Mailing lists
If you are new to the use of mailing lists in open-source projects, please see An introduction to mailing lists.
Mailing lists are used extensively for communication amongst members of the OLPC community. They are used for software/hardware development, user and deployment support, general disussion, community outreach, and more. With some exceptions, OLPC mailing lists are public, meaning that anyone can subscribe and post, and anyone (even those without subscriptions) can read the archives.
A list of OLPC-related mailing lists is shown below. Clicking the links below will lead to the list's individual page, where a more thorough description and forms for subscribing can be found.
Note: This is only a partial listing. See http://lists.laptop.org and http://lists.sugarlabs.org for the full listing of OLPC and Sugar mailing lists.
For mailing lists that are related to OLPC's mission but are not solely OLPC focused, see Outside mailing lists.
Primary mailing lists
The mailing lists shown below are the most active of those available, and are generally the first point of contact for new contributors and wide-reaching discussions.
| OLPC Open | General OLPC community discussion and chit-chat. |
| Devel | OLPC hardware and software development. Not for general discussion. |
| Sugar-devel | Sugar and Sugar-related development, such as Activities. |
| Server-devel | School server development and deployment. |
| It's An Education Project (IAEP) | Sugar and the learning theories that it espouses. |
| Localization | Software localization. |
| Testing | Testing discussions related to Sugar and OLPC. |
Other mailing lists
These mailing lists may be less active (or totally inactive), and new contributors are advised to start with the mailing lists shown above. However, these quieter and more-specific lists can often be woken up by new contributors expressing interest to get involved.
Education
| Educators | Educators and OLPC |
| Research | Academic and field research about OLPC and its impacts |
| Health | OLPC Health |
| Library | OLPC Library and content discussions |
Grassroots groups
| Grassroots | Grassroots OLPC groups. Exchange and share experiences in building up a grassroots OLPC group |
| Repairs | Discussion about and for grassroots repair centers |
| OLPC Sur | OLPC en castellano para usuarios, docentes, voluntarios y administradores |
| OLPC Boston | Boston, MA USA Users Group |
| OLPC Chicago | OLPC Chicago |
| OLPC LCDC | OLPC Learning Club DC |
| OLPC NYC | OLPC NYC |
| OLPC SF | OLPC San Francisco |
| OLPC-SoCal | OLPC Southern California OSSIE (Open Source Software In Education!) |
| OLPC Workshop | OLPC Workshops |
| Toronto Dev | Discussion list for Toronto area OLPC developers |
| Roadshows | XO roadshows |
| University Chapters | Grassroots OLPC chapters at colleges and universities |
Africa
| Egypt Open Source | Discussion of open source in Egypt |
| Ethiopia | OLPC Ethiopia |
| Ghana Open Source | Discussion of open source in Ghana |
| in Tanzania | OLPC PTN in Tanzania |
| Nigeria Open Source | Discussion of open source in Nigeria |
| OLPC ZA | OLPC South Africa |
| OLPC MA | OLPC Morocco |
| OLPC NG | OLPC Nigeria Ambassadors |
| OLPC ZA | OLPC Gambia |
Asia
Europe
| OLPC CH | OLPC Switzerland |
| OLPC DE | OLPC Deutschland |
| OLPC Europe | OLPC Europe |
| OLPC France | OLPC in France and francophone countries |
| OLPC (Austria) | OLPC Austria |
North America
| Canada | OLPC Canada No mailing list as of yet but you can connect through the wiki page |
South America
| Argentina | OLPC Argentina |
| Bolivia | OLPC Bolivia |
| Brasil | OLPC Brasil |
| Colombia | OLPC Colombia/Grassroots Organization |
| Kreyol | Haitian Kreyol translation |
| Peru | OLPC Peru |
| OLPC Haiti | OLPC Haiti |
| OLPC Uruguay | OLPC Uruguay |
Development and technology
| Accessibility | Discussion of accessibility on the OLPC |
| Bugs | OLPC bugtracker mailing list |
| olpc | The Fedora-OLPC Project list for olpc operating system development. |
| OpenEC | Discussion of OpenEC development |
| Security | Discussion of Linux and Bitfrost security, activity isolation, 'Rainbow' (our security subsystem), and theft deterrence measures. |
| Peripherals | Discussion for XO peripherals |
| Power | Discussions on XO laptop power - See Category:Battery & Power |
| EduBlog | EduBlog mailing list |
| Etoys | Discussion of the Etoys multi-media authoring environment on OLPC |
| Games | Games for OLPC |
| SocialCalc | SocialCalc mailing list |
| Wiki | Discussion of WikiReaders and related tech |
Members-only groups
| Support Gang | Community Support Volunteers |
| Wiki Gang | Wiki maintenance volunteers |
| OLPC Sysadmin | Mailing list for OLPC sysadmin team |
| Sugar Labs Systems | Mailing list for the Sugar Labs Infrastructure Team |
Starting a new list
The best way to start a new mailing list is to begin a discussion on a related list that already exists, and once the discussion becomes active, to ask for a separate list for that topic or that sort of traffic.
When you have a critical mass of people regularly talking about the same topic, request a mailing list by emailing the following information to sysadmin at laptop dot org:
- The name you want for your mailing list, with alternative names if the first one is taken
- A description of the list, its purpose, and why it's needed (being able to say "we've been talking on this other list for a while, and the discussion has grown too big - see these archive links" is helpful)
- The name/email of the list admin, and of at least one other moderator (minimum one admin and one moderator)
- At least 10 names/emails of people who want to be the initial subscribers
It may take a while (usually several days) to hear a response back, so please be patient!
List subscribers
- The "Visit Subscriber List" button on the listinfo page (http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/LISTNAME) does not work (Trac #5399) .
- However, if you have joined a list, and in your current browser session you have signed in at the http://lists.laptop.org/options/LISTNAME address, then the subscribers for many lists with non-private rosters can be viewed by visiting the corresponding web address, http://lists.laptop.org/mailman/roster/LISTNAME.
- (Devel and Community-news, at least, have private rosters.)
- A list of subscribers may also be retrieved by using the email interface to Mailman (see also [1]).
- Substitute a particular mailing list name for LISTNAME below, and your list membership account password for PASSWORD below.
- From your registered email address, send a note to LISTNAME-request@lists.laptop.org with no subject line and include a note body line patterned like the following:
who PASSWORD