Uniting the community's infrastructure

[Chris Hager]

Hi all!

 From now on, the channel #olpc-groups is open with the ambition to 
connect local communities from everywhere! I can imagine a lot of 
potential for collaborations, projects, problem solving and 
not-reinventing-the-wheel :) !

SJ and I have talked about the current status of the irc-infrastructure 
for the communities, and had some ideas for the future. Basically,

1. many of the local channels are inactive
2. we have had no channel to cross-connect communities
3. the channel #olpc-europe developed from the ccc
4. the whole olpc project is gaining momentum

=>

5. the logical next step would be a united communities-channel to focus 
our common effort!

We could basically connect via #olpc-groups on a global basis, and use 
#olpc-europe/asia/africa/... for regional discussions.

The same idea could apply to some of the mailing-lists. We can basically 
use the grassroots list (http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots)! 
Please post feedback to grassroots at lists.laptop.org.

I wish you all an interesting and successful year 2008!

- chris
(olpc austria)

   ...
   <_sj|> crazy: there are no active country channels
   <_sj|> but very active community members :)   we just need a place to
   discuss self-organization, regional meetups, a few infrastructure
   things (which are the same around the world)
   <kikka> a virtual place?
   <_sj|> well, here I'm talking about a single irc chan...
   <kikka> Ah, okay.
   <crazy-chris> _sj| you're right, the country channels are not used
   <_sj|> crazy: start with one #olpc-groups, merge existing country
   chans until there's a lot of focused traffic for one
   <_sj|> and keep separate channels for open discussion by language
   <_sj|> #olpc can split into #olpc-<lang> when it gets too busy;
   #olpc-groups can split into #olpc-<region> when it gets too busy.
   <crazy-chris> _sj|: okay, that sounds very good.
   <_sj|> but, none of the olpc chans are too busy yet :)
   <crazy-chris> heh, yeah
   <crazy-chris> will change thought :)
   <_sj|> even #olpc and -help are pretty quiet
   <_sj|> yeah
   <crazy-chris> the contributors program ...
   <crazy-chris> i think to merge the channels is the way to go. i'll
   get working on that.
   <_sj|> chris: thank you
   ...