[OLPC library] Results of Support-Gang Brainstorming Session

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hello Library-list subscribers,

Last week I invited the subscribers of the support-gang list to join me in a little brainstorming session. Seth suggested I share our work with the Library list. Here are the results of our little exercise.  Thanks to support-gangers Steve, Mel, and Seth who joined me in getting some really do-able ideas that can help make G1G1 2008 go more smoothly.  If you want to comment on any of these, please do.  If you want to help make them happen...please post a new message thread and ask for folks to join you in the project.

Caryl  OLPC Support-Gang Volunteer

Here are the results of our brainstorming session ......
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Ideas for Recruiting and Training Volunteers

*Enlist the help of AARP volunteers

*Include something like AARP in some of the other countries if they exist

*Get volunteers from local XO interest groups

*Schedule and run, from now until G1G1 shipping starts, S-G training sessions every other week so we can induct a high number of new volunteers without hosing Adam. Have a standardized curriculum for such and train several veteran SG-ers to administer it.

* Have a centralized standard handbook for support volunteer training


Ideas for Helping Folks Get Started

*Revive the "Getting Started" DVD idea some of us had many months ago
    
*Make it multi-lingual

*Make it available in many forms...DVD, flash drive, web site, built in to start when the on button is pushed.
   
*Have regional "getting started" parties

*Include the "Getting Help" contact information (help at laptop, forum, etc.) in the "About your XO" pop-up dialog.
Also include it in the printed information that comes with the XO.

*Have a box of swag (shirts, hats, Sugar livecds, flash drives,
keychains, etc.) that interested groups and people can purchase (at cost
+ shipping, or with a small profit margin if xoexplosion.com or similar
was to coordinate this) as a "getting started" party set, similar to the
kit they ship for SpreadFirefox.com.

  New Software Ideas for Getting Started:

* Include the "Getting Help" contact information (help at laptop, forum, etc.) in the "About your XO" pop-up dialog.
   
1. create a set of API's in Squeak implementing an animated XO-Guy and associated behaviors like:
   1.1 Hello,
   1.2 Your Turn,
   1.3 very good, I'm happy
   1.4 type on the keyboard
   1.5 rubbing the trackpad
  
   Also include interactivity API's so that the XO guy can not only
   demonstrate "rubbing the trackpad up to make the pointer move up" but
   also offer the user a chance to "rub the track pad up to make the
   pointer move up", verify that the action took place, and re-run the
   demonstration if it doesn't see the mimicked response it's expecting.
  
   2. use these API's to implement an animated 'Getting Started' guide
   which can run in Etoys ON the XO. Segments of the animated getting
   started guide would have the XO-Guy demonstrating such thing as:
  
   2.1 Most Basic Getting Started:
   2.1.1 How to open the laptop,
   2.1.2 how to turn-on the power,
   2.1.3 where the track pad is and how to use it.
   2.1.4 How to launch an activity.
   2.1.5 How to use the Journal
   2.1.6 How to safely shut down the XO
  
   2.2 An example Browse Session (separate animated examples for other
 activities)
   2.2.1 How to tell what the links are
   2.2.2 How to click on a link
   2.2.3 How to use media links for audio, video, etc.
  
   3. Make pre-rendered, non-interactive Flash versions of these animated
   guides available on the web so people have already seen them long
   before they get their XO.

Also include simple png/html options for people who don't have flash, or who have low-bandwidth connections.

   4. Make the Most Basic Getting Started animation launch automatically
   the first time the XO is run, as well as a 'launch anytime' Activity.

Have a Getting Started activity whose sole purpose in life is to play that animation. Have its icon say (in english)"Getting Started," "Click Me First," or something equally obvious.

   5. Make the Activity-Specific animations run once the first time any activity is started (but also available from launch anytime')

Have a 'show documentation' along with a 'show source' key.

Have a way to include docs/tutorials with bundles in a way that both computers and humans can easily access.

   6. Include the *source* API's within eToys so that kids who who have seen the animations can immediately start modifying and creating their own. This not only draws them into the XO but also means later  versions of the Getting Started activities will contain community contributions.
  
   7. Avoid using any sort of language-dependencies within the animations (avoid spoken instructions, written words, etc) but instead use culturally universal gestures (smiles, arm gestures, etc) to convey meanings, so that no translation or internationalization is required. (we would still need to translate the API names, I suppose).

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