EscueLab

a bit about the EscueLab:

Escuelab is an iniciative of ATA (Alta Tecnologia Andina - non profit organization working in Lima, Perú for over 12 years in culture and technology).

Through a partnership of ATA and the Prince Claus Fund (Netherlands), the EscueLab space/project is beeing supported for the next three years.

The mission of EscueLab is to provide space/infrastructure that has been missing for young researchers/artists of the Andean Region to develop projects bridging the gap between technology and society.

Our interests span over a wide range of subjects related to technology appropiation, artistic and technological practices, technology in education, technology recycling, among others...

EscueLab is beeing implemented in a 500m2 space in the center of Lima.

The planned activities of EscueLab include conference hosting, open workshops, project incubation, and a creators-in-residence program.

The infrastructure provided by EscueLab for those activities includes:

• three rooms for conference hosting,
• a hardware hack lab and warehouse,
• one PC lab, for programming workshops
• communications lab for video documentation of activities.
• dorms, kitchen and ateliers for up to eight creators in residence.

about our interest in XO

EscueLab - Lima Centro is interested in becoming an XO repair center / volunteering hub. Not as part of a business model, but because it´s part of a necessary mission: rescate XO

Getting a small stock of XO machines to be refurbished could be an excellent start for devising our methodology.

contact

As the main interests of EscueLab include hardware hacking and technology recycling, it´s perfect for us to get broken machines. We focus much on beeing a hardware lab - having the necessary tools is already part of our plans. Later we might want to apply for non-used machines, but for a start, it´s much better / nicer this way.

rough plans around the first 10 broken XOs:

1) First, we put together a small group of working XOs and complete an inventory of the remaining "working parts", we keep in stock.

2) We might want to complete two or three more machines (through buying some spare parts, and so learning how to buy / import this parts to perú)

3) Then, we´ll start communicating locally / netwise about our spare parts stock / repair activities / volunteering support. This way we´ll get a database of involved people and a feel for the demand. (Paradoxically there is almost no information of where the peruvian XOs are and about heir hardware problems, but we should soon start to find out.... do you have any (general) stats on failiures?)

4) In our plans, we see ourselves helping volunteering teams to organize trips to the countryside,, This teams should also be trained in hardware repairing, for which the broken XO experiences can be very useful.

5) The refurbished machines will also be used in the EscueLab to motivate other volunteers interested in software development, content, social research, etc...

Update: We´re very excited, since we´ve been informed we´re getting our first lot of 10 broken XOs!

more info to come soon contact