Talk:LinuxFest Northwest 2008

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no jam

I vote no Jam during the event. Jams are best held in (more) isolation - they're very absorbing events and we don't want Jam participants distracted by other things going on, or to suck attendees away from LFNW for the whole time! A pre-LFNW Jam in the 1-3 days prior to the conference is an option, as is a post-LFNW jam... but I'd really prefer not to have dates overlap. Mchua 01:48, 14 February 2008 (EST)

track goal - local grassroots

Seth: The Stone Soup presentation is a good start, and possibly a theme for the entire track.

I think some building of local momentum would be awesome - the hard part about multidisciplinary grassroots groups is that they're tough to nucleate, to get people to figure out what they can collaborate on and the very disparate sources of information and help (from fields you don't normally interact with) you can draw from. In this case, there's a whole global community and tons of resources on OLPC, but they're (still) pretty hard to navigate, when you're new. There are some active XO user groups in the Seattle area - will any of them be coming out to LFNW? Mchua 22:37, 20 February 2008 (EST)

Hardware

Seth: Does one of us want to talk about hardware/software?

I could totally do this, unless a more experienced XO hacker is around (in that case, I'll watch and learn from them, or partner). Might as well use my electrical engineering education, right? ;) Mchua 22:37, 20 February 2008 (EST)

Iain: some attendees would love to see the inside of a machine.

This is Not A Problem. I've taken every component of my XO apart multiple times (with the exception of separating the metal bits of the hinge) and I believe Seth has at least stripped his down once. I'll bring a small screwdriver and can have this baby stripped apart and reassembled in <10min, and want to get older local kids to do the same. Like I said, should put my EE education to good use at least once in my life... Mchua 22:37, 20 February 2008 (EST)

Content

Seth: I want to talk about OLPC Health at some point for sure... I think that there is enough material for a stand alone OLPC/Open Content talk, but OLPC Health could be part of it.

We should do follow-up on http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Health_Jam Mchua 22:37, 20 February 2008 (EST)

Overview?

Seth: [do we want to] talk about the history or a basic introduction to the XO?

I think it should be done... I'm not sure when. I think it's something that's important for lots of people to see to understand what the project is trying to do - much of it is counterintuitive to perspectives I've often run across in the US ("you're in business to put yourself out of business?" "you're an education project? not a laptop project?" "...open source? wait, you /want/ kids to hack?"). And different audiences will want to learn about different parts of the backstory, and I'd rather not make people sit through 45 minutes of slides... Proposal: if poster-making materials can be had (anything from butcher paper + markers on the morning of, up to big-lovely-poster-printer), I (or others) can make a small, minimalistic poster gallery explaining some of the Big Points, someone can give the Big Overview Talk Thing at the start, and folks can tack a 5min intro spiel on the start of their OLPC sessions in case people have missed the Big Spiel. Mchua 22:37, 20 February 2008 (EST)

Questions for LFNW Organizers

  • Audience - how many folks coming out to LFNW do you reckon might have heard of OLPC before? (from last year's LFNW, or otherwise.) Volunteered for OLPC before? Done development (hardware and/or software mainly)? Teachers? Parents? Kids? Other general demographics? Rough and wild guesses totally okay, and we'll play it by ear anyhow, but it's nice to know.
  • Any chance of drawing XO users from Seattle? (Or are they already coming?) Has someone *coughIainSethcough* spread the word about this to the XO groups in Seattle? (The audience there may not overlap as much with the LUGs in Seattle, and LFNW is a fantastic chance for the not-yet-technical folks to get an introduction to the happy friendly fun that is the Open Source community.)
  • How can the OLPC track best interact with and benefit the other segments of LFNW? We can totally be an "ooh, shiny machine" draw factor, and a "hey, bring your kids here!" factor - but what else?

people who should present

  • steve stroh
  • iain davidson
  • seth woodworth
  • mel chua

Sessions

OLPC / XO Laptop participation

Details about XO Laptop / OLPC presence at conference


Confirmed! Reserved - and no charge.

  • Presentation room (in fact, reserved for whole conference, as "OLPC Track" !)
  • Vendor table (in Non-profit Org area) for putting out literature, and demo of XO Laptop !


