Today is a milestone day for what I believe is one of the greatest examples of leadership in history. Today, the One Laptop Per Child Project begins mass production in China.

The goal of the project is to provide low cost laptop computers (under $200) to children in developing countries. If you haven’t heard of this project, please check out their website at http://www.laptop.org/.

The laptop, which looks like a toy but is an incredibly viable tool, has brought together incredible thinking and contributions in hardware, software, and networking. For example, it has a crank handle so that the child can generate the extremely low amount of power it needs to run.

Political and business leaders around the world talk a good game about the importance of helping developing countries. However, their talk quickly turns to the economic and technical barriers to making it happen. (see my entries on “If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it” and “Leadership is more than knowing what not do to“). In the meantime, Nicholas Negroponte and the team at One Laptop per Child have been quietly breaking down those barriers. This is what leadership is about.

Help the One Child Per Laptop Project achieve its goal. We all might not be able to build an affordable computer that can work in impoverished, underdeveloped areas. But, we can help get the computers to those children. Be a leader and help ensure the education and development of the next generation.

Click here to make a $200 donation to OLPC so that a child in a developing country can have access to the world’s knowledge.

Or, to get a piece of this historic event, donate $399 to get one for your self and have one sent to a child. http://www.xogiving.org/