[OLPC-Philippines] Let's specialise on what we are good at

[Jerome Gotangco]

2008/9/23 Charles Chen <ideasman88 at yahoo.com.au>:
> NEW XO-1 UNITS. Its good OLPC Boston was able to send you 3 XO for your
> needs. Between us we now have 4 XOs. I am still in discussion with OLPC
> Australia on getting 150 XOs for the school pilot with Don Bosco.

Yeah its a whole different experience testing and evaluating with a
production unit compared to the old Beta machines. What is the current
status of the planned Don Bosco pilot since our last correspondence?


> OLPC FOUNDATION. I suggest given each person's skills and interest we let
> everybody contribute to OLPC based on what he is good at. If you and other
> members have the skills and interest in developing the needed application
> requirements for OLPC then you should continue on doing this. Willie and I
> come from business and project management background, so the way we can
> contribute is by planning and managing our school pilot with Don Bosco. And
> the way we will do this is by forming the OLPC Foundation so that we will
> have a legal entity to raise donations to fund these activities, hire the
> needed people to manage full time these activities and help create and
> promote a higher profile for OLPC.

That's fine. We're currently in advocacy and testing phase and don't
expect anything "big" in the next 3 months - all we agreed to do for
now is basically regroup, evaluate and chart on what direction we
would like to undertake as a team. Starting of course, with wiki
cleanup, having regular meetups on IRC or face to face, and sharing
the message to others. I'm planning on registering a domain name in
the coming days once that's sorted out with the rest (Any
suggestions?).

We actually have a plan to do an IRC meeting this Friday (Manila time
+8UTC) to chat about the current status and throw ideas how to go
about with this team. I'll figure it out later on the details and send
to list.

> MEGUMI INITIATIVE. There is another similar initiative using Megumi Reader
> developed by a local company named PULL. I am told they are now
> pilot-testing the use of this in English classes of two Grade three sections
> at Highway Hills Elementary School in Mandaluyong. You may like to get in
> touch with the school and find out how they are progressing.

That's interesting. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time at the
moment to check this out as I have some speaking engagements on open
source in the next 3 weeks after this one. What I plan to do with
these engagements is show the unit and portray it as a vertical in
open source that works. Since the audience are primarily from the
professional, education and non-profit sectors, this could be a good
mix to introduce such technologies exist.

-- 
Jerome G.

Website: http://www.gotangco.com
Blog: http://engage.wordpress.com