Talk:OLPCorps Africa

shouldn't there be two 'c's, as in "OLPCcorps" ?

How do students initiate projects?

This seems to be missing is a clear statement of what it is you are asking of people... How should students know what to do to come up with the necessary NGO connection, project scope, and proposal language? (paraphrased from wb)
- Re: NGO Connection - We are looking for students who already have an established connection with an NGO, School, or some prior relationship (e.g. family ties).
- Re: Project Scope - As with anything, this is a learning process for everyone involved. We will work closely with teams over the coming months to develop their proposals. We'd like to solicit the olpc community to help with assiting others so that they, too, can be a part of the olpc family.
- Re: Proposal Language - We do not want a specific proposal language for every applicant. We're not looking for uniformity but, rather, creativity. What makes each project proposal stand out? Who goes above and beyond? Who shows that they're truly committed? Does a group not fit a certain criteria, but applies anyway just to show that they can and will do it better than anyone else? That's who we want to see. Like I said before, this is our first process, and one that is significantly constrained because of time. For that reason, we will go with what we can handle and not overextend ourselves. -Paul C.

I would argue that this would be rather hard to organize, without any help, for the individuals interested. As stated above, a clear statement is indeed needed – so is some more assistance. Is the one month deadline realistic for individuals?
- Yes, organizing this will be difficult, as this is the first time. For that reason, everyone in the OLPC community should think about what s/he can do to support the interns. Remember, this is a university student program who are learning, too. Everyone should contribute and learn from the process. We should support OLPC projects. And there are ways to do just that. Have community members reach out to specific groups. Ask them what help they need. Let's revise the deployment guide and tailor it to small-scale 100 XO deployments. -Paul C.

It would be helpful to have a quick guide to making a good proposal, especially for people who are only proficient in English and don't have the same expectations of proposal style/language that you do / that american university summer-program offices do. --Sj talk 14:59, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
- We are fully aware of the varying degrees of language we will receive. As this is our first time, we're setting a high level of proficiency for English so that we can work out all the kinks that arise. As we move forward, we can determine better ways to incorporate additional languages, like French, Kiswahili, etc. Keep in mind, we're focusing on African students, not to create another American-based internship program abroad.

Would it be helpful to create a forum thread for individuals seeking to group up, preferably on http://en.forum.laptop.org/ ?
- YES! Great idea. Let's do it, particularly because many people are unfamiliar with wiki at first! Can you start one and email me at commons@laptop.org? I will include the link in every email response so that we start generating more questions/answers/discussion/etc. This will really get the word out about the forum. Have any other ideas? -Paul C.

It would really be helpful if IU OHOT (or OLPC) could post the proposal that they (IU OHOT) submitted in order to initiate this program. It would help to give people a clear understanding of what's expected without requiring significant new work (like outlining requirements). Given the amount of preparation necessary to prepare a successful deployment, I would say that time is short and getting a model proposal up here quickly would greatly increase the chances of the Corps receiving qualified proposals before the deadline. --Dan talk
- re: program - There was no formal, written proposal submitted to start this program. The program started after several conversations around the idea. re: model proposal - the IU group is submitting a proposal in the coming days. However, student teams shouldn't base what they do only on this example, as this is but 1 group. This should simply serve to generate ideas so we can all learn from them. -Paul C.

What kind of hardware will OLPC provide the teams? It seems as though that will make up a large amount of the expenses that cut into the $10K stipend (i.e. solar panels if necessary, storage battery, XOP's/MBC's, etc.). If the teams knew exactly what hardware they would receive in addition to the server, they could probably plan their costs a lot better.
- We are creating the following bundle which will be provided to each team: 100XOs & 1 server. Power may/may not be provided based on circumstances of each proposal. We are working on finding access points at the moment. The server will be provided as part of the package, not subtracted from the 'up to $10,000' - Paul C.