[OLPC-Chicago] A summary of online resources for the OLPC Chicago Community

[Karen T. Smith]

Greetings Chicago XO'rs. I hope to see some of you this Saturday at Larry
Langellier's meetup at Morraine Valley Community College (details here:
http://en.forum.laptop.org/viewtopic.php?f=1304
<http://en.forum.laptop.org/viewtopic.php?f=1304&t=705#p535654>
&t=705#p535654) 

 

After the Feb 5 meetup at Marie Murphy School, it seemed that some of the XO
owners in the area were unaware of some of the resources available online
for the OLPC project. This message may be repeat for those of you who have
found all these resources, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to put them out
there again. Maybe I've found some things you haven't, and vice-versa.  I
will put this list on the OLPC_Chicago wiki page
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Chicago. Please add to it. (A wiki is a
shared notebook that everyone can edit - just sign up on the wiki.laptop.org
site for a username and get to work!) 

 

Helpful Hint before you start joining these discussions/collaboration
efforts: Create a single (somewhat unique) username and then use it for the
wiki, the laptop.org forums, and OLPCNews.com - that way people will "get to
know" you, as it is clear there is much movement between all these sites.
Having a consistent user name will help others to connect you with your
ideas and what you know or can contribute. That's a good thing, in case you
were doubting it. I am found on all these places as KayTi.  

 

http://mailman.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-chicago - A Chicago OLPC mailing
list. Sign up here to be able to send and receive automated emails from the
Chicago OLPC community. And archive is located here:
http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-chicago/ There are other
project-related lists around specific topics such as Library and Health.
Suggestion: consider using an alternate email address for listinfo
subscriptions and/or an account that you can write rules on. Some lists have
high posting volumes and auto-sorting of the messages can be helpful. I have
also found an increase in spam on the email account I use to subscribe to
some large lists (not specifically the Chicago one, I don't know the source
- just that the spam is new.) 


http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/start/ - The Getting Started page for the
laptop.org project. This page contains basic info about opening and starting
your laptop. Helpful links in the right will zoom you in to specific pages
on the project wiki that are relevant for beginners. If you can't tell Linux
from the Lions at Lincoln Park Zoo, start here.

 

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/The_OLPC_Wiki - Project wiki for the OLPC project.
Our Chicago page is on this wiki here:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Chicago. Tons of helpful hints, how-tos,
specs, instructions, background documents, and more are located here. Also
you will find dreamers with ideas for things to build for the OLPC and notes
from a wide range of OLPC users, from developers to teachers in developing
nations. **I suggest we use the Chicago Wiki Page:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Chicago as our primary connection point and
resource-sharing location.** 

 

 

http://en.forum.laptop.org/index.php - Project Forum - a shared discussion
space for the OLPC project. There is a Chicago thread in the "Groups"
sub-forum on this site. Meetups will be announced there, on the project
wiki, and often on the OLPCNews.com site I'll mention next.

 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/olpc_chicago/ - A Flickr group I created as a
place to share OLPC Chicago pictures. Flickr is an online photo-sharing
site. Those of you who already have Flickr accounts can probably manage this
better than I. I'm a Flickr newbie. Add your pictures or link to this group
or include "OLPC Chicago" as tags for photos you upload to Flickr. 

 

http://olpcnews.com/ - An independent site run by a guy named Wayan Vota,
who is an OLPC fan, but also has a healthy dose of cynicism about aspects of
the program. An intro to the OLPCNews site is here:
http://www.olpcnews.com/about_olpc_news/about_olpc_news_post.html This site
includes a great collection of forums with many active developers,
educators, and plain old folks. Use the link in the right column to forums
or go here: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php  There is a ton of useful
stuff, often duplicated from the forum.laptop.org site, but sometimes new
and different. For instance, some of us on Feb 5 were experiencing a
scrolling bug with the chat software. A fix can be found here:
http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1200.0 You can also be a guest
poster on Wayan's frontpage blog:
http://www.olpcnews.com/about_olpc_news/write_for_olpc_news.html I have
posted writeups of meetups on this blog before:
http://www.olpcnews.com/use_cases/user_groups/chicago_olpc_community_meetup.
html Larry Langellier has also posted a summary of Chicago-Area OLPC groups
here: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1680.0