[IAEP] Aiban's thoughts on SL funding/bounties

[Edward Cherlin]

On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 8:21 AM, Mel Chua <mel at melchua.com> wrote:
> There was a comment on my blog post I thought folks might be interested
> in (from http://blog.melchua.com/2009/01/08/melavailabilityfree/).
>
> SLOBS might need to do the first, as I imagine #1 would involve The
> Legal Paperwork Stuff, but #2 and #3 can be community, for sure.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> ------
>
> Good for you. But no need to limit this new opportunity to exclusively a
> voluntary role. For people like me, it is now easier to determine where
> my OLPC related donations and mindshare should go to in order to support
> OSS-education.

More opportunities are opening up. It is not only XOs and Sugar that
we need to support, but

o Infrastructure, especially electricity and Internet

o Economic opportunity, such as jobs for graduates, and also funding
for businesses where the students can give IT assistance to parents
and others in the community

o The whole new "post-Gutenberg" class of digital teaching materials
that we are just starting to invent

o What they call "capacity building" in development jargon, that is,
training locals to take over all aspects of the development work

> Some ideas:
> 1) Sugarlabs should create a way to become a supporting "member." One
> time donations are great, but harder to budget payroll on for an
> enthusiastic team of developers. Plus, it gives donors bragging rights
> when they pull out their "membership card" to show their buddies.

Good idea. Other organizations need to do this, too.

> 2) How about an activity bounties page? I know some people who would be
> more than happy to put a bounty on for improvements on the video chat
> activity.

Andrius Kulikauskus of Minciu Sodas Laboratory for independent
thinkers has previously proposed $100 projects to be done by people in
developing nations, and funded several.

> 3) OLPC will happen, and very soon, but probably not through the XO
> brand (at least not exclusively).

Pixel Qi will be an important brand for this.

> OSS and cheap hardware will be key to
> this, and it will not be limited to 3rd world countries. Seems like a
> nice niche for consulting. I know who I would NOT be calling if I happen
> to be sponsoring a school to establish OSS based learning. Let the world
> know you are available and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Earth Treasury would like to create an integrated development program
including OSS-based learning and the other elements mentioned above,
for a start. Further ideas welcome. We propose to create this program
and offer it to governments for way cheaper than the usual suspects in
the consulting business.

> Anyway, I strongly believe that history will show this is all for the
> better for all of us. Cheers!

Given that Nicholas Negroponte is able to see some of his faults as a
manager, but apparently incapable of doing anything effective about
them, you may be right.

> By Aibun on Jan 8, 2009 | Edit
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>



-- 
Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai