User:Mchua/Braindumps/Chicago office/Charter thoughts - Mel

First: we are not only about Chicago. There's a whole state out there - a whole world, really - of kids whose real potential isn't yet being tapped. We live in the places that we do, and we have ties to our local communities, and change starts at home - but let's not forget that there are excellent hackers in the south, that we should reach out and hold events throughout the suburbs as much as we should in the metro areas, that the network of IL schools reaches far past the bounds of the commuter rail, and that the seat of our legislature isn't in the gigantic hub up north, but in a bustling hive of activity in the middle of the state.

And we are not only about an office. In fact, we may not need a physical office. It's probably more accurate to say that we're a regional nucleation group, and that our charter is (or should be) not to get big and important and ourselves, but to do things in order to help other grassroots groups in the area thrive. Let me explain a little more.

I see this summer as a time to lay the proof-of-concept groundwork (in terms of technology, infrastructure, curriculum, and a vibrant volunteer community to support all three and more) so later on it will be possible for grassroots groups - any grassroots group that wants to - to go to the State of Illinois and say "this works - we should do it for more schools." (If it does work - we don't know yet if it will - I'm working on this because I think it will.)

By "laying proof-of-concept-groundwork," I mean making other local grassroots groups more solid - I'm deliberately trying not to build up long-term infrastructure under the nucleation group (which will happen to have a physical office somewhere in the Chicago area, and have a charter to support efforts in IL for these first few months) because I want to avoid an XO monoculture, especially in these crucial starting months when nobody knows what's going to happen or what works - we want to encourage folks to take their own initiatives, start their own projects, build their own infrastructures that'll stand on their own two feet - and still communicate with the local (and the global) OLPC community. Seed lots of independent, diverse options, and let best practices emerge.

Or in other words, "we're in business to put ourselves out of business." Not that we don't want to stick around, but that since "what's needed" is an open question and the answer is in flux, I want to put an explicit sunset clause of end-of-August on the nucleation group, and take a step back closer to that date and figure out whether/how to go forward then, when we know more.