[Grassroots-l] structure question for NL

[Bryan Berry]

Marten Vijn wrote:
>I would like to hear your ideas. What would be the best choise in the
> Netherlands to choose for an organisation?

Hey Marten, I have lots of ideas on the subject! I have been heavily
involved in grassroots organization here in Nepal.

I strongly feel that OLPC X Country should be an umbrella organization
that represents all organizations interested in OLPC but does not
implement OLPC. If there is one OLPC Netherlands that implements all the
OLPC pilots in your country, you give OLPC as a movement a single point
of failure in your country. You also limit the diversity of
implementation approaches.

In India there is an informal umbrella group OLPC India with distinct
organizations like Reliance Telecom and Anthony Charity running
large-scale and small scale pilots.

There are many, many different ways to implement OLPC in school
environments as evidenced by the current pilots. Some groups are
adhering very strictly to the curriculum while others, like the
innovative Waveplace Foundation, are focusing on teaching kids creative
media skills.

Constructionism for education is not a narrowly defined theory, rather
it is a broad philosophy with a lot of different implementations. I
recommend that you not constrain OLPC in the Netherlands to a particular
interpretation of what constructionism is. Further, I recommend that you
not limit OLPC in the Netherlands to the constructionist philosophy at
all. There are alot of great educational theories out there that deserve
consideration, such as the Montessori Method, Vygotskyian social
cognition, the Bank Street Method, and a whole lot more
http://www.funderstanding.com/about_learning.cfm

So here is my recommendation. Create an umbrella organization called
OLPC Netherlands that represents all groups involved in OLPC in the
netherlands, promotes OLPC, provides a meeting space for those
interested in OLPC, but does not implement it. Then work w/ the Dutch
counterparts to Waveplace Foundation, Reliance Telecom, individual
schools to implement pilots. This umbrella organization could be a club
or foundation. 

>## vereniging (club/verein)
> 
> - easy hostile take over (by moneymakers)
> 

If you make it clear that OLPC Netherlands won't implement pilots, that
means the $ for pilots won't go through OLPC Netherlands and moneymakers
will be less interested in taking you over.

I feel very strongly that there should not be an authoritative OLPC
organization in any country. There should be an OLPC organization that
promotes OLPC, helps groups interested in it, and provides a meeting
point for supporters. I believe you share this opinion.

> 1. My idea is to do _no_projects_ in the grassroot, but do these outside
> the grassroot.

It sounds like a foundation is the way to go if you can afford the
startup costs.

I guess I should say something about the organization I work w/, Open
Learning Exchange Nepal. I compare us w/ Waveplace Foundation or
Reliance Telecom. We don't represent OLPC for the nation of Nepal, we
are implementing pilots this year but there is nothing to stop another
organization from also working on OLPC here in Nepal. In fact we want
other groups to embrace OLPC and implement it in their own way. 

My strongest suggestion is that you limit the possibility of serious
funds coming into the OLPC Netherlands organization, otherwise I can
guarantee that you will be taken over by "moneymakers." In my own
experience in the grassroots, things can get really ugly, really quickly
once serious funds get involved. 

Sorry for the overly long e-mail. Hope this was helpful!

Bryan 
Kathmandu
OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org