Helping organize the grassroots OLPC effort here in Nepal has made me think alot other community projects, in particular Ubuntu. Ubuntu has a fantastic world-wide community that is really productive.<br><br>Right now there is a core of OLPC developers, both paid and volunteer. There are also active participants all over the developing world. Although OLPC is working with national governments, it will need to link together developers and educators who are working on common problems. For example, I don't have a clear idea on the activities that Brazil and Argentina are working on. There probably is a wiki entry somewhere that explains their progress, I just haven't been able to hunt it down. Perhaps those wiki entries are in Spanish and Portuguese, the former which I understand poorly and the latter which I understand not at all. Conversely, someone from those nations can't read the Nepali-language entries on our wiki.
<br><br>The OLPC Foundation should take the lead on developing the nascent world-wide OLPC community since they are in charge of grass roots organizing. In fact, they may already have and I am just rehashing something they've already worked out.
<br><br>Perhaps OLPC could follow many aspects of the Ubuntu community, esp. the LoCo Team model<br><br><a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoFAQ">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoFAQ</a><br><a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/?cat=13&paged=4">
http://www.jonobacon.org/?cat=13&paged=4</a><br><br>Some possible specifications for OLPC LoCo Teams:<br><ul><li>Community Translations for web pages -- so teams can more easily share information and read each other's wiki pages
</li><li>An Approval Process for teams <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoGettingApproved">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoGettingApproved</a></li><li>Roadmaps -- Team goals <span style="font-style: italic;">besides achieving one laptop per child
</span>, translations, localizations, developing particular types of activities</li><li>An International Community Council -- portion nominated from LoCo teams, others from OLPC Foundation and others</li></ul><br>Other Ideas:
<br>LoCo Teams could present at national and Regional FOSS conferences like FOSS.in (India) <br><br>May I even suggest a name for community members, OLP-Saathi :) (saathi -- sah-tee -- Nepali for friend) <br><br>Bryan<br>
Volunteer<br>OLPC Nepal<br>