OLPC Chicago

About

The Chicago Interest Group is a way for people in the Chicagoland area to talk about and work together on OLPC. We aren't necessarily interested just in trying to bring OLPC into classrooms in Illinois; we're also interested in volunteering/contributing to the project.

OLPC Chicago IS

1. a nucleation point for exchange between local groups, towards the OLPC Boston office and back, and with other groups worldwide
2. helping in organizing XOs for the local groups
3. supporting and cherishing the autonomy of local groups
4. focusing on rough consensus, grassroots involvement, and working projects

OLPC Chicago IS NOT

1. going to do a local pilot in your school (although we'll encourage and support you if you want to do one yourself)
2. going to tell you what you are and aren't allowed to do (although we're always up for idea-bouncing and brainstorms)

(Thanks to OLPC Europe, from which the above lists are adapted.)

Mailing List

We have most of our discussions on the mailing list. If you are interested, please subscribe.

Future Activities

Jan. 22 Meetup

The first COGG (Chicago-OLPC Grassroots Group) meeting is Jan 22, 2008 at Google Chicago (20 West Kinzie St, Chicago IL). This being Google, snacks and drinks will be provided. Thanks to Jon and Fitz from Google and Ian from OpenPlans for setting this up!

Doors open at 6:30, meeting starts at 6:45 and runs 'till 8:30. Everyone is welcome, including kids, teachers, coders, students, engineers, artists, parents, interested people from around the neighborhood - no experience required. Part of this meeting is so everyone can meet each other and learn how to get involved as well as share and collaborate on existing projects.

rough agenda (feel free to add):

• very brief overview of OLPC and how you can get involved
• Project show-and-tell
  • students from the Illinois Math and Science Academy Chapter will give rocket-pitch overviews of their projects
  • anyone else?
• upcoming events / help wanted
  • Chris Brown looking for OLPC presenters in Wilmette for Feb. 5 to demo/explain the program at a teachers' tech conference. More details here.
  • OLPC at PyCon 2008 in March; attend, network, present, hack?
  • full-time OLPC-Chicago office-hub and repair/service center opening this summer - volunteers welcome
• project brainstorming / hacking time

Contact mel at laptop dot org to RSVP by Friday, Jan. 18 at noon CST. We need a roster in advance to let everyone into the building. The deadline for RSVPing has passed. Please subscribe to the mailing list to hear about the next one!

Jan. 25 Meetup

There is also a meetup at Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC) later in the week.

Past activities

There's interest in a Sugar/XO/OLPC sprint/hackathon, scheduled for June 2 at the offices of skinnyCorp (4043 N. Ravenswood ave, suite 106) around 10am. We'd get together for a day and work on the project. This would help people become familiar with the environment and share their experience.

There will be pizza. There we be several XO laptops, but you should bring your own laptop as well.

Software

We're thinking about working on Choose Your Own Adventure.