Purpose of this event

To initiate an environmental movement for the internet. The theme this year: online participation in democracy. The internet is under pressure around the world – inadequate connectivity, censorship, huge digital divides threaten its future. This rally is designed to raise awareness of these issues and to help us focus on how the internet has changed democratic involvement in America.

Now Recruiting for a Pilot In A Box kit team for the OLPC Grassroots Jam

One Laptop per Child will be holding a Grassroots Jam at the Manthattan Neighborhood Network studio from Saturday June 14 through Sunday June 15. In two days, we’ll be building a Pilot In A Box kit (focused on integrating XO use into specific curricular modules) and testing it with local children in preparation for deploying the Kit at an actual school pilot within 4 months – stay tuned for more on the specific deployment conditions we’ll be designing for. All materials will be provided.

We’re looking for a 50-person team of educators, content-creators, artists, writers, programmers, engineers, and others who can contribute to a Pilot In A Box kit. In addition to coming up for ways for teachers to use the things inside The Box, we’ll need to figure out (and make) what’s in The Box, how schools will repair equipment from The Box, how The Box is transported and stored, how its content can be localized, how The Box can be used for communication over a diverse set of networks, and more. We are also looking for young testers (ages 7-14, with their parents) to come in and try out the finished products on Sunday afternoon, June 15, from 3-6pm.

Registration is free but space is limited, so we have a rolling admissions process. To view more information, including how you or your group can participate, see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Grassroots_Jam. We hope to see you there!

About OLPC

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organization created to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. The rugged, Linux-based, mesh-networking-enabled, and power-efficient laptops have begun to be deployed to children by schools across the world on the basis of one laptop per child. OLPC is based on constructionist theories of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert and later Alan Kay, as well as the principles expressed in Nicholas Negroponte’s Being Digital.