OLPC / XO Laptop volunteers


Presentation/Discussion ideas

Schedule (based on [Last year's 2007 Conference] )

( 2008 -- tentative Schedule 2008 Available ! )
Saturday April 26th (10 am - 4 pm)
Room 10:00 11:00 12:30 1:30 3:00
Tech-110 XO Laptop - Challenge Jam

Iain Davidson
Myna IT Consulting
(60 min)

Grassroots Groups: breaking down

tech/nontech barriers
Mel Chua
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)
(90 min)

LUNCH XO - 12 months - Where is it now, where is it going

Iain Davidson
Myna IT Consulting
(90 min)

XO Laptop - Challenge Jam

Iain Davidson
Myna IT Consulting
(60 min)

Sunday, April 27th (10 am - 4 pm)
Room 10:00 11:00 12:30 1:30 3:00
Tech-? (Session 5)
(60 min) 		Health Jam overview
(90 min) 		LUNCH (Session 7)
(90 min) 		XO Laptop - Challenge Presentation

Iain Davidson
Myna IT Consulting
(60 min)


Possibilities

  • Jam (usually 1 or 2 days) (either before or after conference, or evening)
  • Health jam, presentation of health jam results (one week before)

Prizes / Giveaways / for sale

  • OLPC /T-shirts - (idea/concept under discussion)


Discussions on talk page and associated sub-pages.

Full Announcement about OLPC at LFNW'08

Carrying forward from last year's Jessie's excellent (and very well attended) Red Hat / OLPC presentation [1] , momentum and awareness of OLPC has increased exponentially. With the initial public release in November of the XO Laptop to mass production. Limited fund raising event of the Give 1 Get 1 [2] program from November to December, created over 80,000 orders in 6 weeks. Which in turn started sending 'gift' XO Laptop first round installations into countries (and children's hands) such as Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Afghanistan.


Online resources for OLPC / XO Laptop is also growing quickly, with great overviews on http://laptop.org , and 5000+ pages of information on http://wiki.laptop.org including specific pages for support related questions via http://support.laptop.org .


Huge growing XO Laptop presence in Seattle [3] and other Pacific Northwest areas, volunteer community based support and repair shops popping up in several locations throughout Washington and Oregon, and the rest of the nation.


Exciting stuff to be sure, especially in the realm of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), XO Laptop focus is 100% open source [4] ! ! !


In respect to the Linuxfest Northwest 2008 conference, several things. . . .


So far there has been enough presenters and volunteers stepping forward,

that the LFNW event organizers have given a green light and background support for...


  • A specific OLPC / XO Laptop presentation track !
  • A dedicated vendors table for OLPC information and XO Laptop demonstration
  • A specific dedicated room for presentations, discussions, and learning lab environment.
  • Special coordination with Robotics and Solar/alternative energy presentation tracks with locations nearby !


Several special and very active OLPC community supporters have confirmed attendance too. . .


OLPC Jam organizer [5], Summer of Content organizer for 2007, XO Laptop repair shop coordinator, Wiki editor, IRC support, etc . (A tip-of-the-hat to Candela Technologies Inc http://www.candelatech.com , for covering the costs to fly her in from the east coast area)
OLPC organizer of public documents/media, learning materials, images, and other resources, also developer, support volunteer. Weekly Zine editor


OLPC Grassroots, support volunteer, wiki editor, Weekly Zine founder, IRC support, Activity developer, and volunteer XO repair shop.


BTW,

the interest by LFNW08 for OLPC/XO Laptop has also helped to create another OLPC Health Jam [6] event as part of the Health conference in Seattle !
(And hope to see the results of this event, presented at LFNW too ! )


We still have many opportunities still available for LFNW volunteers, and hoping to increase presence and awareness even further.


  • Presentations about OLPC / XO Laptop experiences
    • Implementation
    • Development
    • Hardware
    • Software
    • Personal experiences with developing countries and what can be done to help.
    • Alternative methods for powering equipment (solar, wind, generator, etc...)
  • A conference vendor to run a XS Server or centralized 'OLPC jabberd' server for special conference networking, mesh, or sharing demonstrations.
  • Help assist with learning lab environment, and presentations
  • Offering other items for the auction, or encourage vendors to exhibit !


Please visit the LinuxFest Northwest 2008, website for further information, or check out the starting OLPC wiki page for the latest.... ( http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LinuxFest_Northwest_2008 )


Especially, please bring OLPC / XO Laptops to the conference, to help demonstrate the power of mesh networking and sharing activities ! (Many free WiFi hotspots throughout Bellingham, and (likely) during the conference.... even several T-Mobile locations :)


I am very excited to see this come to fruition, . . . . hope to see you and many XO Laptops there !


-Iain Davidson


(aka ixo , on OLPC support-gang, irc #olpc-help , #olpc and email lists: grassroots, support-gang, developer, help etc.)


p.s. Sorry, I was unable to swing a deal for a special group-purchase of XO Laptop equipment in time for the conference. Support your local school system, in doing a community group "Give Many Get Many" for your local area.


NOTES:

[1] Jessie's OLPC Presentation link: http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/2007.html
[2] G1G1 Program: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Give1Get1
[3] Seattle XO user group: http://www.seaxo.com/
[4] Runs a "lite version" of Red Hat Fedora Core 7 , python is primary programming language !
[5] OLPC Jams: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Jams
[6] Health Jam Seattle: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Health_Jam
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