[Olpc-za] Fwd: Meeting to discuss XOs to Kliptown?

[Morgan Collett]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Samuel Klein <sj at laptop.org>
Date: Feb 11, 2008 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: Meeting to discuss XOs to Kliptown?
To: Whitney Hunter-Thomson <Whitney.Hunter-Thomson at williams.edu>,
Antoine van Gelder <children at laptop.org.za>, Morgan Collett
<morgan.collett at gmail.com>, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org>


Whitney, thanks for working on this today/tomorrow; I look forward to
meeting you.

Antoine and Morgan, do you know a developer or sysadmin near Joburg
who could help out with the trial starting in Kliptown in early March?
 They would benefit from an active local support group (at least one
that knows how to interface effectively with support at laptop.org, since
I don't know what sort of net connectivity the school itself will
have).

SJ

On Feb 11, 2008 1:00 PM, Whitney Hunter-Thomson
<Whitney.Hunter-Thomson at williams.edu> wrote:
> Hi Adam,
>
> At this point, we do not have a formal implementation plan.  Pete and I
> however started writing a proposal for you, but we've sent along your
> email to those on the ground in Africa to get as much information from
> them as possible.  It looks like we'll have something for you by
> tomorrow afternoon.  In the meantime, there are two important issues or
> characteristics about KYP that are important for implementation: one, it
> is an urban poor environment and two, KYP is not a school but a
> community development organization with a strong focus on education.
> Given this, it would be most useful for us to be able to talk to people
> who have worked specifically with urban poor projects before.
>
> We'll will be in touch soon,
> Thank you,
> Pete and Whitney
>
>
>
> Adam Holt wrote:
>
> > Dear Whitney,
> >
> > Can you lay our a couple deployment possibility visions you have in
> > mind?  The facts on the ground are critically important, as there are
> > no cookie cutter solutions, countries and even regions being so vastly
> > different :)  A detailed written description of the specific
> > school/kids/teachers/administration/weather/security/etc environment
> > you will be working with, with hard numbers if possible, would benefit
> > us all, and allow us to appriately hook you up.
> >
> > Can you try to provide something like that, with as much detail as
> > possible?  Sorry OLPC only has just over 20 employees, and hence
> > deployment plans are generally developed organically by in-country
> > deployment teams.
> >
> > Finally, if you can please share your implementation plans in written
> > form, remember that the uncertainties may be the most interesting
> > parts, so do not hesitate to mention all your most serious concerns!
> > Then we'll try to hook you up with others working on the most similar
> > approaches worldwide...
> > --A!
> >
> > Whitney Hunter-Thomson wrote:
> >
> >> Hi SJ and Adam,
> >>
> >> First of all, thank you for inviting Pete and I to participate in the
> >> conference call earlier this afternoon.  We decided to opt out, as it
> >> seemed like it was more tech support than we need at this stage in
> >> the process.  Although it is very convenient that the minutes are
> >> posted online!
> >>
> >> I wanted to give you guys my timeline.  I leave for South Africa
> >> February 19th, arrive the 20th and will begin working on the ground
> >> right away.  Before the 19th, I'm as free as a bird and able to meet
> >> with you and anyone else.
> >>
> >> Specifically, Pete and I are very interested in meeting or getting in
> >> contact with some people who have worked with implementing the
> >> laptops before.  We'd like the opportunity to hear what worked and
> >> what didn't, etc.  We aren't sure if you guys are necessarily the
> >> ones that have had this experience, but if you aren't could you put
> >> us in contact with some people who have?  (either OLPC employees or
> >> volunteers)
> >>
> >> Thanks so much,
> >> Pete and Whitney
> >
>
>