OLPC Learning Club - DC

OLPC Learning Club - DC - February Meeting: Young OLPC Social Entrepreneurs

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:32:00 GMT

We return to Gallaudet University this snowy February to meet two young social entrepreneurs who are making a big difference in the OLPC community. What: Family XO Meetupâ¨ When: Saturday,Â February 20th, 2010, 10 am to 1pmâ¨ Where: Gallaudet University <tmpl_var LEFT_BRACKET>Map: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2ldf52">http://tinyurl.com/2ldf52</a> <tmpl_var RIGHT_BRACKET>Student Academic Center,â¨ **NOTE ROOM CHANGE: We are UPSTAIRS from the old meeting rooms in the basement on the first floor, in computer lab SAC 1010, Washington, D.C. 20002 In the summer of 2009, Beth Santos worked with OLPC and an NGO to successfully deploy 100 XO laptops at a secondary school on the small island nation of SÃ£o TomÃ© and PrÃncipe, which is in the Gulf of Guinea off the western equatorial coast of Africa. Beth will share some stories from her remarkable journey and detail her plans to return to the island this year with more laptops. Beth's web site <a href="http://bit.ly/DxHbA">http://bit.ly/DxHbA</a> Perfectly complimenting Bethâs talk, Luke Faraone, a longtime member of the Learning Club, will conduct a beginnerâs workshop on maintaining and repairing the XO laptop hardware. Luke runs the Learning Clubâs busy repair center, which is authorized by OLPC to install original replacement parts and revive laptop software that refuses to start.Â  The XO laptop is uniquely designed to be easily repaired in the field with an ordinary screwdriver. Please bring your XO laptop and a small Phillips head screwdriver if you want to follow along. Luke's web site <a href="http://luke.faraone.cc/">http://luke.faraone.cc/</a> DC Repair Center <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_DC_Repair">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_DC_Repair</a> More help for the children of Haiti After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, many immediately thought of the rugged XO laptop as a perfect solution for bringing education to the children in the camps. In addition to longer-term plans with other NGOs, OLPC has come up with a plan to recover unused Give One, Get One laptops. Visit the OLPC blog for details on where to ship if you have one to donate. OLPC Haiti <a href="http://bit.ly/6V8a6I">http://bit.ly/6V8a6I</a> Upcoming eventsâ¦ Thursday, March 11 - Project H Design has begun its Design Revolution Road Show featuring a display of 36 innovative products (from their book of 100, which includes the XO laptop) that are making a significant social impact in the world. The national mobile tour brings their Airstream trailer to Baltimore for a stop and evening lecture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Design Revolution Road Show <a href="http://bit.ly/1td9Bs">http://bit.ly/1td9Bs</a> Saturday, March 20 - Weâll be back at the Arlington Career Center. For more information and updates: <a href="http://olpclearningclub.org/">http://olpclearningclub.org/</a> Hope to see you, Mike Lee curouslee <tmpl_var LEFT_BRACKET>at<tmpl_var RIGHT_BRACKET> gmail <tmpl_var LEFT_BRACKET>dot<tmpl_var RIGHT_BRACKET> com

OLPC Learning Club - DC - January meeting in Arlington - Sugar Labs DC to release its TimeLapse Activity for the OLPC XO

