Repair/meeting minutes/20080609

Meeting with Kimquirk and Nlee at 1cc, notes taken by Mchua

(I lost my notes from our conversation on Thursday when my laptop crashed, but a short recreation follows.)

• some independent volunteers are willing to do the "middlemanning" for spare parts so that repair centers can get things - xoexplosion.com is one in particular - can put up space, money... Kim to contact; xoexplosion.com is in the Boston area, has been to 1cc multiple times. There is also ilovemyxo.com which is closer to Chicago. Are there others?

• OLPC should post a disclaimer to the effect of "OLPC does not run an official repair center, if someone says they're the official OLPC repair center, they aren't... check out these places at your own risk" - except more diplomatically stated. ;) (who should look into this? Kim?)

• possibility of OLPC providing hosted RT instances to repair centers in exchange for monthly updates on statistics? should define exchange program during grassroots weekend

• Nikki discussed Olin's "how we get repairs done without dealing with money" structure, which involves no money changing hands (optional: repair centers can accept donations for themselves, or suggest donation to OLPC.) Here is how it works:
  • Donor buys part from "online store" (when it's set up), sets the shipping address to repair center
  • Donor sends XO to repair center
  • Donor sends prepaid shipping return label to repair center
  • Repair center gets all 3, fixes, ships back to donor. No money changes hands, labor is free.

Nice, but ... Maybe I'm confused, but how does a typical donor know which parts to order? Most donors are not computer techs. Sorry if I'm "out to lunch".Nicabod 20:48, 10 June 2008 (EDT)

They can go through Diagnosis, or call/work-with the repair center to diagnose the likely problem. Mchua 22:44, 10 June 2008 (EDT)