OLPCorps Committee

About OLPCorps Committee

The OLPCorps committee is comprised of various One Laptop per Child staff and key OLPC community members. The primary role of the committe is to design, develop, implement, and support OLPCorps. Key actors hold significant responsibility in the success of OLPCorps

OLPCorps Mission

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From the website... "The purpose of OLPCorps: Africa is to harness the energy, creativity and innovation of young people worldwide to help empower, educate and connect children, as well as to help foster a global campaign that has as its objective a strong commitment from governments and development agencies globally to support rapid expansion of 1:1 computing for primary school children. OLPC envisions a minimum of two students per team, with up to 100 teams each provided with 100 laptops. Travel, expenses and a modest stipend can be included in each team’s budget, up to a maximum of $10,000 per team."

Timetable

February 28th--OLPCorps Committee structured

February 29th--OLPCorps Committe proposed to OLPC community

March 6th--OLPCorps Committe finalized

March 8th--all lead wiki pages published

March 27th--submission deadline

April 10th--selected teams announced

April 11th--....

Director of OLPCorps

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Qualifications The Director of OLPCorps should be someone with a passionate commitment to the cause of quality universal primary school education and utilizing laptops to help achieve that goal; a proven track record of managing successful intern programs in either the non-profit or private sectors, with a strong preference given to those who have run African programs; excellent written and oral communications skills; excellent logistical skills and strong attention to detail; experience in working with people from a broad array of countries and cultures; willingness to travel; a strong disdain for mediocrity.

Responsibilities

• Oversee all aspects of the project, including recruitment of individuals, liaising with partner NGOs, government officials and private sector institutions in relevant countries
• Serve as a primary contact point with participating universities worldwide in creating an exceptional experience for students who qualify for the program
• Serve as a primary contact point with participating universities worldwide in creating an exceptional experience for students who qualify for the program
• Create opportunities with various vendors and volunteers to provide pro bono services in the on-going development of OLPCorps: Africa
• Work with OLPC on developing a two-week training session for participating students in Kigali, Rwanda beginning June 8
• Organize and plan a large-scale program presentation event in Cambridge the weekend of October 10
• Document and maintain ongoing awareness of the Program to the various OLPC communities and the press
• Be innovative and creative in all aspects of organizing, communicating and support

Organizational Lead

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Qualifications The Organizational Lead will be led by a student team should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of Responsibilities

• PR
• Works alongside each lead to ensure that tasks are being accomplished, etc
• Coordinate the application process from submission to judging to acceptance.
• Liaison with the OLPC legal team to ensure all liability issues are handled correctly
• Ensure all project proposals are being evaluated and critiqued
• Produce a revised Deployment Guide specific to 100XO deployments & OLPCorps
• Manage financial transactions between OLPC and teams
• Document OLPCorps processes for future refinement
• Blog progress
• Create a OLPCorps google maps showing distribution of teams, resources, information, etc.

Tech Lead

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The Technical Lead should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of 1,2,3...

• Finalize Change the World Technical Manual--a "how to" for deploying 100 or more XO laptops.
• Conduct online training seminars for teams
• Coordinate and implement a comprehensive support network for teams while on the ground.
• Design an online forum whereby teams publish their project proposals for critiques, etc.
• Rwanda workshop

Communication Lead

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The Communication Lead should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of 1,2,3...

• Handle correspondence between OLPCorps and applicants. The lead is responsible for creating personal relationships with teams.
  • This can either be through the OLPCorps Gmail account or RT.
• Ensure all wiki pages are updated and organized
• Reach out to teams who do not know how to take advantage of wiki
• Responsible for ensuring that each team has an individual wiki page
• Compile a contact list of applicants, accepted teams, OLPCorps Alumni, etc
• Connect university teams regionally (e.g. West African teams, South African teams) and to any existing deployments in-country.
• Coordinate OLPCorps Committee--Student Team conference: a 1-2x online discussion on development of deployment, questions/concerns, needs, expectations of workshop and deployment, etc.
• Compile accepted team information: copies of visas, passports and immunizations; flight details; emergency contact information, etc

Support Lead

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The Support Lead should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of 1,2,3...

