User:Mchua/Braindumps/Chicago office

This page is a draft and will be moved to the main wikispace when a name is chosen.

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The names

• Chicagolpc +
• ILXO (a name used by the Lt. Governor's office)
• Turtlemobile

But what is what? Stay tuned...

Discussion

This isn't a name, but I can't help but think of the legend of the young Abe Lincoln teaching himself on the farm in the absence of much formal schooling - reading a book while he plowed, writing letters on the flat of a shovel with a burnt stick. I'm sure they're over-romanticized and in some cases just plain fabricated, but those images just stuck in my head here for some reason - that's one big kind of learning we want to enable kids to do, learning how to teach themselves. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Mission and Charter

Feel free to add your own thoughts or comment on those of others.

• /Charter thoughts - Mel Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Laptop requests

Thinking of requesting approximately 40 machines either as a summer loan (June 1 - Sep 1), a Give Many purchase (...pending funding), or some combination of the two. Breakdown is as follows, roughly:

• 4 XOs for personal development machines of full-time staff (Chris, Nikki) and part-time remote contributors working on Chicago-area activism (Yifan, Andy)
• 20 XOs to be stationed in groups of 4 in "XO Labs" in 5 libraries around the area - the locations where we're holding bootcamps (see below)
• 16 XOs for the Mobile XO Lab-In-A-Van. Need 16 to run a bootcamp of 20 students at each library host location (assuming 20 students per location) - since bootcamp classes are 2-3 hours each once per week, and there are 5 classes, each laptop in this pool will spend at least 10-15 hours in direct active classroom use, probably almost twice that when you factor in transit between class locations. This pool of XOs will also be used for Jams and hackathons/content-contributing sprints, gang-charger testing, workshops, and hw/sw/mesh testing in general (as needed), when not "in class."

Also would like to request 1-3 bricked machines for disassembly, dimensioning, and hardware breakdown (to pass around components of in order to teach people about electronics). We assume we can borrow extra machines from the local grassroots community if needed, and that local repair centers and grassroots groups will request their own supply of bricks and parts and development machines (since they're independent groups, after all).

Grassroots bootcamp

Have this be a sort of "training boot camp" for Chicago-area high-schoolers (and possibly college students - under debate) who want to start an OLPC club at their school. Do-learn how to do XO repairs, enough basic Python to develop simple activities, how to run meetings, how to work with and teach younger kids, how to use, edit, curate, and maybe even admin the wiki, how to do a blog/website for their chapter, how to translate, how to contribute content, with readings about education and computers and grassroots activism and the like throughout... the "final exam" would be for the students themselves to organize and pull off an OLPC hackathon in their own home libraries to ring in the end of summer.

2-3 hours per class, once per week per location. To accommodate different times/locations, have multiple class sessions - 5 locations/dates/times, cap it at 20 students per location, for a total of 100 teenage students for the summer. Homework assignments are things like "run a local meetup that does X," or "design a curriculum, and test it with 5 kids... ok, now get it translated to another language."

Funding

We're trying to get some funding so we can give living stipends to people who want to help out full time this summer - all the staff members so far are working without pay, but I don't want to ask others to do that - although we should put out a call for unpaid (but-hopefully-paid) internships soon, once mission has been pinned down. (I'm holding off on making a "formal" announcement until the charter/mission has been pinned down, but consider this advance notice.) Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Location options

We're looking for a location. See the discussion and options below.

However:

It may be ChicagOlpc doesn't need an office, but rather a means by which the public can access ChicagOlcp. Consider we already have in place 'key people' in various locations, and these people already have a way to contact each other via e-mail, and cell phone. We even get together when need be. What is lacking is a public way to contact these people. It may be that ChicagOlcp only needs a phone number and web site. Even the phone number may not be necessary as an e-mail or an individuals cell could substitute.

Example: Big Wig in Chicago hears about program on radio wants to donate locally. He/She finds ChicagOlcp on line and A)E-mails or B)Phone calls. A meeting could still occur at Panera, or any local setting. (No office necessary). Big Wig wants a demo. The mobile 'kit' is at Chuck's house. Chuck gets it to the Demo or gets it to someone who can get it to demo. Some one at demo wants the same thing a week later at their school. Chuck or someone else gets it to second demo. Etc.

While it's common for meetings to occur in a office setting, I think it's also reasonable for people to meet for lunch or dinner removing the need for an office, also public settings can provide a level of saftey to volunteers who are meeting with strangers. Even a dedicated phone line may not be necessary as I suspect ChicagOlpc may not be receiving a huge number of phone calls on day one. It may be, we simply need to take advantage of 21st Century technology and 'move' the office to the Internet.

Needs, definite

• Electricity
• Internet (wireless)
• Hacking ok (i.e. no treasured hardwood tables covered in antique lace doilies... at least in the hacking space)
• Visitors ok
• All-hours access
• Accessible location
• At least 700 sq ft. of space, 1000+ optimal (note that this is to use occasionally, not necessarily to lease)

Needs, under discussion

This list of needs is driven by the functionalities/operations of the nucleation group.

