-edward
CG — any G1G1 donations with Get addresses in Canada, and in other countries as well, can be preordered through the amazon.co.uk site. I will let you know as soon as there are details about how soon the first Get shipments to a particular country will go out.
SJ,
Please post for Canadians exactly how and when G1G1 will be fully available to us including tax receipts and other features. By saying that it will be available but not giving details, you are starting rumours and that’s not nice.
xo CG.
So, what is the procedure for Canadian G1Givers? Should we pre-order on Amazon UK (how far is UK from Canada?!)? Should we pay with a Canadian credit card and have it delivered to a US address or wait for eBay sellers? Or perhaps wait for G1G1 2009???
So the US price is USD399, with free shipping, and it arrives in 10 days or so. The “rest of world” price is GBP275 + GBP50 shipping, which at today’s rate is USD488, and it ships starting 16 Dec. Hmmm… And the amazon.co.uk site says clearly “This item can only be delivered within the UK”.
Last year I asked about a tax receipt for half the G1G1 price. I got no answer, despite asking several times. Somehow I think I know this year’s answer already: Amazon UK is not too likely to be handing out a CRA tax receipt, methinks.
On the technical side, assuming amazon.co.uk really will ship to Canada, what keyboard will I receive? And will it come with a UK power plug?
You know, I *really* want to support this program, and get a laptop into the hands of a child overseas, and one into the hands of my own kid in the hopes of helping wean the schools off Windows and Macs and Powerpoint. And I understand very well that keeping aging techno-yuppies like me (or even their kids) happy isn’t the foundation’s goal. But surely some better approach could be taken. If Amazon is the best “logistics partner”, why not get them to use each of their global sites, and price in local currency? This is just leaving a sour taste.
Another grumpy Canadian…
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Hi CG,
G1G1 is going to be available to Canadians just as to Europeans. The shipping may however be slightly different than it was last year. And of course last year it was possible to donate from anywhere in the world. But you had to have a certain set of credit cards (European credit cards weren’t accepted, for instance) and had to send your Get laptop to an address in the US or Canada. So it didn’t feel truly global.
SJ
As a G1G1 owner from last year who rallied people around me to help donate several laptops through the donation program last year am I very disappointed that you have chosen to neglect Canada this year. I know how much work I did for you in spreading the word around my area and now they aren’t available to the people I talked to. I can’t say I’m terribly impressed.
“The biggest difference this year is that G1G1’s donors are also going global”
And selling them in Canada last year was not “going global”? Indeed, could you post a blog about why you are stiffing us in Canada this year and no longer making G1G1 available to Canadians?!?!
Thanks,
CG.
“…slightly overspecific…” nice one! 😉
A number of reports this week have touched on the international rollout; first OLPC News, with a slightly overspecific list of countries and other details; then yesterday morning the BBC chimed in. Aside from the exchange rate fluctuating over time, it is the details about the proposed timeline that were unclear early on;
ChristianChristoph* Derndorfer gets it right in a T-48 hours post.* can you tell I haven’t slept in 72 hours?