[OLPC-Philippines] All-hands online meeting: the backstory

[Mel Chua]

A number of us interested in open-source educational technology in the 
Philippines have decided to get together online to share the respective 
projects we're working on and the roles we're starting to find ourselves 
playing in the hopes that we'll be able to find a better way to move 
forward together. More on the details of this meeting later.

So far, the discussion leading up to this meeting has been on private 
email, and the meeting was also supposed to be private. After some 
conversations, we realized that this was counterproductive to 
community-building, and that we should open both the meeting and the 
planning for it to anybody who is interested.

This was done with the understanding that since we're all individual 
volunteers, people are free to do what they want to do - this means that 
you can work on what you're interested in without having to ask 
permission, but you also shouldn't expect your suggestions to be 
followed unless you pick up the work and do it yourself.

This email thread is, in part, me following my own suggestion to open up 
the meeting by doing the legwork of forwarding the messages - with 
context - to this list. Thanks for your patience as we figure out this 
whole "community" thing. ;) Please feel free to ask questions if I 
haven't made things clear - it helps me learn how to communicate better.

More emails coming in a moment.

--Mel