Project proposals

To propose a new project, create a section with the following:

==== [[Projects/PROJECTNAME|PROJECTNAME]] ====
 Project:
 Proposer:
 Other contributors:
 Audience or impact:
 Brief description:  (link to a full description at [[Projects/PROJECTNAME]])
 Relevant experience & other projects:
 Contact information (wiki, email, &c):
 [If requesting XOs] # of XOs needed, and their use: 

When requesting laptops: include the last line above. Some questions to answer:

• Have you tried emulation for this purpose?
• Could you use laptops for a limited time borrowed from a local community pool of machines?
• Similarly, would other projects be able to share these laptops, or would they be in constant use?
• What power supply or keyboard do you need?

Be sure you have a valid email address for your wiki account as one way to reach you.

Current applications

Note: please create an account on this wiki and sign your application below with four tildes: <tt>~~~~</tt>

lx700video

Project name: LX-700 hacking
Projekt proposer: Thorsten Haas
Other contributors: -
Project audience or impact: OLPC proper - new functionalities in the XO
Project description and relevant experience:
  See Projects/lx700video
Need for laptops: 1

Status: handed out on 30th Dec 2007

Software Defined Radio

 Project name: Software Defined Radio
 Projekt proposer: Thomas Kleffel
Other contributors: -
Project audience or impact: OLPC could be used as shortwave data/audio receiver in remote areas
Project description and relevant experience: Projects/SDR
Need for laptops: 1
Have you tried emulation for this purpose? Doesn't work for assessing OLPC's performance (Sound IO / Processing Power)
Tk 07:04, 30 December 2007 (EST)

Status: handed out on 30th Dec 2007

Internet via GSM

Project name: GSM 4 XO
Project proposer: Olaf Emcke
Other contributors: -
Project audience or impact: Use a mobile to access internet via GSM
Project description: Projects/gsm4xo
Need for laptops: 1

Budget Robotics Kit

Project name: Robotics Kit
Projet proposer: Willibald Palatin
Other contributors: Chris
Project impact: Possibility to play with sensors and actuators
Project description: Build a budget robotics controller, based on the ATMega series (possibly use an arduino board).
Connected via USB, open source and easily assemble- and programmable, with a 
simple GTK interface. At least 10 pins to read sensor values or send/pulse +5V DC. 

Develop Teaching the Teachers to teach with OLPC

Project name: Teach Teachers to teach
Projet proposer: B-Ranger (@web.de)
Other contributors: 
Project impact: If you want Teachers in OLPC-Use-Areas to use the olpc in class you first need them to know what
they can do. That for you may want to develop ideas for them and a introduction that makes the teacher enthusiastic
about the olpc so that she/he can 'infect' her/his pupils. And for developing that "teach-the-teacher" you may want
to have a presentation, test and try-object.
The idea is to develop a program that teaches german/austrian (teaching) students, so they can take the olpc to a
foreign country and tell the ppl (esp. the local teachers) about it and show them the benefits.

QKD project

Project name: EntangleMe
Project proposer: National U. of Singapore
Project impact: show off XOs being used for science
Details: see projects/EntangleMe

MoinMoin wiki

Project name: MoinMoin
Project proposer: ThomasWaldmann
Other contributors: 
Project audience or impact: all users wanting to use a wiki (e.g. for notes, knowledge base, ...)
Project description and relevant experience: see http://moinmo.in/
 Proposer is project admin of MoinMoin project and a long term Python developer.
Need for laptops: 2 (to test wiki sync and collaboration)

Low cost microcontroller experimentation kit

Project: Low cost microcontroller experimentation kit
Proposer: User:deBaer
Audience or impact: Giving children the possibility to build their own stand-alone hardware projects on a breadboard with a microcontroller.
Brief description: Developing a low-cost open source kit with a breadboard, a microcontroller, a few simple components (buttons,
     LEDs, ...) that is in-system programmable from the XO. Make an easy-to-use activity that shows the board setup and allows
     developing and programs the microcontroller code. Allow editing and sharing of those projects. See Projects/MicrocontrollerKit)
Relevant experience & other projects: Information Technology engineer, teaching in higher education, Linux developer since 1995
Contact information (wiki, email, &c): deBaer æt gmail døt com
XOs needed: 1 for getting into SUGAR development and testing microcontroller programming methods

Integration with CMS back-end storage

Project: Use OLPC laptopts to create digital storage of lectures in elementary and secondary schools
Proposer: User:dpavlin
Audience or impact: Students of elementary and secondary schools (age 6-18)
Brief description: We are developing portal for schools which would be ideal place to collect lectures which could be captured using OLPC camera for other students who are unable to attend lectures (sick friends, and similar)
Relevant experience & other projects: Implementation of current CMS system for the last two years with 330 schools currently connected to system (from total of 3300)
Contact information (wiki, email, &c): dpavlin@carnet.hr
XOs needed: 1 to test integration with CMS, later it will end up in one of the schools

