[OLPC-Chicago] Hello to the Chicago OLPC group - and a question

[Langellier, Larry]

Hi Mel,

I'm very interested in the proposal that the Duke University chapter created - it may help me better polish and sell our proposal here at Moraine Valley. The link you included no longer works. Do you have a copy of the proposal that you could email me?

Thanks,
Larry

________________________________________
From: olpc-chicago-bounces at lists.laptop.org [olpc-chicago-bounces at lists.laptop.org] On Behalf Of Mel Chua [mel at melchua.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2008 12:45 AM
To: Edward Cherlin
Cc: Michael Hurd; olpc-chicago at lists.laptop.org
Subject: Re: [OLPC-Chicago] Hello to the Chicago OLPC group - and a question

Howdy, Michael - and welcome!

Semi-obligatory disclaimer: there are a lot of independent grassroots
groups and awesome volunteers on this list, so you'll be getting the
benefit of many different perspectives and offers for help here, but be
aware that "people talking on this list" != "official statements by OLPC
organization" ;) Welcome to the community!

In terms of introductions: tight now I'm an intern at the OLPC office in
Boston, and my assignment is actually to work on and improve (really,
create) better support structures for independent pilots (like the one
you want to start) and grassroots groups. I just started on this last
week and haven't publicly released anything yet (soon!) and even before
that happens early next week I'd love to get thoughts and feedback from
you - and everyone on this list - what kind of help/support would be
most useful so we can see how to make it happen.

Also potentially semi-relevant: this summer I'm going to be a volunteer
again, volunteering full-time at the independent ILXO grassroots office
with a group of awesome engineers. We're going to have a physical office
in the Chicago area this summer and our charter is to help other
grassroots groups in Illinois, pilots based in Illinois, and people who
want to start either kind (like your group) get started. Working
directly with one of the other local grassroots groups (such as IMSA, as
Kevin mentioned) would probably be even better since they may be able to
provide longer-term support than the folks at the ILXO office can commit
to, but we'd be glad to do what we can to help you get going between now
and the start of September, at the very least.

My suggestion would be to write up a proposal of the kind of pilot you
want to run, how it would work, why it's important, how it will happen,
etc - the Duke University chapter has a nice draft of their proposal up
at http://www.duke.edu/~ak86/XO%20Laptops%20for%20Durham.pdf for an
example (it's long, though - your draft doesn't have to be that long).

Post that draft to the wiki (wiki.laptop.org), this mailing list and the
grassroots mailing list ( http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots ),
and solicit feedback and ask whether anyone has ideas or willingness to
help you make it happen.

Another potentially helpful resource: live chat! If you're familiar with
IRC, many community members are often on #olpc (general discussion) and
#olpc-groups (grassroots communities), and I'm trying to hang out in
#olpc-illinois as much as possible. This is all on irc.freenode.net. If
you're new to IRC, go to http://forum.laptop.org/chat, log in (no
account creation required) and then type "/join #olpc" (no quotes). This
will get you into the main chatroom and you can ask around for
help/advice there.

--Mel
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Mchua
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