Ask OLPC a Question about Give 1 Get 1
This page deals with issues related to Give 1 Get 1.
Overview
You can help support OLPC's mission by contributing time and knowledge or donating money, or by participating in our annual giving campaigns. For the first two years after mass production, we ran an annual "Give 1, Get 1" campaign where for the price of two XOs you could receive one and donate the cost of one to the foundation.
Give 1, Get 1
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The currency of this article or section may be limited by out-of-date information. There may be relevant discussion on its talk page |
Give 1, Get 1 2007
The 2007 Give 1, Get 1 program (or "G1G1") concluded on 31 December 2007. 85,000 people gave a laptop through this program, donations which helped launch deployments in Haiti, Rwanda, Mongolia, Palestine, and Afghanistan.
The poster child for the campaign was from Nigeria, where we launched one of our first pilots in 2006.
G1G1 2007 has archival info on the 2007 program. During the program, participants who donated USD $399 would cover the cost of one laptop to be distributed by OLPC to one of its least-developed partner countries, and would get 1 to keep, for themselves or for a child in their lives. OLPC also has a static Official FAQ(dead link) on this program.
Give 1, Get 1 2008
The 2008 Give 1, Get 1 campaign ran between November 17 and December 31, 2008. You can still visit laptop.org.org/xo to donate a laptop, but you won't receive one. Close to 10,000 people participated in this program.
For more about the program, see G1G1 2008.
Media
Various media for G1G1 campaigns:
- Nigerian girl carrying a laptop on her head (at right)
- There are a number of formats and layouts of that print
- 2008 reprise of the above:
- as a pdf, or as an animated flash
- Also used on limited-run long-sleeve t-shirts
- The 2008 OLPC Brand videos
User communities
Users of the XO have formed many user groups (some even before the 2007 units arrived). See Regional groups.
When you get your XO, follow the "Help using the XO" link in the side navigation under "About the XO".
Discussion
Discussions about giving and G1G1 have been moved to the discussion page at Talk:XO Giving.
Other G1G1 questions
Special Education Students in US Public Schools
Under the buy one get one program, can our non profit (Parent/Teacher Organization) buy 1 laptop for a disabled child in our school and receive another laptop for another disabled child at the school? Even if we end up buying less than one hundred laptops?
- According to the XO Giving page, you can only designate where the "Get One" laptop goes; the OLPC decides where the "Give One" laptop goes. See also "Can NGOs and charities get them?" on the Ask a Question page. —Joe 01:20, 18 December 2007 (EST)
Shipping Confusions
I had some questions about the problems that many G1G1 donors are having with the shipping of their XOs. I posted a question to this wiki earlier today. It was well written and summed up the problems that seem to be surfacing. The question was pulled off the wiki within hours of being posted. (a brief "non-answer" was posted to my questions for about an hour before it was yanked from the wiki. The "non-answer" said only that updated information about shipping would be posted on Monday.) I know that this page for questions was getting messy and needed to be tidied up. But it seems that when you tidied up, you got rid of all the imbarassing questions that reflect the inept handeling of the G1G1 program. I know that this is a program being run by volunteers. I know that the organization's primary mission is to get computers into schools. I know all that. I can imagine that this G1G1 program turned out to be way bigger than they planned for and they are overwhelmed and undermanned to get all the computers out. I can imagine that there is a lot of confusion and disorganization going on. But it would only take a couple of minutes for someone to make a statement to the effect that they are overwhelmed and working as fast as they can. Quit ignoring your donors and answer our questions. Where the heck are our computers? Why are there no tracking numbers? Why are week two donors getting XOs ahead of people (like me) who ordered in the first 2 minutes of day one? Is there any logical way that you are shipping, or is it just totally unorganized? What's going on out there?
- I was the one who "tidied up". I do not work for OLPC, and I did not erase any questions. The questions, answers, and non-answers are still exactly where you put them originally, on the page Ask OLPC a Question/New. All I did was to make it so only the questions without a (non-)answer show up on the "main" questions page, Ask OLPC a Question. I attempted to explain this fact and there are several links to each subpage, but I understand if it's confusing - perhaps you can think of a better way to explain it? As to the rest of your questions, I'm in the same boat, so my sympathy. Homunq 06:55, 19 December 2007 (EST)
Shipment Status
Will OLPC have any way for participants in the G1P1 program to track status of their order or to know when they can expect delivery?
I just received my notice that I would NOT get my XO by Dec 24 even though I ordered on 1st day (at 9am). The notice placed on the Wiki by "Walter" is false - they did not care if 1st day orders received their laptops by Dec 24 nor do I believe they checked if their supply would be sufficient.
When will we get real answers about shipping
Lots of people have questions about the shipping of their G1G1 XOs. It seems there is no rhyme or reason in how they are being shipped. The official story is that first day donors get first XOs shipped and all others on a first come, first served basis after that. However, that is not the way it is working. There are many people who were not first day donors, who ordered later--even second week--who have had their XOs for several days now. At the same time, there are many of us who ordered on the first day--and in my case in the first two minutes--who can't get any answer about the status of their order. All we get is run-around. Yes I called the donor service #, waited an hour on hold to finally get an operator. She checked that our order was on the computer--it was. She checked that the correct address was listed--it was. Then she assured me that we would get one "eventually". I asked why some second week donors were getting theirs ahead of first day donors. She swore that was not the case--she dosn't have her facts right.
