Support meetings/20080302
Sunday, Mar 2 2008, 4-6PM EST
Attendees
Community Support Volunteers confirmed:
Angie Pao (1CC, Massachusetts) Aaron Kaplan (Vienna, Austria) Greg Smith (1CC, Massachusetts) Gary Bickford (Rhode Island) Sandy Culver (Massachusetts) Vesna Misanovic (Stuttgart, Germany) Henry Hardy (1CC, Massachusetts) Caryl Bigenho (Southern California) Enky (Enkhmunkh Zurgaanjin, 1CC, Massachusetts, Mongolia) Enky's Mongolian friend John Webster (Arizona) Sebastian Silva (Lima, Peru) ixo (Washington State) Michael Burns (New York) Greg Babbin (New Hampshire) SJ Klein (1CC, Massachusetts) Adam Holt (1CC, Massachusetts) ADD YOUR NAME IF WE MISSED YOU!
Guest Speaker
Enkhmunkh Zurgaanjin, from the Mongolian Deployment Team
- Enky is a junior at MIT, studying Computer Science and Engineering, from Mongolia, is one of the team members for the OLPC implementation in Mongolia.
- Enky will talk about the actual implementation experience, problems encountered, and the future implementation.
Mongolia...between Russia and China. 2.7 million Nomadic lifestyle. Education changing from 10 to 12 yrs. 1/2 million in school. Not all schools connected...working on fiber-optic connections. Enky was member of deployment team for 5-6 weeks in Dec -jan. 1000 laptops in 2 schools set up networks. They trained teachers, worked with Ministry of Education setting up infrastructure, and worked with Linux groups. Fundraising events with lots of "official people" eg Word Bank, UN, ambassidors
Set up fiber-optics internet. Had opening ceremony. gave out laptops president was there. working toward deployment of 9000 more this spring. Language was a problem. Content deficit in Mongolian language. Some of next phase most will go remote areas in countryside (many very small schools). The 2 current schools are in cities. Government is extending fiber-optics from Post Office to schools.
All Mongolians are familiar with OLPC
Q How many laptops DOA.
A. A few, most they fixed. Also tested in very low temperature
Q. School server
A. Yes...2 per school 200 students per server
Q. Did the mesh work?
A. Yes
Q. What were teachers interested in...
A. Ways to integrate in teaching. Constructionist education
Q. How did you get 1000 laptops ready to go with software installation.
A. Used usb and did them one at a time. Did with no electricity, just battery power. Teachers and students helped. Took about a day.Want to put translated software on next group of laptops...also use Mongoilan/English keyboard.
Q. How will nomadic lifestyle affect deployment?
A. The nomadic children know what a computer can do. Most children go to boarding school but many children have to take time out to help with livestock. Can take laptop with them when they go. Sunny all year...solar will work well there.
Q. Support for repairs?
A. Taught teachers to do some simple repairs with keyboards, antennae, and the like. Linux community and university will help with some support.
Aside...Holt...a lot of in-house debugging going on with mesh networking, mesh portal, etc.
Peru Deployment Imminente: how we/others might help!
Sebastian...born in Peru, lived in Chile most of life. Overview of Peru Deployment: Been working with many Linux people. 10 million people in Lima? Rural deployment starting with 4 (6000?) one-room schools in rural areas. Face just one problem at a time.
Small meeting yesterday at his house...12 people. Training starting in Lima Monday for official people.
Walter and Wad in Peru now working on the deployment. 10,000 laptops in first deployment. Local governments can request more. He is trying to get the volunteers organized to work on projects. There may be 4-6 deployment/implementation/training groups total...working somewhat independently. He is trying to build community. Linux "culture of sharing" is new there. Not sharing, not bonding, he is trying to get them together on irc #olpc-es
Greg Smith: A call from someone in Uruguay. idea to have a community website for teachers. An event coming up in Uruguay. Pablo wants to show it to teachers and encourage them to use it and to give input. Want teachers and students to be able to tell what they like and don't like...give feedback. On http://fuentelibre.org look for "international deployment".
Want spanish speakers to help with getting the site going. Good feedback from Uruguay. Want a tool for teachers to communicate with developers.
...Vesna from Stuttgart unable to edit teamwiki pages.
Refining Volunteering Opportunities towards post-G1G1
Lots to talk about as always, in so many areas!! Including one large bank offering us 500 volunteers...
Job Opportunities
Experienced Support Specialist -- OLPC is seeking to hire a contractor immediately. Please contact < holt AT laptop DOT org > for details if you wish to apply.
Grassroots Development
How 60+ of us here can each get to know each other Much Better? How can we improve https://laptop.org/teamwiki/index.php/Team:Supporters#mainly_support ? Has everyone created a teamwiki account? Start here if not: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC:Requests
IXO : Linux Fest in Seattle April 26-27...working on getting green t-shits for it. Will take extra orders for support-gang members who would like to get them.
Mel working on getting a "health jam" going in Seattle the week before. As well as Story Jam New York Mch 28-30!
CEBit in Germany...will have a free booth for XO. It is a huge conference.
On wiki...Exhibit FAQ has some common questions that people have at exhibits.
Discussed desire of donors to know where their "other laptop" went. Someone suggested that children take a photo of themselves and write a letter (as a class project) and send them out to the donors.
Like to have a better OLPC_world_map showing current deployment from G1G1
Reorg: Four sections: Tech Kim, Deployment Walter, Chuck Kane (part-time) runs Biz Development, Robert Fadel runs Admin.
http://projectdb.olpc.at Aaron is sending a link.
Working with new developer program. People can apply for XOs Will be able to see who is nearby working on projects. Can contact the person to arrange to test their work on a real XO.
Holt...don't expect 250 laptops/month sent out. Perhaps 50/month for starters. Also backlog of over 100 requests we will work thru. In future, support people, educators, cheerleaders, etc may be approved. If they prove their contribution to the community. Content programmers as well as SW programmers, etc!