ILXO

This page is a placeholder and serves as the ILXO site until we get our servers up and running (May 2, 2008).

Office

We are currently seeking an office location for June 15 - September 1, 2008.

Must have

• 400+ square feet (probably 400-1000 square feet range)
• easily accessible via public transport (which trains/buses?)
• handicap-accessible
• open to us 24/7 (how does building access work? security? visitors?)
• have high-speed internet access available (how fast? from who? how much will it cost?)

Bonus points

• open floorplans rather than isolated offices are a plus
• parking available (how many spaces? private or public? how much does it cost?) Ideally we would love to have at least one parking space reserved for the Turtlemobile, our mobile office.

Other questions to ask

• utilities - how much do they typically cost? What is included in the rent? (Water, heat/gas, AC, electricity...)
• bathrooms - does it have one? if not, where is the nearest accessible bathroom?
• equipment - is having a microwave/fridge/toaster in the office ok? Small electronic/mechanical fabrication devices (oscilloscopes, soldering irons, dremels, drills)?
• modifications to the office - what can/can't we do with the space? Hang posters? Paint the walls? Put signs on the windows?
• security and safety - what's the neighborhood like? Is it safe at night? What resources are there in the event of an emergency (police/fire/hospital nearby)?
• repairs - who is responsible for them and how would we go about contacting you in the event of an emergency? If something breaks, should we call the landlord, fix it and get reimbursed, etc...?
• other (insurance?

Good things to know

• We have funds available for deposits and the first few months of rent.
• Any discounts or donations we could get would be greatly appreciated (and would allow us to use our limited funds on outreach programs instead) - we'll be bringing a lot of positive publicity to your organization/location, and can negotiate classes and/or engineering/design/computer work as part of an exchange.
• To sweeten the deal on discounts, donations to ILXO are tax-deductible (and you can typically mark up discounts as such on your tax returns).
• We'd prefer a short-term (3-month, June 1 - Sep 1) lease, but may make exceptions and sign a year-long lease for a really awesome place.

Van

We also have a mobile office, The Turtlemobile, which travels throughout the state to run classes, bootcamps, hackathons, training sessions, and mini-conferences. Information on how to get the Turtlemobile come to your community will be posted soon.

Mission

ILXO is an independent skunkworks lab for OLPC grassroots groups. We catalyze and support independent OLPC grassroots groups in Illinois as well as projects and collaborations involving them. We aim to be effective enough to render ourselves obsolete by September 2008.

In other words, we're a regional nucleation group, and our charter is to help other grassroots groups in the area thrive (not to build a big monolithic lump of bureaucracy downtown). Our philosophy is to seed lots of independent, diverse options, let best practices for grassroots groups emerge, and share these best practices with others.

Think of us as a team of full-time pro-bono OLPC consultants you can call on all summer to help with your OLPC-related groups, projects, events, and more. We have a wide range of research interests and areas of expertise, and we're here to build tools, resources, networks, contacts, and provide occasional catalytic kicks. Ultimately, we're here for the summer so that by the end of the summer, you'll all know more than we will about everything - if we're successful, by the end of summer, ILXO will have rendered itself unnecessary.

Because of this, we have an explicit sunset clause of September 1, 2008. In the weeks leading up to that date, we'll step back as a community and see where we are and where our individual, collaborative, and collective efforts might go next once the sun sets on ILXO V.1.0. Who knows? It could always rise again.

Philosophies

Transparency is good. We believe in sharing ideas and as soon as other people can do something with the information even if those ideas aren't completely worked-out, because given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.

Ask forgiveness, not permission. The world is open-source and hackable, and everyone can contribute patches to improve it without having to be approved by some arbitrary Rubber Stamp of Authority first.

To learn more, fail faster. Try audacious experiments, fall flat on your face, tell everyone what did and didn't work, and do this over and over again until you emerge with something you'd like to stick with.

Our work is done when it can continue without us. We're in business to put ourselves out of business. Teaching, automating, documenting, and training others to carry on our work is the most important work we can do.

Staff

Our all-volunteer, full-time staff, in alphabetical order with research projects in parentheses (where applicable).

• Andrea Lai - Biomedical engineer (Science lab kits)
• Chris Carrick - Mechanical engineer (Off-grid charger design)
• Melanie Kim - Documentation/training intern (Language learning through RPGs)
• Mel Chua - Software engineer (Accessibility)
• Mia Kato - QA/Test intern (Environmental impact)
• Nikki Lee - Electrical and computer engineer (Signal processing on the XO)