[olpc-nz] InternetNZ has $80k available for grants (400k/annum) & DIA's COGS has $14 million/annum we're eligible for

[Tabitha Roder]

Hi Tim

InternetNZ funding has been on my radar for a while, I have just been too
busy to get onto applying. Same with registering some sort of legal
olpc/Sugar entity (will get onto it).

The question is indeed priorities, but more in terms of what are the aims of
olpc-nz - testing community, activity maintenance, potential support centre
for Pacific, translation and customisation for Pacific deployments, visiting
the deployments and helping them technically as well as with the shift in
pedagogy, NZ deployment in schools of Sugar or XOs?

Of all the options, I would suggest the biggest need is for support in the
deployments in the Pacific. If we can find a way to get funding for that, it
is definitely the biggest need. There is talk of a Pacific olpc "sharing
experiences" technical workshop - getting people from PNG, Solomon Islands,
Australia, Micronesia, etc. That would require funding to get people
together.

Funding for adult education or train the trainer - ummm... could you explain
more? Do you want to pay for someone to run a course on Sugar? And then the
graduates would be qualified to run a session at a school? A cheaper and
likely better solution, but one more difficult to sell, would be funding for
volunteers to travel to interested schools or give workshops at Education
conferences. This would get technical volunteers interacting with real life
educators (good timing wise - for example, the current talk of a Sugar
workshop at ULearn in Christchurch in October which is attended by about two
thousand people in education) which I think is important, given currently
most of the NZ volunteers are not educators.

More XOs - this is a tricky one unless we have a school pilot deployment
ready to go and I would want to see us always follow the 5 olpc principles (
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC:Five_principles ). Having a school pilot
takes a lot of preparation (at the school end) and not something they or we
should jump into lightly. I think it is a good idea and one worth applying
for funding for, but one that needs to be worked through with a Principal,
Board of Trustees, parents and community, students, MoE, etc.

USB sticks and mobile internet - show the sponsor the benefit and we can
probably get those.

Tabitha




On 25 August 2010 18:17, Tim McNamara <mcnamara.tim at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> InternetNZ is actively asking for groups to bid for its grant
> money[1]. I have drafted up a skeleton brainstorm for various grants
> programmes[2]. So far, I have Internet NZ & the Dept of Internal
> Affairs' COGS programme. This should hopefully form the basis for some
> funding for the group.
>
> I've undertaken a brief evaluation of their funding criteria, and I
> think the group meets both of those programmes' objectives. Where we
> fall down is incorporation - this will hold us back.
>
> What do people think are priorities? I would like 1) mobile internet
> for Wellington & Auckland, 2) funding for adult education/train the
> trainer training (so that we have qualified people providing demos to
> schools) 3) USB sticks, 4) more XOs. More widely, we could potentially
> bid for funding to support a futher Pacfic deployment, or to provide a
> backup on our current Samoan deployment.
>
> I will be able to have time to draft up a proposal over the weekend.
> Let me know if others are happy with this.
>
> Tim.
>
> [1] http://twitter.com/InternetNZ/status/22061162563
> [2]
> https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1T7z_Mr25fcetcFX0K9Ld_-ZvIEvX1ZICDqSU7viqlhI&hl=en_GB
> _______________________________________________
> olpc-nz mailing list
> olpc-nz at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-nz
>
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