[Grassroots-l] 1st OLPC NL meeting: 15 Dec 2007, 2 PM, in Amsterdam!

[Bastiaan Bakker]

Hi fellow grassrooters,

Coming Saturday December 15th the Dutch OLPC grassroots group will have
their very first informal gathering. You're very welcome to join us.
Included below is the complete invitation. 
Don't hesitate to forward the invitation to anyone who might be
interested as well.

Hallo, 
you are invited to join our first informal gathering, the very beginning
of the Dutch OLPC grassroots group. 
OLPC stands for 'One Laptop Per Child', the non-profit project more
commonly known as the '100 $ Laptop initiative' (see 'General
Information' below). 

As a grassroots initiative, we aim to build a network of people that are
genuinely interested in OLPC and have fun in contributing to projects
with whatever expertise they have. Contributions can range from
software, hardware, content, documentation, pedagogical input for
programs to designing laptop-bags, organizing cooperations with other
projects or raising awareness. 

Interested? Then pop by at our OLPC-NL wiki -
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Netherlands - and our first meeting on
Saturday.

*** Please forward this invitation to all people (mailinglists) you
think are interested in the subject.. 
We want to promote this informal meeting only P2P and every help to
spread the word is appreciated. Thank you.***

The meeting 
      * When: Saturday, December 15th 2007, starting at 2 pm 
      * Where: 'Canvas op de 7e' (Horeca & Exhibitions), Wibautstraat
        150 (oude Volkskrant gebouw), 1091 GR Amsterdam; take the
        elevator to the 7th floor. 
      * Getting there: I won't even get started about parking your car
        in Amsterdam... but the Metro station Wibautstraat is basically
        in front of the building (btw, all metro lines from central
        station will stop at Wibautstraat). 
      * Available infrastructure at the location: fast and free
        wireless, a beamer, enough comfty seats, an open bar and a
        spectacular view. 
      * Agenda: The idea of this Saturday afternoon is an informal,
        pleasant and enjoyable get-together. We plan a short intro on
        OLPC, OLPC-NL, XO and Sugar, we will have several XOs available
        for demonstrations, and some people will show what they've been
        working on so far. We'd like to discuss necessary organizational
        aspects of our grassroots group. Also, we'll attempt a
        livestream with the European OPLC grassroots meeting in Vienna.
        Please check http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC-NL_meetings for
        updates.

General Information


What is OLPC


OLPC is an education project - the idea is that children get the
opportunity to playfully learn to use computers, and to explore,
experiment and express themselves this way. Children easily acquire
skills when using the computers, some might even go further into
programming. Either way, this learning experience gives chances to their
lives, they would otherwise not have. Some developing countries have
already ordered large numbers of XOs to give to pupils in their
countries, also quite a number of XOs can be given to children in poor
regions due to the ongoing Give 1 Get 1 program. The deployment of the
first mass produced XOs has started recently in Uruguay. 
The official OLPC website: http://www.laptop.org/en/index.shtml 
The official OLPC wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Main_Page


Hardware

The laptop is called XO - http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/ - and is a
very rugged machine to withstand dropping and conditions like dust or
humidity. One of the barriers for computer technology in remote areas
are brownouts or total lack of electricity - to cope with these
conditions, the XO features already a number of ways to generate power
manually. For more outstanding features, like strong wifi-antennas for
mesh networking, see
http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml


Software

All software on the XO is free and open source software. Open standards
are used for the same reason: transparency is empowering and allows to
develop further, as it gives to its users the 'freedom to reshape,
reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.' Learn more
about software: http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/software/specs.shtml


See you Saturday,

Sabine Hengeveld-Auer & Bastiaan Bakker

e-mail: contact at olpc-nl.org
OLPC-NL wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Netherlands 
OLPC-NL mailingllist: http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/olpc-nl

Disclaimer: We are not speaking on behalf of OLPC, we are just people
that want to contribute to the project.