WiRED-CHI

Name of Project: Community Health Information for OLPC

Number of Laptops (or other hardware) You Request to Borrow: Two XO-1 and Two XO 1.5 Loan Length—How Many Months: Two months, longer if possible to extend demonstration period for potential funders.

2. Team Participants Name(s) & Contact Info: (include all email addresses & phone numbers)

Gary Selnow

Chris Spirito

Sameer Verma

Employer and/or School:

Selnow: San Francisco State University Spirito: The MITRE Corporation Verma: San Francisco State University

Past Experience/Qualifications: Global work on health information through WiRED International. WiRED has set up information centers in the countries highlighted below. We promote local collaboration and equal access for professionals and everyday people alike. Our Medical Information Centers (MICs) provide up-to-date medical information to doctors and other healthcare professionals. Our Community Health Information Centers (CHICs) provide health information to people at the grassroots level – often the only source of medical information available to them.See http://wiredinternational.org/what.html for more.

3. Objectives Project Objectives: (WEB-PUBLISHED) This request is for two/three laptops to use as test and demonstration tools in a project to provide interactive health training programs through WiRED’s community health information (CHI) project. We seek to load and test our software on these machines as prototypes for a larger program involving OLPC computers. The complete software (health topics, auxiliary health libraries, search and access tools) will be provided without charge to OLPC for use in its global work. See a sample at http://www.itnhealth.net/CHIC2/presentations/50/player.html

4. Plan of Action Plan and Procedure for Achieving the Stated Objectives: Test these machines for one to two months, then release the CHI library for loading in a field test in Jamaica working with the University of the West Indies team and Sameer Verma at San Francisco State University. The Jamaica test will help determine the feasibility of distributing the CHI library to populations typical of OLPC audiences.

5. Needs Why is this project needed?

It provides a useful, engaging means of disseminating health information to communities in developing countries.

Locally? Most projects we work on are global.

In the greater OLPC/Sugar community? OLPC XO and Sugar can be one medium for the delivery of such healthcare information.

Outside the community? Healthcare information is crucial and critical to the overall well-being of any community.

Why can't this project be done in emulation using non-XO machines? We are running these libraries in Africa on Windows computers and wish to test them on Linux-based, OLPC computers before engaging in overseas distribution.

Why are you requesting the number of machines you are asking for? We would like to test the installation and operation of the Flash-based libraries on these machines, then demonstrate the operation to our board and others who will release the software to OLPC. We will consider rebuilt computers, as long as they are identical to computers operating abroad in OLPC programs.

6. Sharing Deliverables Project URL—where you'll Blog specific ongoing progress: wiredinternational.org

How will you convey tentative ideas & results back to the OLPC/Sugar community, prior to completion? Through communications with Dr. Sameer Verma at San Francisco State University and via OLPCSF http://olpcsf.org/

How will the final fruits of your labor be distributed to children or community members worldwide? If this works: on OLPC computers.

Will your work have any possible application or use outside our community? Yes. We are currently distributing the CHI libraries through our own facilities abroad, and we will make these programs available to all NGOs working with under-resourced populations.

Have you investigated working with nearby XO Lending Libraries or Project Groups? Yes, but for travel reasons, we cannot borrow XOs from the library and take them out of the region (SF and Boston).

7. Quality/Mentoring Would your Project benefit from Support, Documentation and/or Testing people? We have our own tech support staff, but would welcome any input offered by OLPC.

Teachers' input into Usability? This is relevant to the Jamaica field test, not the compatibility test we’re proposing here.

How will you promote your work? Website, social media, press releases.

Can we help you with an experienced mentor from the OLPC/Sugar community? We would be happy to collaborate on this effort.

(WEB-PUBLISHED) If YES: specify the kind of Ongoing Mentoring that will benefit you most. If NO: specify who will help you share your progress, creations & results. Dr. Sameer Verma wil mentor the project.

8. Timeline (Start to Finish) Please include a Proposed timeline for your Project life-cycle: (this can be in the form of Month 1, Month 2, etc rather than specific dates). One/two months for this test.

Specify how you prefer to communicate your ongoing progress and obstacles! We will communicate via email, web and/or phone.

[X] I agree to pass on the laptop(s) to a local OLPC group or other interested contributors in case I do not have need for the laptop(s) anymore or in case my project progress stalls.