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:03:00 GMT

TimeLapse is computer software for the Sugar Learning Platform used to gather periodic data (sound and images). It is the first software activity developed by Sugar Labs DC and runs on the OLPC XO-1 laptop. The idea for TimeLapse grew out of the exciting, eclectic, interdisciplinary meeting of scientists, computer programmers, pedagogues, and hardware hobbyists originally brought together by the OLPC Learning Club DC. Dr. Frank Linton, who has an observation bee hive in his house, was interested in studying the relationship between the sound made by the hive and the health and well being of the bees inside. He wondered if he could use his XO laptop to gather periodic sound sampling from the hive. This real world need became the seed for the development of TimeLapse. Over the past two years, with Dr. Linton acting as customer, Jeff Elkner, and a group of young programmers from Sugar Labs, DC have made steady improvements to TimeLapse. The current release is the first one that is installable through the Browse Activity in Sugar, making TimeLapse easily available to Sugar users all over the world. Come celebrate the accomplishment of these talented young programmers. Bring your XO and try out TimeLapse for yourself. Note time change!!! When: Saturday, January 16th, 2010, 1 pm to 4 pm Arlington Career Center 816 South Walter Reed Drive, Arlington, VA 22204 Walter Bender of Sugar Labs will join in by video conference from Cambridge, MA. Weâll also raffle off an original copy of the new XtraOrdinary 2010 SD card! In other news, OLPC has partnered with General Mills to launch a year-long 'Win & Give' sweepstakes. Families in the continental U.S. who purchase specially marked boxes of Betty Crocker fruit snacks can enter a code on <a href="http://www.winonegiveone.com">http://www.winonegiveone.com</a> for a chance to win an XO laptop and give one to a child in Africa. No purchase is necessary. The site offers a method to generate codes for mail-in. I've collected photos, links and screenshots here <a href="http://bit.ly/6ba6En">http://bit.ly/6ba6En</a> Please visit the Learning Club blog for links to additional information <a href="http://www.olpclearningclub.org">http://www.olpclearningclub.org</a> Hope to see you! Mike Lee curiouslee <tmpl_var LEFT_BRACKET>at<tmpl_var RIGHT_BRACKET> gmail <tmpl_var LEFT_BRACKET>dot<tmpl_var RIGHT_BRACKET> com

OLPC Learning Club - DC Sugar Blueberry released, December dinner

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:44:00 GMT

Congratulations to the team at Sugar Labs who has officially released another major update to the Sugar Learning Platform in the form of the significantly enhanced âBlueberryâ version 2.0 of Sugar on a Stick. In the time it takes to bake a holiday cake, you can install Blueberry one or two USB flash drives to try out with a young child on a desktop PC or laptop. As can be seen from the photo above, Iâve got it installed on several USB flash drives and SD cards. Blueberry on a flash drive makes a great stocking stuffer, but donât leave the drive in your stocking or on the tree for too long! More info here: <a href="http://bit.ly/7ZVMwP">http://bit.ly/7ZVMwP</a> For December, the Learning Club will gather at Taste of India in Woodley Park, DC to reflect on the year past and discuss plans for 2010. Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 6:30 - 8:30pm Taste of India 2621 Connecticut Avenue Northwest (near Woodley Park Metro) Washington, DC 20008-1522 (202) 483-1115 * Map <a href="http://bit.ly/5YekhS">http://bit.ly/5YekhS</a> * Web site <a href="http://toidc.com">http://toidc.com</a> It would be a good idea to RSVP before Tuesday evening 12/15 so we have an idea. Email Mike at curiouslee <tmpl_var LEFT_BRACKET>at<tmpl_var RIGHT_BRACKET> gmail.com and Kevin at dcloco <tmpl_var LEFT_BRACKET>at<tmpl_var RIGHT_BRACKET> gmail.com. There are a number of other notes and reminders linked on the Learning Club blog: <a href="http://www.olpclearningclub.org">http://www.olpclearningclub.org</a> Until Januaryâs meeting is scheduled, we may or may not post further on the web site. So if we donât see or hear from you, do have a safe and happy holiday! Mike

