[Olpc-socal] SCaLE 11X Recap and Lots of Other Good Stuff!

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hello olpc-SoCal folks,
There is lots of good stuff here, so be sure to look over the whole message! Think of it as a virtual newsletter! The part that interests you most may be hidden or buried in the middle, or even the end.


SCaLE 11X Recap
Last weekend we had a great time at SCaLE 11X at the Hilton LAX. We had booth volunteers from India (Manu Gupta), North Carolina recently returned from Rwanda and Lesotho (Tony Anderson), San Francisco-recently in, and returning soon to, Haiti (George Hunt), San Francisco (Aaron Borden), and beautiful, exotic Sylmar (Danny Hembree) along with my husband Ed Bigenho and myself (from Simi). We had turned down offers from students from UCSB to help us this year because we thought we had enough people to cover everything. We didn't. Three more local volunteers we expected did not join us. Next year we will try to get some of you lined up way in advance. Don't wait to let me know you are interested... Manu already said he wants to return to help next year!


If you missed SCaLE, here is a taste of what went on. These Facebook Albums have notes about each photo, so be sure to check them out. You should not need to have a FB account or be signed in there to view them. If there are problems, be sure to let me know and I'll try to find another place to post them. Here are:

*Photos From our booth: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4342832574999.2144911.1413015665&type=1
and...

*Other SCaLE 11X Photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151528375649282.548167.329976144281&type=1


Our Mailing List
We are welcoming 28 new list members who signed up at SCaLE. This makes our mailing list one of the largest in the OLPC/Sugar Labs arena with 183 members! Now, if we can just find a way to meet somewhere, once in a while, it would be really great!


OLPC-SoCal XO Lending Library
I'd like to remind you all that we do have a small XO lending library. If you would like to check one of the machines out for a while to try our latest software and, possibly, plan a Contributors Program project, please let me know and I will pass your request on to our "librarians."


Contributors Program
Both of the programs listed below are currently active. But, if you are really interested, I suggest you get started right away. There is no guarantee they will be available in the future. Don't procrastinate!


For Developers: If you are a coder or hardware hacker you may have some great ideas for new things to do with the XO. Or, or perhaps you want to help test new software for the XO. If this is you, a very limited number of XO-1.75s (with the ARM processor) are available through the Contributors Program. Your application will probably have a better chance of success if you first check out an XO-1 from our library (unless you already have one) and get really familiar with the current software. So far, every new update has versions for even the early G1G1 machines available. 


For Deployments: The OLPC Contributors Program still offers small numbers of XO-1 computers to use in small deployments. If you have a place you would like to set up a project with 10 or fewer XOs and have a great new idea of ways to use them that can help everyone in the OLPC community, please apply!  If your application is approved, you will be asked to pay for shipping to anywhere in the US that you need them to go. We cannot ship outside the country. If your project is planned for another country, you will have to arrange any further needed transport.


Raspberry Pi: The Raspberry Pi is a small computer, about the size of a deck of cards, that sells for $35. If you happen to have an old usb keyboard and a TV or monitor that will take HDMI or VGA signals all you will need to add is the video cable and and SD card with some software to run the RPi on it. This little wonder was designed at Cambridge University in England in the hopes of improving computer education in the secondary schools. People are doing all sorts of fun things with them. George Hunt is using one to run a server for XOs and, with my urging and arm-twisting, managed to get Sugar running on one at SCaLE (look at the photos for proof). If you would like to know more about the RPi, here is a link to their website: http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs


If you have any interesting thing about Open Source Software In Education you would like to share with the list, please do! Just address your message to: olpc-socal at lists.laptop.org 


Hope to hear from all of you soon!


Caryl Bigenho, OLPC/Sugar Labs Volunteer and olpc-SoCal list Administrator





 		 	   		  
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