Contributors program/October 31, 2008

Time : 1410-1425 EST / 1810-1825 UTC

Agenda

• laptops out to date / this week
• local laptop pools (temporary, long term)

• major outstanding requests
  • BostonPool 15
  • CodeCamp France 20
  • Activitymapping 5
  • Video podcasting 4
  • Tanzania Rhotia Valley 5

bjaodn

Seth Y of Furillo University, requesting 1,000,000:

We are ready to move forward in this time of balancing of our perceptions and the light of truth. Understanding of reality comes from that balance. We at Unified Worldwide wish to give these tools of understanding to our children to prepare themselves for their future. If we can not provide them with XO laptops; we must find another tool to supply them with. We are determined to bring about needed changes in this world we live in and bounty that will enrich us all.

I am a computer science major with two semesters left to graduate. I live in my home town of Monroe, Louisiana and attend ULM. Furillo is a street in the impoverished south-side that I came to know and cherish working as delivery driver. I am going to write stories introducing Furillo as my home town where life systematically taught me Magic using scientific method and mathematical proof.

My company, Unified Worldwide 4631 Jonesboro Rd. West Monroe, La. 71292, is authorized by the state of Louisiana to do resell goods via a physical store or through the Internet. I have another company that is exploring ways to generate energy by manipulating the physical properties of water and light; but that is a story that I must be paid for telling.

...

I have a friend that is a two year old child diagnosed with Autism. I feel that she was wrongly assessed. I think that the world is a scary place that we all do not fully understand. I think that that child is trying to understand the world on her own terms; but she lacks the tools see beyond her eyes. The XO laptop is perfectly suited give her access to knowledge that mankind has accumulated and shared with the Internet.

...

Traditional, structured education enforces set curriculum at set intervals that do not take the individual children into consideration. Mathematics, which is the definition of structure; is taught erratically with more emphasis placed correct combinations instead of enforcing the underlying concepts. We spend multiple hundreds of dollars per student on books per year, which are rendered obsolete by the passing years. The only instruction given with computers is how to operate office suites opposed to teaching the principles that computers operate upon.

I know young children that need a tool to help them explore and understand the world spinning around them. These children want to learn to fish; but all we give them is fish-sticks. I am willing to become a teacher, but I need a supplier of \\\'nets.

My company, Unified Worldwide, wishes to incorporate philanthropy with industry to create wealth and prosperity in the most shunned and ignored impoverished areas in the world and my home, Greater Northern Louisiana. We intend to bring about the integration of Internet access into the infrastructure of our society. The XO laptop embodies the resource sharing techniques that I want to teach my children to emulate.

Unified Worldwide wishes to sell XO laptops through our store, the Furillo Depot. We are prepared to accept shipment of 100,000 units per month or more. We multiple options open to us to generate revenue and most of the profits we gain from sales of the laptops redistributed back into our community.

We are ready to move forward in this time of balancing of our perceptions and the light of truth. Understanding of reality comes from that balance. We at Unified Worldwide wish to give these tools of understanding to our children to prepare themselves for their future. If we can not provide them with XO laptops; we must find another tool to supply them with. We are determined to bring about needed changes in this world we live in and bounty that will enrich us all.

followups

• No Family WO One (x80)

• • SD testers, nat'l & int'l.
  • Philippines x15 (out)
  • Jamaica x10 (going out, epocolis and all)
  • LXDE - 20

We have tested LXDE on one OLPC that we could get. It already works, although we had to strip down some functions. We are developing a fully functional desktop replacement for GNOME and KDE and involve about 30 developers from Asia and Europe on a continuous basis at the moment with different experiences. Our core developers have experience dating back to 1998 when they ported Linux to Chinese. Many are active in the debian development or have free software related jobs.

• • Skidmore - 20

We will work closely with the Paraguay team (Raúl Gutiérrez) the University of Wisconsin (Silas Bernardoni) and look to expand our collaboration with other universities. The formation of the organization is advancing at a rapid pace, and we need the laptops to proceed further. Based on the number of interested students attending the meetings, I would say that 20 laptops would suit our needs, at least initially.

• • Visual Language, OLPC for Health, Multi-robot workshop
  • Shining Star Academy update, w/phone

• Uni projects
  • check up on Semmy, Duke, others

• projectdb development: open sourcing, pia, dogi
  • community feedback : project forms, bimonthly updates?
  • email and other spam

Attending

• Sj
• ..

outstanding requests

15 for Boston area XOs