[OLPC-Philippines] What is your vision and values? This is your organization, share and discuss?!

[Mel Chua]

> /Our vision is to transform Filipino youth

 From the logs, it seems like there was a discussion about using "youth" 
(below age 35) vs "children" (below age 21 or 18). I think the 
"children" age range is more appropriate.

Also, I'm a fan of "empowering Filipino children to transform 
themselves," since the point is for them to eventually not need us to be 
awesome. This is important - our ultimate measure of success should be 
making ourselves completely obsolete. I'd personally like to have 
something to that effect in the mission statement, perhaps at the end.

> into 21^st century learners, 

Assuming this mission statement is to last potentially over 90 years, 
perhaps something like "tomorrow's learners" or "fully-informed learners"

> who are digitally literate, critical thinkers, and productive members of 
> society through open source innovations in technology and learning.

AWESOME. I'm particularly psyched about the inclusiveness of "technology 
and learning," while retaining the specificity of "open source."

> In 
> doing so, learners will be better prepared to tackle the challenges of 
> an increasingly competitive job market and globalised world as well, as 
> become an agent of change towards the betterment of themselves and their 
> communities./

Do we really need this part? I sort of like the idea of replacing it 
with a rephrasing of "if we're successful, we'll have rendered ourselves 
obsolete because the kids will be doing such a good job of doing this 
stuff themselves." There's an example on this in the old ILXO mission 
(archived at http://melchua.com/ilxo/).

> /a. *Inclusiveness* -  Our technology and learning approach should be 
> available to all regardless of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and 
> religion. [These are to ensure that religious minorities, indigenous 
> people, and other minority group are given access.]

What about age?

> b. *Free and Open Source*/

I'm a fan of the description of this principle which is at 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Core_principles. (Adapted to fit the current 
mission/vision draft.)

<adaptation>
Children are not just passive consumers of knowledge, but active 
participants in a learning community. As children grow and pursue new 
ideas, the software, content, resources, and tools should be able to 
grow with them, and this growth should be driven locally, in large part 
by the children themselves. Each child should be able to leverage the 
learning of every other child, to teach each other, share ideas, and 
support each other's intellectual growth. Children are learners and 
teachers.

There is no inherent external dependency in being able to localize 
software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and 
repurpose the software to fit their needs. Nor is there any restriction 
in regard to redistribution; we cannot know and should not control how 
the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future.

A world of great software and content is necessary to make this project 
succeed, both open and proprietary. Children need to be able to choose 
from all of it. In our context of learning where knowledge must be 
appropriated in order to be used, it is most appropriate for knowledge 
to be free. Further, every child has something to contribute; we need a 
free and open framework that supports and encourages the very basic 
human need to express.

Give me a free and open environment and I will learn and teach with joy.
</adaptation>

--Mel