<div dir="ltr"><div><a href="http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/negroponte_appointed_as_chairm.html">http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/negroponte_appointed_as_chairm.html</a><br></div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana;line-height:19px">
I'm not quite sure how I managed to miss this but thankfully two readers pointed me towards it in the past few days. <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent">It</em> being <a href="http://www.xprize.org/press-release/x-prize-foundation-announces-plans-for-10-million-global-literacy-x-prize" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)">an announcement</a> by the X PRIZE Foundation that Nicholas Negroponte will be the chairman of their planned $10 million Global Literacy competition:</p>
<div style="margin:0px 0px 10px 12px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana;line-height:19px;float:right"><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/microsoft-sees-window-of-opportunity-in-lowcost-laptop/2007/10/26/1192941297938.html" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><img src="http://www.olpcnews.com/images/negroponte-xo.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"></a><br>
<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:0.9em;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent">Nicholas Negroponte of OLPC</span></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 25px 15px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;border-width:0px 0px 0px 1px;border-left-style:dotted;border-left-color:rgb(221,221,217);outline:0px;font-size:13px;vertical-align:baseline;quotes:none;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Verdana;line-height:19px">
The X PRIZE Foundation announced today that it has set a goal of funding and launching a $10 Million Global Literacy X PRIZE in 2013. The purpose of this X PRIZE is to transform established beliefs about the timeline, nature, quality, and scalability of literacy solutions to serve the needs of over 60 million children who are not receiving primary education.</blockquote>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana;line-height:19px">Negroponte joins the former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Sir Ken Robinson of <a href="http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson.html" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)">TED-fame</a> who are both advisors to X Prize.</p>
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"A Global Literacy X PRIZE will reframe the education conversation that, to date, has been focused only on system (school) reform," says Prof. Negroponte. "By changing the conversation from 'how do we fix the system?' to 'how do we meet the unique needs of all individual learners?' we begin a critical transformation. Insofar as literacy is the key to eliminating poverty, creating world peace and saving the environment, a paradigm shift is urgently needed."</blockquote>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana;line-height:19px">Based on his long-standing interesting in literacy and this quote I dare say this very much sounds like the perfect competition for Negroponte.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana;line-height:19px">According to the announcement X PRIZE hopes to find the necessary funding and launch the Global Literacy competition before the end of the year. It is then intended to run for two years until the end of 2015.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana;line-height:19px">I'll definitely keep an eye on how this competitions goes. After all the X PRIZE competition has led - and continues to lead - to some very interesting developments, especially in the area of space travel.</p>
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