Professionalism

I suspect the grassroots element will always involve individuals using the resources available and no one minding that fact. However, OLPC may have a particular way it wants to present itself and that can influence what this office is suppose to look like. If OLPC has a "packaged look", or minimum requirements, knowing these needs would help in developing an "office hunt."

In terms of professionalism, I think the best thing we can do is have professional people - intelligent, articulate, passionate volunteers "from the trenches" going out to places and representing the quality of the great grassroots community we have here. Yes, I'm talking about everybody here. Every time I look at what you're doing, I am awed and humbled and inspired, and I think others will be, too, regardless of whether we have avant-garde sculpture in our lobby or not. So personally, my "professionalism" standards for an office are pretty low (walls and a roof, a level floor, electricity and internet) - I do think it would be great to have a good-looking website (anybody want to do some web design?) and some nice looking flyer and business card templates that all community members can have printed, or print for themselves when they're representing. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Walk-in XO tech support

Is it a place open during regular business hours where any Xo owner can walk in looking for guidance and assistance?

The thought that we'd be open only during regular business hours makes me smile - but yes, we definitely want to do this. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Walk-in OLPC office hours

Is it a place where any people wanting to learn more about OLPC (which is more than just the XO) can call to have questions answered, drop in without an appointment for a possible meeting or introduction to the program?

Yes, but we'll probably have to take shifts here, or schedule intro sessions (frequency depending on demand) so everyone doesn't get interrupted from their projects all the time. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Storage

Does it need a place to store items? XOs? Paper?

Items: yes - electronic and mechanical fabrication, development, and test equipment (small workshop), shelves of books and bins of parts and XOs, with larger bins for projects in progress. 500 square feet should be enough for this storage and a mini-workshop. There won't be much, if any, paperwork to file. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Presentations/classes

A wall on which to throw a projection screen is almost mandatory. We can get away without it, but it would add a great deal to the space. In a pinch, a white sheet and some thumbtacks would do fine. Also, whiteboards (read: melamine sheeting, wall-to-wall) add a great deal of decorative functionality... and notes. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Work/meeting space

A likely setup will be (depending on the space, of course) an open layout with work-tables for hacking, and a single clear (and somewhat cleaner) table for food and meetings. And lots of chairs, and several exercise balls (which, as we saw at Google, make great chairs). Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Living/lounge/crash space

This is highly dependent on the space and its location - the option of having a futon or an extra mattress for visiting guest contributors that come from out of state or downstate, so they can come and live and hack on XOs and education for a week or so, is quite attractive. Definitely icing on the cake, but quite attractive; I would love to have a fellowship-like program. On the other hand, this can be done in a distributed grassroots way as well, if volunteers offer couchsurfing space to people willing to come out and work with the on their projects. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Fallback option: Basement

We've gotten an offer for free housing and use of the basement for hacking space by a family (Mel's) in Glenview, about 45 minutes from downtown by car, not far from I-294 and O'Hare. The nearest Metra stations are several miles away, but a Pace bus runs by Glenbrook Hospital about a half-mile down the street (and takes about 2 hours to get downtown). In the absence of other office options, this is our default fallback.

Pros

• Free.
• Has wifi,
• Short commute between staff housing and the "office" (not very important)
• Free on and off-street parking (limited; it's not a very large block)
• Close local ties to schools (Mel grew up here).

Cons

• Glenview is not the most accessible location in the world.
• Living in a family's private residence also means that things like hackathons and meetups may be somewhat awkward.
• Working strange hours is no longer an option.
• Guests are harder to arrange.
• The house is "nice" and not particularly amenable to hacking.

Discussion

Personally, as much as I love this house and appreciate my parents' offer, I would really rather not have the office here. I feel like it places too many restrictions on the work we'll be able to do (in terms of hours we can keep and what we'll be allowed to do in the space), and is prohibitively far from any location that makes sense in terms of being easy for other OLPC volunteers to get to. Also, having a grassroots office situated semi-permanently in the basement of a suburban home is... just not a sustainable long term solution at all, and not particularly professional.

Option: Downtown apartment-office

Pros

• central location, easy access
• "our" space - can go in and out as needed
• visitors ok
• hacking ok

Cons

• not actually a "real" office (do zoning laws apply?)
• annoyed neighbors?
• parking for visitors may be an issue
• overcentralization in the Chicago area?

Discuss

I'd love this option, personally. It's currently beyond our lack of budget, but I've only been looking at apartment prices for downtown. (3-4 bedrooms - half the bedrooms to be used as bedrooms, the other half plus living/dining rooms and such as office.) Evanston could be a slightly cheaper option. Not terribly "professional" though, and having a separation between living and working space might be nice (so staffers won't be wandering through the office in bunny slippers stumbling around for coffee - as entertaining as that would be.) Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Option: Downtown office-office

Recently I received a solicitation for an office environment where you essentially pay 'to show up', and the building provides an office and staff. This staff also works for everyone else. So you come to a nice office, and go about your business, and the building does everything else. I didn't look into costs because I don't need anything like that. Does ChicagOlpc?

