[Olpc-uk] Marketing - OLPC UK Mission

Mon Jul 6 06:52:43 EDT 2009

Thanks Faisal,

I was aware of your initial efforts, good to see someone starting to think about the future and direction.  Mission statements by definition embody the hopes of the organisation and as such i was looking for a contribution from everyone who wants to be involved.

i have tidied your wiki page and made a couple of points on it all below:

Mission
No need to move to far from the main OLPC organisation mission - we are not aiming to do anything different to them.  However it should reflect our individual perspective so anyone on the mailing list with thoughts in this area should send them through ASAP.

Objectives / What OLPC UK wants to do
Your mission was more a start to the objective section than an actual mission statement, see below thoughts on a full set of objectives that could be adopted by the group. Again, individual thoughts and contributions requested by all.

Why OLPC UK?
I have changed this entirely as your thoughts were more focused on the question why the  XO / Sugar which should be a separate section - an important question in itself.  Why OLPC UK is entirely different question and should focus on the impact to education of technology and the impact of education opportunities where there are currently limited options. Draft versions relating to both questions below

Full details of all changes i have made and thoughts on additional sections that could be added to the About OLPC page are pasted below and available here http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_UK/About

Thanks and Regards,

Michael Jordan
07 8814 64213

What is OLPC actually planning to achieve? / Objectives

1. Create educational opportunities for the UK's most needy children and schools by providing them with the purpose-built educational tool, the XO laptop, a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected machine with software explicitly designed for children, the first of its kind.

2. Provide opportunities for the UK to help the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education, by providing them with the means to contribute content and software designed for collaborative, joyful and self-empowered learning.

3.  Create a community of educators and developers committed to ensuring the evolution of educationally focused, high quality applicatioins available for use by children and teachers for learning

4. Create awareness of the importance of education to development; and the impact that contributing to education focused projects worldwide can have on developing nations and poverty stricken regions

When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

Why OLPC UK

OLPC is an organisation aiming to make a real, sustainable difference worldwide. The continued success of the organisation demands a large community of contributors across a variety of areas from fund raising through to developing, from teaching skills through to curriculum creation. OLPC UK has the opportunity to contribute significantly to OLPC efforts in each of these areas.

IN addition the UK school system is a long way from full integration of technology to the classroom.  As a non-profit organisation focused on education opportunity through low cost devices we are exceptionally placed to increase the quality of educaiton and especially the integration of technology into the UK school system.

Why XO / Sugar

Our collective future is dependent on our children's ability to develop creative problem-solving and collaboration skills, which is not the same as “excelling” in the use of one word processor versus another.

In order to provide a rich learning experience to as many of the world’s children as possible, it is critical to not just provide computers to children, but to ensure that the software that runs on the computers maximizes the potential for engaging in activities that promote learning: exploration, expression, and collaboration. We want to help children, parents, teachers, and schools participate in, improve, and help others the best educational opportunities.

The XO, combined with the Sugar operating system achieve these aims, and at a fraction of the cost of other units.  Their open source approach ensures quality content provided free to all for learning and development purposes. They have been created to make possible the goal of One Laptop Per Child worldwide

For more detail see OLPC and SugarLabs.

---- Faisal Sadeq Khan <olpc at sadeq.me.uk> wrote: 
> Most of the information requested can be found here:
> 
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_UK/About
> Including the mission statement.
> 
> Please use this as the basis for any comments or views.
> <http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_UK/About>
> Best wishes.
> 
> Faisal
> 
> --
> One Laptop per Child (OLPC)
> "Opening new opportunities to children the world over."
> http://laptop.org/en/vision
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 2009/6/28 Michael Jordan <michael_jordan50 at bigpond.com>
> 
> >  Good afternoon everyone,
> >
> >
> >
> > I think it an important thing to define what OLPC UK is trying to achieve.
> > Most importantly, defining a mission ( or for the anti marketing among us –
> > about us / what we do) will assist in ensuring consistency of message across
> > all public media about what it is that OLPC UK is trying to achieve.
> >
> >
> >
> > The mission is aimed at why do you want to be involved, why would you like
> > OLPC UK to succeed? Simply from collating this from all interest parties we
> > can ensure the organisation is designed to achieve the aims of all members –
> > and ensure the public receive a consistent, professional message from all
> > media.
> >
> >
> >
> > It would be great if everyone could take 5 minutes to put one line together
> > answering these questions to ensure this organisation is moving in the right
> > direction.
> >
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> >
> >
> > Michael Jordan
> >
> > 07 8814 64213
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Olpc-uk mailing list
> > Olpc-uk at lists.laptop.org
> > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-uk
> >
> >