We have been running a Change the World [CTW] program since November, which (along with the Give Many program which preceded it) allowed groups that wanted 100 or more XOs to get them at close to their raw production & shipping cost.

This was a nice way to engage potential G1G1 supporters and others who were interested in supporting an entire school or educational work done by local charities.  It has had only limited popularity, however, and minimal overlap with our goal of getting countries and districts to embrace olpc for their children at scale.  As part of refocusing on our mission this year we are wrapping up CTW.

This is a program we would love to support if we had time to do everything — it has produced some lovely stories, and on rare occasions starts a process that leads to larger, lasting commitments.  In time we may make a similar program available again, and welcome feedback here from those who have taken part, or considered taking part, over the past year.

If you are waiting to finalize details on a Change the World request, including longer-term fundraising plans, please do so this week (emailing us; those who have written in already should have received similar updates by email).  The page describing the program will stay up for a short while longer, and all current CtW conversations and transactions will be completed, even after the program has ended.

We will work over the coming weeks to publish details about projects that the program has supported. We will soon start handling new requests sent to change the way we handle the more frequent requests to buy single laptops outside the G1G1 window … which is to say, by passing them on to our general help@ queue, and pointing people to ways they can currently get XOs without OLPC’s involvement:

• in 1s and 2s on eBay
• via the Contributors Program
• by posting a project description and request to the XO exchange registry

People starting small school pilots that need 10-30 laptops are encouraged to use Sugar in emulation on existing computer labs or other low-cost laptops.  Note: There has been some confusion on this point, but the only way we have ever supported projects smaller than 100 laptops is via G1G1 (and only a handful of projects took advantage of that this year), or via universities as research projects.  We continue to make exceptions for the latter through the Contributors Program.