[Olpc-uk] Marketing - OLPC UK Mission and the BRitish Moroccan Society

[Daniel Drake]

Hi Benedicte,

On Thu, 2009-07-09 at 11:00 +0100, Martin Dengler wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 09, 2009 at 02:43:46AM -0700, Benedicte Clarkson wrote:
> 
> > and I am missing something because last time I looked at the project
> > proposal form, it said you can borrow up to 10 laptops to start
> > with.

The 2 laptops that you are going to borrow from OLPC UK are simply for
exploratory purposes, for use here in the UK. We'll expect you to return
them after a short time. Please do not take them to Morocco.

The purpose of us lending you these laptops for a short time is so that
you can familiarize yourself with what the laptops can and cannot do. Am
I right in thinking that you have not spent much time with XOs
in-the-flesh before now?

After you have spent some time locally with the 2 XOs that we lend you,
you will be able to write a concrete proposal to the OLPC Contributors
Program (based in the US, coordinated by Adam Holt) for obtaining a
larger number of laptops, for a longer time period (or perhaps even
permanently).

The thing is, the contributors program does not just give out laptops to
anyone, you need a good and solid proposal. It's in your interest and
theirs that your project is feasible. However, you cannot really write a
good proposal without having experience with XOs first - so that's where
OLPC UK's lending library comes in to help you. You borrow 2 laptops
from OLPC UK, learn as much as you can from them, use them to plan
exactly what will happen in your project in Morocco, and then you return
the laptops to OLPC UK. Next, you write up that plan and send it to
contributors at laptop.org including a request for (e.g.) 10 laptops to
take to Morocco.

Does that make sense?

Daniel