OLPC Learning Club - DC - November Meeting Date & Location Change

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:00 GMT

This month's meeting will be moved up from our normal Saturday to this Thursday night at a different location: Thursday, November 19, 6:30pm Looking Glass Lounge 3634 Georgia Ave NW One block from the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro [ Map: <a href="http://bit.ly/3amczG">http://bit.ly/3amczG</a> ] Wayan Vota of OLPC News and I will be there with plenty to talk about given the recent announcements on the upcoming 1.5, 1.75 and 3.0 laptops from OLPC and the forthcoming "Blueberry" update of Sugar. See Xconomy Boston's wide-ranging interview with Nicholas Negroponte <a href="http://bit.ly/24e9pi">http://bit.ly/24e9pi</a> We will not be meeting at the Arlington Career Center this Saturday to give Jeff a break and because Kevin Cole and I are heading to NYC for the day to help with the OLPC / Sugar Labs NY Community Summit. If by chance you're interested in the meeting, or know someone in NYC who might want to attend, here's more information: <a href="http://bit.ly/olpcny">http://bit.ly/olpcny</a> <dl> <dt>Announcements</dt> <dd> <ul> <li>The Lubuto Library Project is looking for donations of unwanted XO laptops to use in libraries they are building in Zambia for street children. Info here: <a href="http://bit.ly/rdw60">http://bit.ly/rdw60</a> </li><li>Sameer Verma of OLPC San Francisco recently sent a bunch of XO power cords. One end is the plug that goes into the XO. The other end of the full length of green wire has two bare leads. If you need a cord for a repair or project, drop me an email. Photo <a href="http://bit.ly/BuJzk">http://bit.ly/BuJzk</a> </li><li>For the recent invitation-only TEDx MidAtlantic Conference in Baltimore, an OLPC / Sugar Labs exhibit was created. This exhibit is available to be set up at other events in the D.C. area. Contact Mike if interested. Photo <a href="http://bit.ly/2nXUQE">http://bit.ly/2nXUQE</a> </li></ul> </dd></dl> We'll update the blog and send another email about December's meeting. Mike Lee curiouslee gmail com

OLPC Learning Club - DC - October at Gallaudet University - A look at the "Xtra Ordinary" SD card for the XO-1

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:39:00 GMT

For October, were back at Gallaudet University to look at a new software product for the XO-1 and an update of Sugar. What: Family XO Mesh Meetup When: Saturday, October 17th, 2009, 10 am to 1pm Where: Gallaudet University [map, aerial photo], Student Academic Center, **NOTE ROOM CHANGE: We are UPSTAIRS from the old meeting rooms in the basement on the first floor , in computer lab SAC 1212, Washington, D.C. 20002 We have a copy of Ondisks XtraOrdinary operating system which is an SD card that boots the Debian flavor of Linux. There have been other SD-based adaptations of Linux for the XO, but this is the most comprehensive to date and easily obtainable via mail order. Though all the software on the SD card is free open source, Ondisk charges $40 to cover the cost of the SD card and duplication. With this card installed, the XO becomes an adult-friendly netbook with software such as a version of Firefox, Open Office, the GIMP photo editor, Skype, Pidgin universal chat, Totem multimedia player and much more. We will demo the product and describe some of the minor quirks discovered to date. Were impressed with this effort and its a valuable contribution to the XO consumer community, especially for those who do not have time or expertise to configure Linux software. The latest 0.86 build of Sugar will also be reviewed. I will also bring news from my trip this week to the Media Lab andOLPC Headquarters. Please let us know in advance if you have any OLPC-related hardware or software support needs. For live links to more info about the software mentioned, visit the blog: <a href="http://olpclearningclub.org/">http://olpclearningclub.org/</a>

OLPC Learning Club - DC September Meeting - All about Sugar Labs DC and the new OLPC XO-1.5 laptop