Pros

• central location

Cons

• expensive

Discussion

Probably too expensive to warrant the shininess, at least right now. Simply having space (non-living, 100% office/workshop) downtown might be a nice option, though I don't know how affordable it would be. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Option: Tech incubator

What about a tech incubator like the NU Evanston Research Park 'http://researchpark.com/'? Are there similar incubator or shared office spaces geared to non-profits? Maybe they'd offer a better deal than the commercial shared office space you mentioned.

Rather than an apartment with an office shoved in, why not look for a live/work loft space?

Option: Mobile

If ChicagOlpc only needs a monthly meet up, something as simple as a Panera Bread could work where Wi-Fi is free and a private room is only a reservation away. This may be the simplest summer solution.

There's a restuarant called Weather Mark Inn - roomy with wiFi. If OLPC users buy food or drinks I'm sure they'll let us in. They open at 11:00 and usually don't look too busy at that time.

I heard public libraries allow you to reserve rooms for mtgs.

Become a traveling group. Hold office hours, Jams, presentations, meetups, classes, seminars and introductions, project work sprints, camps, and more at various locations across the state (on a one-time or semi-regular basis, depending). Instead of paying rent for an office, purchase a large van and put the books, XOs, supply bins, etc. inside the back half (take the seats out) and have a mobile office that fits in a standard parking space and hauls laptops, hacking equipment, and hackers to places where they need to be.

Pros

• mobile (the ultimate in location accessibility)
• pretty cheap; van, gas, insurance

  though certain things become impossible, not just expensive; say, reconfigurable space

• encourages many local grassroots groups/pilots to step up to the spotlight/plate and build momentum around themselves, instead of centralizing everything in one location

  meetups happen independent of office spaces. unless this is a real shared workspace near/in a cafe, I wouldn't conflate the two.

• The advantage of 'the van' is, it does strengthen local grass roots groups by allowing 'the office' to come them.

Cons

• no constant space we "own" (so what?)
• no after-hours access
• space available can be unreliable
• equipment setup can't be large or bulky (but grassroots groups can have larger setups at their locale, and we'll just go there and use it with them)
• space isn't configurable for specific use
• long-term experiments won't work (but local grassroots groups can do these!)
• this can happen in addition to any of the other options above, especially if it is only a few times a month.
• The primary problems with the van is regardless of whether ChiagOlpc is a Corp, Non Profit, or something else, one person will likely need to sign for, and pay insurance. Grassroots are driven by people who are fickle in nature, if everyone gets bored and walks away, the person who signed the insurance papers will still need to pay that bill monthly. Insurance aside, there would be gas, maintenance, and possibly payments on a van. This may be possible with a steady source of revenue, but is likely to ambitious for a start up office as it would put a lot of financial responsibility one person.
• not having a central location removes the premise that an office could have walk-ins, or business hours at a central point in Chicago. A point that is important if ChicagOlpc hosts a lot of walk-ins.

Discussion

This is currently my personal favorite option. It fosters grassroots and encourages many local groups to form instead of just one, has very little overhead (van + insurance + gas) compared to paying rent, is mobile, incredibly accessible (drive it to the location of the current hosts), and can be replicated by other people in IL and outside of it pretty easily, without having to figure out too much location-specific stuff. Now, that having been said, I think I'm definitely still struck by the romance of the idea, so please try to talk me out of this so I'll see both sides of the coin. Mchua 05:16, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Option: Kit Office

From Chuck Tuura: The kids at IMSA have a paintball club and they can't store paintball equipment at school so I've volunteered my basement as "paintball storage". My instructions to the club were very clear, "Everybody inventories all their items and stores them in hockey bags. I receive 10 hockey bags in, which I never open, and I return 10 hockey bags, which never have been opened." If something is missing, the issue occurred while doing inventory and was before the items came into my care.

I point this out because it think it would be possible to put together a series of plastic storage containers and develop a 'mobil unit'. Example: Box A holds 10 Xo's. Ten go in, ten come out, ten go back in. A well inventoried box can move from van to van, allowing a 'mobil' unit to exist, and doesn't obligate ChicagOlpc to own a van and carry the issues that accompany car ownership. If I'm around, toss 'the mobile unit' into my van and we get it from A to B. If "so and so" is around, toss it in their car and move it from B to C. A simple check off sheet with a sign in and sign out would hopefully prevent items from 'walking'. This maintains the grassroots element, lowers costs, and could be a working platform others could emulate.

How you can help

(This is a brainstorm list)

• Do you know how to write grants proposals?
• Do you know of grants we can apply to?
• Do you have old electronics/fabrication equipment you'd like to donate, sell, or lend?
• Books on computers, education, off-grid power generation, electronics, the developing world, programming, or other OLPC-relevant topics you'd like to offload or loan?
• Can you host an event?
• Help plan an event?
• Help find food? Space? Materials? Teachers? Students? Volunteers?
• Can you mentor a project?
• Do you want to be mentored on a project?