- Do you have a source to prove this? I understand that you may well have one - but even if you do, you putting this up without a source is the way that rumors get started, if you don't put up a way to check the source then the next person who repeats the rumor will probably exaggerate. Homunq 06:59, 19 December 2007 (EST)
- OK, you want me to tell you my source for saying that lots of people who have ordered later-- even in the second week-- are getting laptops ahead of first day donors. Just go look at the OLPC News blog web-site. OK, I know it is not "official" but it is fairly balanced and factual. The people who write the blog and maintain the site are fans of OLPC, not trying to put it down. I don't believe that people are posting that they are having worries and confusions with delivery when they aren't. I don't see any reason why so many people would post info saying they are second day, third day, second week, etc. donor and got their laptops already if it is not the fact. I'm just stating a simple fact that is out there for anyone to see who will just open their eyes. There is CONFUSION and unanswered questions. I love the concept and wish OLPC all the luck in the world. But if they can't get their act together on this they are going to kill a great program from simple bumbleing and ineptitude.
The operator had no way of giving me a shipping tracking number, or date to expect delivery. She seemed put out that I kept asking questions. I guess I can understand her situation. She is answering the same questions all day, with no solid information to give the frustrated customers--oops, I mean "donors."
I called FedEx to see if they have anything coming to my address. They don't. They were very polite and helpful, but without a tracking number, there isn't much they can do. Why aren't we getting tracking numbers for our shipments? (By the way, where is the promised T-Mobile info?)
I kept checking this wiki all day yesterday because the official word was that updated shipping information would be posted on Monday. Nothing was ever posted yesterday.
Does anybody out there know what is going on?
I appreciated your post, since I also ordered 3 laptops within the first 10 minutes of the sale starting and have not received them - just an email that first day buyers would receive them first and by Dec 24th. I spent 30 minutes on hold without getting through to a representative this morning - this was before reading your post and recognizing there would have been no answers there anyway!
I too ordered on day one and have yet to hear anything. Is the concept of online order fulfillment so new that it is possible that OLPC just didn't know how to do this? It's funny if you look at the People [1] page of OLCP site I see a lot of technology and education experts, but no Chief Operations Officer or anyone with operations experience. I'm optimistically hopeful that by the morning of the 25th I'll be able to give my daughter a gift that isn't a picture.
Canadian Shipping
I am very disturbed with the lack of transparency with the G1G1 program. If OLPC never actually intended to ship to Canada, then the program should have never been open to Canadians. It's better to up front say "Canadians can't get one", then to take donations and then not deliver on them. I know that delivery is not guaranteed, but I think that Canadians who have ordered on First Day shouldn't have to wait until January for their order. Not only that, but the fact that there has been no effort to communicate what the delay is with the Canadian shipping to the perspective donors is atrocious. What is the hold up? Is it Canada Customs? Is it FedEx? Is it the fact that only 150,000 units are being produced this month and they're only for American donors? I seriously question the values of this program when the people in charge of the G1G1 program feel that they can treat Canadians worse than Americans, even though their money is actually worth more.
What's worse is that we can't even get back the money from our donations, since it's been over 30 days for the first-day donors. I feel that OLPC has seriously mislead all the Canadian Donors, since we have nothing but the word of OLPC that we'll get the laptops and that the laptops will actually reach a child that needs it. If I haven't seen the laptop first-hand, I would suspect that the whole thing is a scam. We gave you money, please give us some information as to where the laptops are. Is it too much to ask?
- I think that the distributor, Brightstar Corporation (http://www.brightstarcorp.com), is putting off shipments to Canada, as they have little, if any, experience with shipping to Canada. They were chosen as the distributor because the chairman, R. Marcelo Claure, is a co-founder of the OLPC Foundation, and deals widely in Central and South America.
- I've left a note on John Roese's (Nortel's OLPC board member) blog, asking if he has any information. http://blogs.nortel.com/ctoblog/2007/11/16/you-can-help-kick-start-one-laptop-per-child/#comment-13386
Contact me
OLPC, you contacted me via email on Sunday, December 16th, to inform me that the mailing address I had provided (office address) would not be accepted by FedEx. I provided my home address in place of my business address. I was surprised to hear that you had called my home and when my wife had concerns about theft during shipping, one of your volunteers became quite irritated. Now, I am not sure where my order stands. It did not sound like there was any resolve as the volunteer hung up before an alternative address was settled on. I have sent an email requesting that you again contact me to resolve the order. I have also attempted two phone calls. Each time I remained on hold for over 40 minutes before giving up. Please think about setting up a voice mail system or outsource this service over these immmediate crunch your organization is going through. I understand you are overwhelmed, but your donors are going to begin to wonder if you have this much trouble getting orders shipped to donors, how much trouble are you having in shipping donations to the world's children. I think your donors deserve to see you right the ship. Obviously we want to see you succeed. Please keep us in the loop and inform us what is going on.
- I don't work for OLPC, but it is difficult to respond to a post in a wiki which does not give any contact information or order numbers. Homunq 06:55, 19 December 2007 (EST)
With Give One Get One, will I be able to contact the child that I donate to?
Keeping in touch, like a Pen Pal, would be a very nice touch.