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:27:00 GMT

Septembers meeting might be our most information-packed ever with Jeff Elkners report on Sugar Labs DC and a reprise of the preview at HacDC of the new XO-1.5 brought to you by SJ Klein of OLPC Headquarters. What: Special Event: Sugar Labs DC and the XO-1.5! When: Saturday, September 19th, 2009, 10 am to 1 pm 816 South Walter Reed Drive, Arlington, VA 22204 Since the formation of Sugar Labs DC back in June, Jeff Elkner at the Arlington Career Center has hit the ground running mobilizing a team of high schoolers to develop software for the Sugar Learning Platform. Jeffs students started with enhancements to TimeLapse, an Activity for the OLPC XO designed to easily record, store, and display data to be used in applications that need a scheduled recording mechanism. TimeLapse came out of a student collaboration with club member and beekeeper Dr. Frank Linton to capture periodic audio of bee sounds to access the health of the hive. That project was presented at our November 2008 meeting. Jeff will talk about current and future plans for our local lab. SJ Klein will be bringing one or both of the XO-1.5 prototype laptops that were shown at HacDC Tuesday night. SJ will talk further about OLPCs plans for the XO-1.5. In addition to the hardware improvements such as increased processor speed and memory, we were impressed with the new ability to rapidly switch between the Sugar desktop for children and the now pre-installed Gnome window manager for adults. OLPC News has blog posts about SJs talk as well as a video comparing the startup speed of the XO-1.5 to an XO-1.0. Also this past week, Kevin Cole hosted the OLPC Community Book Sprint at Gallaudet University, where onsite and virtual volunteers marshalled by Adam Holt, OLPCs community support manager, collaborated on creating a new teacher guide for deploying laptops. Filled with inspiring stories and a wealth of practical advice, the manual will go a long way to supporting the OLPC Contributors Program and small deployments all over the world. More editing and post-production remains, but you can take a look at the draft on the Floss Manuals siteor even jump in to help with writing and editing! Photos of the book sprint are on my Flickr set and another from Nancie Severs. And to cap off the weekend, XO laptops were part of the Ubuntu DC Local Community (LoCo) booth at the Takoma Park Folk Festival. Halfway through the festival, the number of visitors to the booth exceeded last years count of 180. Photos also on Flickr. Please visit the blog to see all the clickable links: <a href="http://olpclearningclub.org/">http://olpclearningclub.org/</a> Mike

OLPC Learning Club - DC August Meeting - Streaming Audio on the OLPC XO

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:23:00 GMT

What: Family XO Mesh Meetup When: Saturday, August 15th, 2009, 10 am to 1pm Where: Gallaudet University [map, aerial photo], Student Academic Center, Washington, D.C. 20002 **NOTE ROOM CHANGE: We are UPSTAIRS from the old meeting rooms in the basement on the first floor , Classroom 2 SAC1210 and Classroom 3 SAC1211. Coming in from the parking lot, go upstairs, instead of downstairs. This month, we are back at the Gallaudet Student Academic Center in the AV-equipped classroom one floor above the multi-purpose rooms where we used to meet. We have another informative presentation by our own Kim Toufectis on options for streaming audio in your XO-1 browser. Kim went on to investigate audio after researching his presentation on cloud computing. Kim will present a survey of sites hes tested that work for streaming music and news via the XO Browse Activitys built-in open source Gnash player that handles Flash files. If time permits, and some of our command line experts are around, well also demonstrate how to set up the XO to play MP3 audio from a USB flash drive. Mike will do an update on the OLPCorps Africa deployments. We will also raffle off one or more sets of folding paper eco speakers. September 19th, well back at the Arlington Career Center with a special presentation on the activities of the first few months of Sugar Labs DC by Jeff Elkner and plans are shaping up for a demo at the meeting of the upcoming XO 1.5 laptop (essentially an upgraded motherboard)! Dont forget to sign up for our meeting announcement email list if youre not already on. Load the blog page for extra links: <a href="http://olpclearningclub.org/meetings/streaming-audio-on-your-olpc-xo/">http://olpclearningclub.org/meetings/streaming-audio-on-your-olpc-xo/</a> Hope to see you there, Mike

