It's getting to be time to buy tickets for XOCamp 2, which is in under a month now. Those of us who'd like to come from far away would love to know whether we can get some financial support for our journey. However, the <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XOcamp_2/Fundraising">relevant wiki page</a> is somewhat out-of-date. When I asked today on IRC: [13:45] <cscott> yes, but both SL and OLPC have issues with actually being the coordinating party; there are tax implications [13:45] <cscott> it might even be best if someone not affiliated took on the coordination [13:46] <cscott> poke bernie hard about it; he's a little more empowered to act on behalf of SL than I am to act on behalf of OLPC [13:46] <cscott> and i'm sure that if you volunteer to help w/ the coordination, it would be appreciated So bernie, consider this a hard poke. Others who'd be willing to donate, consider this a request to add your pledge to the wiki page. Anyone outside SL/OLPC but inside the US who can do the actual money coordination (funnel money through checks and/or paypal, devote some time to handling the issues involved) please step forward. And in general, this is also me volunteering to take some tasks: if someone will explain to me how the money part works, I would be happy to do a fundraising post for OLPC News, to blog it on the planet, to keep the wiki up-to-date, and/or to be in charge of contacting people. As for a mechanism for distribution, I propose the following. 50% of the money would be divided equally between applicants, and 50% would be divided proportional to any remaining travel costs. We can also ask people for whom it is not the single primary reason for the trip to please take only half of the money. I think that anybody who's going to come to Boston specifically to attend XOCamp, from more than 500 miles away, should be funded, whether or not they are signed up as speakers. I don't see enough benefit in trying to divide people by merit or need for it to be worth the drama. (And I say this as an applicant who's about average in most regards; I can't even think of any plausible proposal that would benefit me specifically). Cheers, Jameson