• Partner teams with mentors within the community
  • based on a teams area of weakness and the mentors skills
  • Each team may or may not have multiple mentors
  • When possible, teams and mentors should be partnered by proximity
• Organize weekly/biweekly online seminars for teams

Promotion Lead

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The Promotion Lead should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of 1,2,3...

• Liaison with OLPC's PR groups to promote OLPCorps (i.e. Racepoint & W2)
• Research new avenues to promote OLPCorps in underrepresented areas (i.e. Africa)
• Design a promotion strategy for OLPCorps '10
• Work with fundraising lead to cover costs for OLPCorps '10 Promotion expenses
• Compile & continually update an extensive university and student organization contact list
• Liaison with OLPC Europe to promote OLPCorps for European students
• Design a promotion strategy/PR campaign while teams are on the ground.

Promotion done thus far for '09:

• Facebook groups
• Idealist.org
• University & Student Groups
• Mediawire
• Businesswire
• Nace
• Conferences
• Twitter
• OLPC's personal contacts

Logistics Lead

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The Logistical Lead should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of 1,2,3...

• Compile addresses of each shipping location
• Coordinate and ship 1 XO each to accepted team members
• Coordinate 100XO shipments
• Work closely partnering agencies to arrange delivery and pick-up of XOs and bundle.

Fundraising Lead

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The Fundraising Lead should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of 1,2,3...

• Create a fundraising kit for teams, including logos, fundraising tips, 501c3 status, how-to handle finances, etc
• Provide guidance on finding funding (best practices)
• Research grant opportunities via various databases
• Support teams with grant applications (e.g. writing, review, advice, etc)
• Report on what each of the university teams will need for future funding

Pedagogical Lead

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The Pedagogical Lead should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of 1,2,3...

• Responsible for conducting online discussions on related themes (e.g. constructionism, learning environments, etc).
• Produce a detailed project-idea handbook for teams
• Support teams in learning how to operate all programs on the XO (e.g. Scratch, Pippy, etc)
• Compile a suggested reading list from related academic articles

Media Lead

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The Media Lead should be someone who is a, b, c, and have the characteristics of 1,2,3...

• Compile all media (pictures, content, footage, etc) from teams before, during, and after the program.
• Produce a ~1min promo clip of OLPCorps
• Work closely with other Leads to provide them with media as needed.

OLPCorps Core Team

Brief description of a Lead's role in OLPCorps.

• Each lead is responsible for reaching out to the community for support and advice on a regular basis.
• Leads are responsible for continually documenting their role (i.e. what works, what doesn't, why, etc).
• Leads are responsible for creating their individual OLPCorps wiki page with strategy, development, reflection, etc (e.g OLPCorps Promotion Lead).
• Weekly meetings will be help at a TBD time.

Director of OLPCorps

Contact: TBD

Organizational Lead(s)

Contact: Paul Commons (commons@laptop.org) 317.523.9822

Short bio: I was first introduced to OLPC by Nicholas Negroponte while attending an international student conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE, '07. Through email exchanges with Nicholas, I was encouraged to participate in the first G1G1. I purchased 40 XOs--20 went to OLPC & 20 went to Honduras with me. Following the success of that initial project, I wanted to see the program replicated elsewhere. I encouraged several of my peers at Indiana University to participate in the Give Many program. Through out student organization, we purchased 150 XOs (50 to OLPC) and took the remaining to an organization we partner with in South Africa. With technical support provided by Neo Masilo and KYP (the 1st SA deployment), the project turned into an overwhelming success, with 100% attendance at the 3 rural schools, a Saturday school with 100+ students crammed into a classroom, and numerous other incredible learning stories.

Contact: Sj (sj@laptop.org)

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Tech Lead(s)

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Communication Lead(s)

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Support Lead(s)

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Promotion Lead(s)

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Logistic Lead(s)

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Fundraising Lead(s)

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Media Lead(s)

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