OLPC Learning Club - DC - July Meeting - The Great 4PC Laptop Bake Off 2009

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:34:00 GMT

On Saturday, we will revisit last years OLPC News Great 4PC Laptop Bake Off. Through 2008, the netbook market continued to grow dramatically, seeking the optimal four Ps of power, performance, portability, and price. Industry analysts estimated this netbook effect drove sales of close to 12 million netbooks worldwide in 2008 and possibly 35 million in 2009. Nicholas Negroponte, who has laid claim to starting this market with the OLPC XO-1, believes that in a few years 1/2 of all laptops sold will be netbooks. Faculty and parents from Friends Community School in College Park as well as members of the Learning Club will have a variety of netbooks and other computers on hand for review including: <ul> <li>Acer Aspire One </li><li>ASUS EeePC 701 </li><li>ASUS EeePC 901 </li><li>Belco Alpha 400 ($149!) </li><li>Classmate 2 (2goPC) </li><li>Classmate 3 convertible touchscreen (2goPC) </li><li>OLPC XO-1 </li><li>Tablet PCs </li><li>Wega UMPC </li><li>and more</li></ul> Having so many laptops, netbooks and other PCs in one room will afford an excellent opportunity to test the USB flash drive version of the Sugar Learning Platform, which lets you boot into the OLPC XO s operating system on most any PC without affecting the internal hard drive. Well have a bunch of USB drives preloaded with the latest Strawberry release of Sugar. Several of the Sugar USB drives will be raffled off later in the meeting, so be sure to get to the school early enough to get a raffle ticket. The Great 4PC Laptop Bake Off Saturday, July 18th, 10am-1pm Friends Community School 5901 Westchester Park Drive College Park, MD 20705 (map link on our club web site) The next meeting dates (space confirmation pending) are Saturday, August 15 at Gallaudet and Saturday, September 19 at the Arlington Career Center. As usual, visit the web site for the linky version of this email announcement: <a href="http://www.olpclearningclub.org">http://www.olpclearningclub.org</a> Mike Lee curiouslee gmail com

OLPC Learning Club - DC - June Meeting: The Brightest Light in the Library

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:18:00 GMT

The June meeting is back at the Gallaudet University Student Academic Center. What: Family XO Mesh Meetup When: Saturday, June 20th, 2009, 10 am to 1pm Where: Gallaudet University, Student Academic Center, **NOTE ROOM CHANGE: First Floor, Classroom 2 SAC1210 and Classroom 3 SAC1211, Washington, D.C. 20002 Our guest speakers are members of the team from the Washington, D.C.-based Lubuto Library Project that deployed 10 OLPC XO-1 laptops in Lusaka, Zambia. The projects core mission is to build libraries with carefully selected high-quality books to serve street children. The team will talk about what they learned from using XOs in the library and how they plan to sustain and scale the effort. The July 18th meeting will see a return to Friends Community School in Greenbelt, MD for a reprise of last years OLPC News Great 4P Laptop Bakeoff. Bring your netbooks to compare with others and to try out the latest version of Sugar on a Stick. More details will be posted in July. At the end of the month, we will be representing OLPC and Sugar Labs at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) June 28 - July 1 at the D.C. Convention Center. There will be a batch of XO laptops at the open source pavilion in the exhibit hall and were helping Sugar Labs present at the NECC Unplugged fringe festival. If you havent heard, there are some excellent new videos on OLPC.tv of Chris Ball demonstrating the working alpha board of the upcoming XO 1.5 laptop and a Mary Lou Jepsen showing off the first commercial production samples of her companys daylight-readable LCD screen for netbooks. Mr. Biotech has created a very nice 5-minute video review (minus mesh collaboration) of the current version of Sugar. And at long last, the official URL for Sugar Labs DC, <a href="http://dc.sugarlabs.org">http://dc.sugarlabs.org</a>, is live! More details to come in another blog post. Please visit the blog entry for links to maps and background information on the meeting topics <a href="http://su.pr/1PhVrH">http://su.pr/1PhVrH</a> Questions? Email: Mike Lee curiouslee at gmail dot com

