OLPC Learning Club - DC

Updated 2/20 - Note the location change from Arlington, VA to Nortel Networks in D.C. New information is below in BOLD starting with the Nortel street address.

I hear echoes of the Verizon Wireless commercials when I see all the people at our meetups trying to mesh. It’s the new primal urge of XO owners. Now it’s time to channel those urges into fun and productive activity!

Hot on the heels of our last meeting, Kevin Cole and Jeff Elkner are interested in hosting monthly XO meetups / development sprints. They are thinking of meeting the 4th Saturday of each month, and alternating the location between the Arlington Career Center and Gallaudet University (see map).

While still in the planning stage, the first one has already been scheduled for this month. The idea is to bring together three groups of people to work on the following things:

• Kids and parents who want to meet other kids and parents and do cool things together with their XOs.
• Software developers wanted to work on software for the XO.
• Educational materials developers wanting to collaborate on the development of educational materials for the XO.

Having these three groups co-locate will create all kinds of synergistic possibilities. Let the games begin!

What: Family XO Mesh Meetup

When: Saturday, February 23rd, 2008, 10 am to 1 pm

Where: Nortel Networks, 101 Constitution Avenue, Washington, DC 20001

A team is setting up an OLPC school server (which will make meshing much easier) and coordinating with the OLPC Support team to help install system updates, activate developer’s keys on anyone’s XO and generally troubleshoot technical issues.

The meeting will start with a few minutes of introductions by the leaders of the table activities. Then we will break into groups for about 30 minutes for discussion. We’ll pause for quick reportouts from each group on tips, discoveries, aspirations, frustrations, etc. Then we’ll all mesh some more until 1 pm.

Nortel Networks is a secure office complex so we will have to assign someone to let people in between 9:45am-10am. The building is walking distance from the Union Station and Judiciary Square Metro Stations.

Click here for a map. Also, our wiki page is seeing some activity now.

The green squiggles in my illustration are from a camera toss photo by Dan Simpson licensed under CC 2.0.