Introduce XO to Rotterdam (the Netherlands) schools

Project: Trial of OPLC laptop in elementary schools for possible city wide deployment. 
Proposer: MaartenM79
Audience or impact: Students of elementary and secondary schools (age 6-18)
Brief description: I would like to test out the XO in elementary schools in Rotterdam. 
Relevant experience & other projects: As chairman of the youth 
political party CDJA in Rotterdam I am very interested in promoting information technology, especially 
for young children. Our party has the councilor of education in Rotterdam and I would like to promote the laptop to him. 
Contact information (wiki, email, &c): m.menheere at gmail.com 
XOs needed: 2 for demonstration purposes (on loan is ok too), i'm looking for contacts. 20 for classroom test

Game based eVideo for XO mesh networks

Project: Evaluation of video- and game based (e)learning scenarios. 
Proposer:  Anja C. Wagner 09:02, 2 January 2008 (EST)
Other contributors: Fabian Topfstedt, Henrik Regensburg, Hans L. Cycon, WiseWoman 
Audience or impact: Teachers and students in schools, high schools, universities, and continuing 
education need dynamic learning scenarios for motivation. Some scenarios include the use of video   
and video conferencing. 
Brief description: The use of instructional video - especially with the possibility of including
localized subtitles or dubbed audio - provides an excellent platform for presenting international
open educational resources. Video conferencing allows direct, synchronous communication within 
classrooms or beyond classroom walls. We are developing new scenarios, sometimes called (e)learning
2.0, that includes video and video conferencing for educating learners using new technologies for 
personal needs. In order to motivate people to educate themselves, we are also investigating 
narrative and competitive structures from the gaming industry. We want to see if our video formats 
perform on the XO computers with their special displayes and evaluate different video conferencing 
tools to work with the wireless mesh network. 
Relevant experience & other projects: As an interdisciplinary project team in the context of a 
University for Applied Sciences, at the FHTW Berlin, we have acquired much experience in the 
area of video formats (also called codecs) and video conferencing and in their application in the 
area of (e)learning. Our most recent project is concerned with developing technical and 
methodological skills on the use of video and game based learning scenarios - using video and video
conferencing. See the eVideo Project Blog (in German). 
Contact information (wiki, email, &c): acw ÄT edufuture PÜNKT de
XOs needed: 3 for collaborative testing of new video-based learning scenarios. 
XO requirements: Power supply 220V/50Hz to use in Germany and Austria. Preferred keyboard layouts 
are 2x de_DE and 1x  intl. (or en_EN, en_US). XOs will be in constant use in Berlin/Germany and 
Vienna/Austria for communication purposes, emulation isn't possible due to the need of physical 
access to camera and microphone)

Navigation System on XO

Project: Navigation System on XO
Proposer: parabelboi
Brief description:  Add Sugar support to a Linux based Navigation System.
   It looks like Navit is suitable for that purpose.
   It already has pluggable and extensible Code. A Sugar GUI backend has to be written.
XOs needed: 1

SSR on the OLPC

Project: Mesh Network Comparison
Proposer: Thomas Fuhrmann and Benedikt Elser 10:04, 8 January 2008 (EST)
Impact: Improvement of OLPC's mesh networking capabilities
Brief description:  Compare the Current OLPC Mesh Networking implementation to
an alternative implementation, namely the scalable source routing (SSR)
protocol and the virtual ring routing (VRR) protocol. See publications:
Fuhrmann, IFIP Networking 2005 and Caesar et al., SIGCOMM 2006 and SSR
XOs needed: 3 For handing out to Students and testing

Video Editing for the XO

Project: "Arrange", "Edit", and "Mix"
Proposer: Robert Ochshorn
Impact: Arrange is an addition to the "Record" activity,
   Edit and Mix form a new core application
Brief description: "Arrange" allows basic sequencing
   of media in Record, "Edit" allows advanced track-based
   sequencing of audio and video, "Mix" auto-generates
   montages. See Projects/VideoEditing)
Need for laptops: 1

Pilot Study

Project: "Collaborate - communicate": partnerschips between kids in different cultural environments
Proposer: "Michele Notari / Martin Hofmann / Beat Doebeli Honegger" [[1]]
Impact: "Getting involved in how to use the XO as tool for learning, focussing collaboration 
   and communication in informal learning situations"
Brief description: "Collaboration": We want to analyse mechanismes and concepts 
   of collaboration and communication of kids using the Xo' in (formal and) 
   informal learning situations.
   We will formulate needs do's and dont's for using XO's in target countries. 
   We plan partnerships with teacher education universities in other countries and will connect the participating swiss children with children in the other countries.   
   Communication and collaboration might take place with non textual media (image / sound /). 
Need for laptops: 50 Power supply 220V/50Hz to use in Switzerland. 
   Preferred keyboard layouts are de_DE ).
   XOs will be in constant use in St. Gallen and Schwyz, emulation isn't possible due to the fact,
   that we want to equip two classes of children  in primary schools with the XO's. 
   Collaboration among the children should take place using mesh network. 
   We wish to compare the two classes.