OLPC Learning Club D.C./Lending library

The LC-DC's Lending Library (L4DC) is an effort to expand the grassroots seeding efforts that we've started with our monthly meetups at our various meeting places. We will attempt to provide an enviornment by which people can start projects quickly and find a place to work alongside others with similar interests to do new and exciting things with the XO and Sugar.

Proposal

Requirements

• what is your active library URL? This should be a page describing what you have in mind, what you hope to receive, and who is organizing the program.
  • http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Learning_Club_D.C./Lending_library
• spell out policy mechanics of loans/returns: EG. mail order? in-person? monthly meetings? other?
  • In person whenever, also during our monthly meetings. We will also ship out XOs to those who contact us via email, however we will give priority to local groups. (VA DC MD etc)
• spell out how you (and your library "clientele") will Give Back to the OLPC/Sugar community
  • We will document on our blog all the work we're doing (administrative, etc) as well as featuring cool new projects that our patrons have done. We will, as a part of the agreement we make request that our patrons record on the SL/OLPC wiki as well their progress, preferably with weekly updates. We will encourage them to join the relevent mailing lists (devel@l.l.o/sugar-devel@l.sl.o) and fold new contributors into the community.
• what is the long-term plan for the library? who will coordinate your library if you move on?
  • Long term is to lend out to developers, students, and enthusiats who wish to contribute to the OLPC/SL projects. I do not think this mission will change. If I lose interest, the Arlington Career Center (ACC) staff as well as Mike Lee have volunteered to keep the program running.
• how will you report statistical patterns on lending/recirculation trends (important: to help all laptop libraries worldwide!)
  • We will keep meticulous records of who has what laptop in a Google Docs spreadsheet. We will periodically post aggregate data from the spreadsheet on our blog on on the OLPC wiki, and will provide OLPC with the raw data if needed. In 2-6 months we will provide a "lessons learned" from our project. (sooner if we have something extra-useful to share!)

Suggestions and further questions

• demonstrate detail-oriented librarian skills; articulating how laptops will continually recirculate & new projects seeded & fertilized
  • Somewhat covered above, we will check up with our patrons on the status of their projects and ask them if they seem to have lost interest to return their laptops to our library.
• what innovative techniques do you have to spur on local projects? demonstrate outreach & buzz-creating acumen!
  • We have a large supply of raw student talent in the school system and at the ACC who are all very interested in contributing to the community. We also are in a strategic location: during the NECC conference we are planning on having a few tables with 15 or so XOs set up to demo them to educators and gather testing feedback from new users.
• describe the team of people helping you and/or your institutional backing
  • Mike Lee - AARP, Jeff Elkner - ACC, Kevin Cole, Gallaudet University. Wayan Vota, OLPCNews and Inveneo. ACC has expressed "official" interest but it is a bit of a Chicken-egg problem: they would like details on "how much" etc before they sign on the dotted line.
• have you reached out to other XO Libraries and Groups to learn what works and doesn't?
  • In progress.
• are you the kind of person that might later Mentor other library entrepreneurs?
  • Yes, I as well as 3 other members of the LCDC are in the O-S-G.
• what is your personal long-term plan; what will you get out of this?
  • It's fun, it contributes back to the community, and has the potential to benefit millions of children worldwide. By developing content and lesson plans for the XO/Sugar, one can speed up its adoption and replace a currently broken educational model.

Laptop lifecycle

1. Laptops are received and unboxed.
2. A collection stick will be inserted in all the laptops, gathering their identifiers.
3. The resulting LAPTOPS.DAT file will be sent in a (prefereably GPG signed) email to the activation.l.o people
4. A group of developer keys will be returned. The collection stick will be converted into a "key injection" stick, and the stick will be inserted into each XO.
5. The script replaces the OLPC keys with the L4DC keys and upgrades the firmware to the latest version
6. (optional) The software on the XOs is replaced via NANDBlaster

And now for the distribution:

1. A request is filed with one of the L4DC librarians (Mike Lee or Kevin Cole). This can be done via email or (preferably) during a OLPC-LCDC meeting.
2. The request is approved and machines are selected from the stock.
3. ML/KC collects the serial numbers of the XOs via the collection stick
4. LF/one-of-the-above will generate leases for those XOs for the desired amount of time.
5. The XOs are lent out. If the lease expires, then the laptops no longer will boot up, pursuant to Bitfrost. Additional leases can be granted as needed.