Google asked the public for suggestions for new projects to fund in its 10^100 (googol) program. Earth Treasury's idea for free digital replacements for textbooks has been incorporated into one of the proposals for the next round of voting.

Several other suggestions incorporated into this same proposal match the possibilities for the OLPC/Sugar platform, including the built-in collaboration features and global communications.

Please vote. Even if you like one of the other ideas better. There are several other education ideas. I'm quite partial to the notion of public systems for tracking health care issues, natural disasters, genocide, urban data, and other vital information where the public can contribute local observations, as with Google Earth.

There exist such systems in several countries for weather, with students reporting data and professionals doing data reduction and map making for anybody interested to make use of. I have suggested such systems for OLPC deployments. In many places the children and the rest of the locals have information that no outsiders could possibly gather in quantity. Weather, environment, ecology, resources, unknown plant and animal species, politics, microfinance opportunities, health,...

Make educational content available online for free

Education

Make educational and course materials more accessible online to
students worldwide. Lots of educational content is not indexed or
accessible on the public web. Various users have proposed finding ways
to help content owners put formerly exclusive content online,
including offline materials (lectures, textbooks, videotaped
workshops) and limited-access materials (scholarly papers, research
dissertations); help teachers themselves become more available online
(access to online profs, 24/7 homework help, cross-country study
groups); and to make all this material and academic help accessible
through both computer and mobile platforms.

Suggestions that inspired this idea

1. Collaborate with top schools around the world to make their lectures freely accessible online
2. Create an online educational platform that provides free training and education as part of a worldwide, officially accepted degree
3. Provide free online lectures and textbooks for every subject and grade level
4. Facilitate information exchange among students around the world, including cross-country "study groups" on specific topics

Hurry up with your vote - voting ends October 8, 2009.