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HowTo [ID# 56193]  +/-

Dear NAME,

I thought you might be interested in the Summer of Content project (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Summer_of_Content_2007), which catalyzes and supports open content creation (with a focus on developing nations) by matching interns with mentors from existing open-content projects and providing stipends to the interns that allow them to work full-time on their project. Summer of Content is being run by a team from the One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC, http://laptop.org) and the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL, http://col.org) and organizations such as Fedora, Google, and Name.com are already on board. Project ideas include: running conferences in Manila and Vancouver, making webcomics, teaching classes at a local university, starting a paper exchange between undergraduate students, translating textbooks, and more.

If you're telling them about a specific PROJECT, EVENT, or ORGANIZATION, place that information here. For instance, "In particular, we'll be running an event on August 20..." or "In particular, NAME from ORGANIZATION has been working on a project that..."

The program's inaugural kickoff is on August 10, and a second run is scheduled for the Southern Summer, with projects beginning in December. If you'd like to learn more, or for questions about the Summer of Content program overall, contact Mel Chua (mel@laptop.org); SJ Klein (OLPC) and Wayne Mackintosh (CoL) are also involved.

Thanks and best wishes,

SIGNATURE

PS: Here's a description from the website, http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Summer_of_Content:

The Summer of Content (SoCon) program offers budding creators mentorship and stipends to develop open content and run free culture events throughout the world. Inspired by Google's Summer of Code program, our goal is to support a self-sustaining ecosystem of open content by encouraging growth of contributor communities, and attention to communication and accessibility around projects, where they're most needed.

There are two Summer sessions a year, each lasting approximately 10 weeks: a Northern Summer running between June and August and a Southern Summer running between December and February. (The current Northern Summer 2007 is a pilot run, taking place in August and September 2007.)

Each summer, applicants, mentors, and the open content community define open content projects that need working on. Applicants describe the projects they want to work on and the kind of work they want to do. Mentor organizations describe the projects they can support and the mentors they have available. SoCon acts as matchmaker for mentors and interns, and project work begins! The Summer ends with a series of local Jams around the world to showcase and gather feedback on the new creations.