Now you\u2019ve been out to some of the most remote indigenous communities, giving these XO computers to the children out there. What\u2019s been the reaction of the kids? Because this is it, the little plastic, very durable, isn\u2019t it? And then what, it just opens up and there\u2019s a laptop for a child. So what\u2019s been the reaction of the kids?

Rangan Srikhanta: When the penny drops that this machine here is theirs for life and they can share their experiences with their friends, the feeling of amazement is just unbelievable. And just being in the room, the vibe you get from the children, nothing compares to it.

Rangan Srikhanta: The teachers are driven. Their excitement is driven by the kids. In fact the whole community\u2019s excitement is lived through the kids. The kids drive the teachers. Every day they come into the classroom and say, okay, Mr. Smith, can you please let me play with my laptop now? How can we use it in classrooms and so forth, and the teachers are just phenomenal with it as well.

Rangan Srikhanta: Well today, based on our analysis of the statistics, there are over 400,000 children living in remote communities around Australia. Children aged 4 to 15. We\u2019ve gone out to these communities and the children are not just isolated from opportunities, but they\u2019re isolated from some of the basic services we take for granted. So if we can provide one laptop per child to every one of these children, we\u2019re going to go a long way to starting to establish a new platform in which to engage with our friends in remote communities.

Rangan Srikhanta: Yes. Today there are over two million XO laptops in the hands of children around the world. When you say laptop and children, you should think education. Children around the world, especially in the 21st century, feel a sense of entitlement when it comes to technology. And using our XO laptop, we\u2019re able to really

Helen Dalley: So it\u2019s the educational opportunities. I mean what can this give them that perhaps they\u2019re not getting say in the classrooms in Australia in remote communities, that they\u2019re not getting without these laptops?

Rangan Srikhanta: So what these laptops have is a very unique interface, something that you know we take for granted that in many of these communities, English is a second language. So having a basic typical Windows type interface is not the most ideal way to engage with these children, because you know trying to overcome that hurdle is often something that kind of stops the kids from engaging in their own education.

Rangan Srikhanta: We have multiple layers in which this operates. These laptops can connect to each other and they can share their experiences. They can take photos \u2018cause they have webcams, they can play educational games together. But then when we lift this up a layer above that and go into the internet, what happens is we\u2019re looking to leverage the Department of Education internet connections which are already out in these schools. So the government has done a phenomenal job to get technology in terms of internet access out to all the schools. Every school we\u2019ve been to, to date. And these are some of Australia\u2019s most remote schools \u2013 all have an internet connection. And they\u2019ve got their content filters and proxies and all that wonderful stuff, and the kids are able to access the internet through that.

Rangan Srikhanta: No. That\u2019s a very crucial element. This is free and open source. So every aspect of the laptop has to be free; the software, the hardware, the technology within it is all open source. So what we do is we reach out to the general public and corporates, and this is where we\u2019ve been extremely fortunate, where we\u2019ve had the Commonwealth Bank, big corporations around Australia who have also stepped up and shown leadership.

Helen Dalley: So as it stands now, the Commonwealth Bank say has helped you provide sponsorship, or they\u2019ve bought the laptops that you\u2019ve been able to give out and that you will continue to give out next year?

Rangan Srikhanta: So there\u2019s many components to this whole process. One is, yes, let\u2019s purchase the laptops, but then also crucial is how do we deliver the laptops and how do we support that.

My personal background when I came to Australia when I was two months old, we fled a country that was war torn. We came here for opportunity. And looking out into these remote communities and seeing that many of our friends out in remote communities lack