Brilliant Mel! <br><br><eom><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><a href="http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-philippines/attachments/20080201/6fac900f/attachment-0001.htm" target="_blank"></a><br>
<br>------------------------------<br><br>Message: 3<br>Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:11:31 -0500<br>From: Mel Chua <<a href="mailto:mel@laptop.org">mel@laptop.org</a>><br>Subject: Re: [Olpc-philippines] XOs in the Philippines<br>
To: Len Pellitieri <<a href="mailto:lenp@cox.net">lenp@cox.net</a>><br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:47A23983.7090209@laptop.org">47A23983.7090209@laptop.org</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed<br>
<br>> Hello fellow XO enthusiasts. I'm a member of a progressive church you<br>> never heard of - Unitarian Universalists. We have two churches in Manila<br><br>Actually, some of my best friends from high school (I grew up in<br>
Chicago; my parents immigrated from Manila) were UU. I wasn't aware<br>there were UU congregations in the Philippines, though!<br><br>You may be interested in the Religion section of the library, and<br>perhaps contributing some content there.<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collections#Religion" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collections#Religion</a><br><br>> How can I help?<br><br>How do you want to help?<br><br>We need to nucleate a solid project with concrete, short-term goals in<br>
the Philippines, whether that's a Jam, a pilot, or a summer internship<br>to offer to interested local students working on projects. Since OLPC is<br>very, very small in terms of both finances and people, it's going to be<br>
the grassroots groups in any given country (you!) who step up and make<br>things happen. I've dropped the ball on this in the past... it's hard to<br>nucleate a movement in the Philippines when you're working full time in<br>
the US.<br><br>What needs to happen is for people actually in the Philippines to stand<br>up and say "Okay, this pilot needs to happen," or "Okay, this conference<br>needs to have OLPC stuff in it," or "Okay, we need to get students from<br>
this class to illustrate children's books in Tagalog for their final art<br>project." And then do it. People will be listening in on this list to<br>offer help, pointers to resources, introductions, etc. but it's really<br>
up to the folks who want things to happen to start doing them. The<br>meeting Charles Chen just proposed setting up is an *excellent* start -<br>when you get together, start thinking of projects, post them to the<br>list, begin writing them up on the wiki.<br>
<br>Another thought is to schedule a chat time where people interested in<br>OLPC Philippines can meet online - we haven't done this yet - and it's<br>easier than flying everyone from all their different towns (and<br>
countries!) in to Manila. If people are free this coming Sunday (Feb 3)<br>afternoon at 8pm Manila time (7am EST in the United States) I'll be on<br>chat then and we can try to get some concrete projects going as well. Go<br>
on #olpc-groups at that time if you want to be in that conversation -<br>it's an IRC channel on <a href="http://irc.freenode.net" target="_blank">irc.freenode.net</a>. The easiest way to do this is<br>to go to <a href="http://en.forum.laptop.org/chat/" target="_blank">http://en.forum.laptop.org/chat/</a>, sign in (no need to make a<br>
login), and then type "/join #olpc-groups" (no quotes) once you log in.<br>[[IRC]] (<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/IRC" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/IRC</a>) has more information if you want<br>
to use a chat program rather than your browser.<br><br>Some parting words based on my experiences with OLPC grassroots activity<br>over the past year: don't overcentralize - not everything needs to be<br>under a single "OLPC PHILIPPINES!" banner - everything is grassroots<br>
here, and any chapter started by any school or group of people is<br>equally "official." (Or rather, things are as official as you make them<br>out to be.) There *should* be many independent, yet communicating (via<br>
this mailing list) project groups working on entirely different things;<br>try to avoid creating organizational bottlenecks and hierarchies, find<br>local sponsors, sources of funding and help...<br><br>But more importantly, do things. Propose things. Don't ask for<br>
permission - find your own way to make things happen.<br><br>-Mel (mchua on IRC, Mchua on the wiki)<br><br><br>------------------------------<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Olpc-philippines mailing list<br>
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<br><br>End of Olpc-philippines Digest, Vol 4, Issue 1<br>**********************************************<br></blockquote></div><br>