User:Mchua/Bootcamp application

This is my application to the Grassroots bootcamp event in June 2008.

Vital stats

1. name: Mel Chua
2. email: mel at laptop dot org

Favorite accomplishment

Tell us about the OLPC-relevant accomplishment you are most proud of.

Game Jam Boston, my first involvement with OLPC (I co-organized the event). Doing so scared the living daylights out of me, and led to significant sleep debt - in the end, though, we had over 100 people come participate, the first large batch of community-contributed activities were produced, local kids came in to test and had a great time, and some of the participants (including myself) went on to do many more things for OLPC.

Other OLPC activities I'm proud of:

• co-founding the Summer of Content program
• being a part of the Support gang during the chaotic and critical Jan-March 2008 months when a flood of G1G1 donors was coming in
• working with University chapters - one highlight of this was watching the IMSA students present at Google Chicago and completely blow the audience away. ("Those were high school students?")... another was going to a Jam that the Olin students were running... I'm in tremendous awe of how the Olin students picked up the idea of a school chapter and just ran with it!

Bootcamp motivations

Why do you want to come to the bootcamp? I feel like I've picked up bits and pieces of what's needed to do a good grassroots group during the time I've spent volunteering and interning at OLPC, but lack an overarching mental framework of What Makes A Good Grassroots Group that I can put it all together in (and more importantly, use as a resource when helping other people figure things out). I'd like to come to the bootcamp because I think it will force me to come up with (and document) that framework and bring clarity to my thinking about how independent groups can be encouraged to form, and nurtured when they do form. I also want to brush up on my technical skills so that I can more readily contribute technical aid to grassroots groups over the coming summer.

What can you contribute to the bootcamp? Extreme documentation tendencies. Hypothetically, I have an ECE background and a reasonable amount of programming experience; realistically, I consider it my job to ask "stupid newbie questions" and write the answers down so that others can benefit from them (also, I often am a newbie and slow to grasp hackerly things.) I can also contribute a perspective of experience in running Jams (and other events organized at the last moment) and how my improvisational comedy background greatly aids this, and the tendencies I've noticed in University chapters that make those particular kinds of groups tend to succeed.

How will you support grassroots initiatives after the bootcamp? (A short proposal would be good here.) I will be working with the ILXO office in the Chicagoland area within a week of the bootcamp ending. Our charter is to foster and support independent OLPC groups and pilots in Illinois, so my entire summer will be devoted to supporting grassroots initiatives. See ILXO for more details.

(Optional) Will you need aid (housing, food, transportation, etc.) to attend? No - at least not while in Boston. Getting transport to/from NYC and housing while in NYC for the Jam (I plan on attending) would be a plus, though.

Is there anything else you would like us to know about you? I enjoy cheese and vegetarian food (though I'm not vegetarian). I'm currently interning at 1cc.

Prerequisites

Bundle creation

Content bundle - poesia en espanol.xol

Community support

RT username mchua: 4396, 4397, 4700, 4864, 5144, 5145, 5298, 5411, 5417, 5419, 5421, 5424, 5555, 5642, 5713, 5724, 5748, 5763, 5771, 5814, 5831, 5833, 5858, 5935, 5937, 6829, 7249, 7408, 7416, 7542, 7622, 7666, 7725, 7744, 7757, 7769, 7770, 7870, 7875, 7972, 8007, 8011, 8015, 8118, 8126, 8132, 8152, 8163, 8165, 8211, 8231, 8241, 8255, 8294, 8295, 8314, 8334, 8350, 8359, 8853, 9450, 9457, 9473, 9476, 9481, 9484, 9490, 9513, and many others (assisting people on #olpc-help, assisting with tickets owned by other users, etc).