OLPC Learning Club - DC - Meet OLPCorps Team Ampitso in DC on Wednesday

Tue, 26 May 2009 22:27:00 GMT

Hello, This is a quick mid-month email to let you all know that there will be a meetup tomorrow night in DC with members of a team of local students who are leaving soon to do a deployment of OLPC XOs in Madagascar. Here's the blog announcement: <hr/> Are you excited about the OLPCorps idea - teams of college students headed to Africa with a stack of XOs and determination to make a change? Want to meet a winning group thats headed to Madagascar from right here in DC? The OLPC Ampitso team is leaving in early June, but before they go, they need your help. They need the collective wisdom of OLPC Learning Club-DC, our excitement, and our years of exploration with the XO laptop. They can also use our support - deployment in Madagascar is going to be tough, and we can supply research and expertise that would be priceless to OLPC Ampitso and their beneficiaries, the children of Ambatoharanana. So come out and meet OLPC Ampitso, learn what theyre planning, and share what you know: OLPC Ampitso Meetup Wednesday, May 27, 6:30pm Looking Glass Lounge Back beer garden 3634 Georgia Ave NW <hr/> Visit either the Learning Club blog <a href="http://tinyurl.com/o3z5sm">http://tinyurl.com/o3z5sm</a> or OLPC News <a href="http://tinyurl.com/pqw3kq">http://tinyurl.com/pqw3kq</a> For more information, and to see the comments being posted about this project and others happening in Madagascar. The Learning Club blog already has some new content and a wrap-up on Scratch Day is being finalized. Our next meeting will be at Gallaudet on Saturday, June 20th. Another email will go out to confirm. Mike

OLPC Learning Club - DC - Scratch Day is the May meeting at the Arlington Career Center

Sat, 09 May 2009 12:05:00 GMT

[Please visit the Learning Club blog for a link-rich version of the text below <a href="http://tinyurl.com/ptp4b2">http://tinyurl.com/ptp4b2</a> ] What: Special Event: Scratch Day 2009 - OLPC XO laptops still welcome! When: Saturday, May 16th, 2009, 10 am to 1 pm 816 South Walter Reed Drive, Arlington, VA 22204 (Contact Page, Map, Aerial Photo, Bus Info on the blog) Our May meeting will celebrate Scratch, the MIT Media Lab's programming software for children and teens, which we have presented at previous meetings. Scratch Day started last year in Cambridge, MA as the first international Scratch@MIT conference. This year, the Scratch team decided to invite any interested groups around the world to run their own Scratch Days at the same time as this year's conference in Cambridge. So far, over 70 events are planned in 20 countries. The Scratch visual programming environment empowers children ages 8 and up to design and program their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. The free software runs on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems and comes pre-installed on the OLPC XO laptop's Sugar Learning Platform. Later this year, it will also be available on Sugar Labs' Sugar on a Stick (SoaS). Scratch is taught in several DC area schools. In Virginia, two elementary schools use GNU Free and Creative Commons licensed lesson plans developed by Learning Club member Richard Bullington-McGuire. Saturday's festivities will begin with a brief presentation on the features and benefits of Scratch and its online community web site. Then local students and parents from Taylor Elementary School and elsewhere will demonstrate their Scratch projects. MIT's sensor input circuit board for Scratch, the Picoboard will be demonstrated, as well as LEGO's new WeDo robotics system, which will be controllable by the next release of Scratch. Naturally, we'll also have Scratch running on the OLPC XO-1, as well as netbooks such as the Intel Classmate 2 and Classmate 3 convertible. At around noon, we'll do our free raffle again, for which you must be present and have a numbered ticket to win. Prizes include a copy of the book Scratch Programming for Teens, an OLPC XO green Mr. Brightside USB LED laptop light and several sets of laminated Scratch activity reference cards. While we'll conclude at 1pm, you can still catch another Scratch Day event at Takoma Park Middle School, which runs from 10 am to 3pm. Phil Shapiro has written an excellent article about Scratch for PC World that has also appeared in Macworld and the Washington Post. If you're a user of online social networking sites, you should know that the Scratch team is on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook. I'll be posting to Twitter with the hash tag #scratchday as well as photos and video to Flickr. Our next regularly scheduled meeting should be on June 20th at Gallaudet University. We send email updates once a month as well as update this blog. Questions? Email: Mike Lee curiouslee gmail com