My early participation in anything related with OLPC was as a meetup coordinator for the Manhattan area. We had perhaps 50 or so people pass through that organization in a 2 year period. Our group floundered, in my opinion, because of my shortcomings as a leader, and because we couldn't identify next step volunteering (capacity building) opportunities locally or globally.<br>
<br>I support the idea of a clearing house, volunteer coordination, pipeline nurturing, small deployment masterminding initiative. But I agree with Christine, initiatives taken by many, tend to be nurtured by none.<br><br>
I'm tempted to just focus my attention for the moment on the bright spots as I see them:<br><ul><li>Adam nurturing 200+ volunteers</li><li>Bernie using his skills in Uruguay to respond to the needs of customers on the ground<br>
</li><li>Claudia shaking up educational models with whirlwind visits to deployments</li><li>Daniel Drake in afganistan</li><li>Mike Lee and the Learning club in DC</li><li>Caryl Bigenhoe in Argentina<br></li><li>Luke Faralone and the DC repair enterprise</li>
<li>Chistine and her Columbus Girls school</li><li>All of the developers, all over the world, contributing to SugarLabs (only visible to me via Bernie's talk at Maho)</li></ul>My hope is for one mastermind, or a very small group of dedicated visionaries, and an organization under and surrounding them. I wonder if SugarLabs could enlarge its mission to include deployment support. It seems to me that the feedback loop is an essential part of software development.<br>
<br>The contributions of Daniel, Bernie, Claudia on the ground in the developing world are what we need more of. Their skills were visible, developed, tested over years within the OLPC community. There are probably other volunteers who could operate in similar fashion, perhaps at a somewhat lower level. We need to develop ladders, pathways, forums where potential volunteers can become known, develop expertise, make contribution. In a way, we need a human resources department for volunteers. (or is it a newly concieved, missioned, permanent, OLPCcorp).<br>
<br>Certainly, Adam, and his support-gang, and those lurking on the devel-list are prime candidates for climbers of the ladders and filling the pipelines. And Adam probably has the best chance of evaluating skill level/competence of potential volunteers he's had contact with. I think we need a full time person working along side Adam, with the charter of growing a volunteer program. If 7 organizations are considering donating a half day a week, perhaps they would consider contributing a half day salary to OLPC, or sending their person 1 month a year to work with Adam.<br>
<br>But Mike Lee also hold a critical piece of the puzzle. Through leadership, hard work, and skill he has developed a 200 person OLPC "Learning Club". We need volunteers to learn what he knows, and start doing more of it. Then we need a growth path so all of the enthusiasm, and desire to contribute, can be channeled towards objectives held by teachers/students in the developing world.<br>
<br>I don't know anything about SugarLabs, their funding, or flexibility with regard to mission. But I believe that a vibrant volunteer program is strategic. It isn't enough to have reliable, low cost hardware, innovative engaging software, if the real world physical, technical, emotional constraints are not addressed directly and energetically.<br>
<br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 5:47 AM, Beth Santos <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:beth@waveplace.org">beth@waveplace.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi all,<div><br></div><div>So as you all know, a request has been made to transfer the <a href="mailto:health@waveplace.org" target="_blank">health@waveplace.org</a> list to <a href="mailto:health@lists.laptop.org" target="_blank">health@lists.laptop.org</a>. This sounds like a great idea- unfortunately I can't subscribe you all so you'll need to subscribe yourselves!</div>
<div><br></div><div>For those of you who are not familiar with OLPC mailing lists, visit <a href="http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/health" target="_blank">http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/health</a> to subscribe. I know we're all busy but it'd definitely be good to keep the dialogue moving so that we can divide sections this week and work on them on our own time.</div>
<div><br></div><div>If you have questions, please let me know. Otherwise, see you at <a href="mailto:health@lists.laptop.org" target="_blank">health@lists.laptop.org</a>!</div><div><br></div><div>Beth</div><div><div name="sig_050680e344" style="margin: 2em 0pt;">
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<b>Beth Santos</b><br>
Outreach Coordinator<br>
Waveplace Foundation<br><br>
Tel: +1 610 797 3100 x 44<br>
Fax: +1 610 797 3199<br>
Cell: +1 603 661 1273 <br>
<a href="http://www.waveplace.org" target="_blank">http://www.waveplace.org</a><br></div></div>
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