ILXO is an independent skunkworks lab for OLPC grassroots groups. We catalyze and support independent OLPC grassroots groups in Illinois as well as projects and collaborations involving them. We aim to be effective enough to render ourselves obsolete by September 2008.
In other words, we're a regional nucleation group, and our charter is to help other grassroots groups in the area thrive (not to build a big monolithic lump of bureaucracy downtown). Our philosophy is to seed lots of independent, diverse options, let best practices for grassroots groups emerge, and share these best practices with others.
Think of us as a team of full-time pro-bono OLPC consultants you can call on all summer to help with your OLPC-related groups, projects, events, and more. We have a wide range of research interests and areas of expertise, and we're here to build tools, resources, networks, contacts, and provide occasional catalytic kicks. Ultimately, we're here for the summer so that by the end of the summer, you'll all know more than we will about everything - if we're successful, by the end of summer, ILXO will have rendered itself unnecessary.
Because of this, we have an explicit sunset clause of September 1, 2008. In the weeks leading up to that date, we'll step back as a community and see where we are and where our individual, collaborative, and collective efforts might go next once the sun sets on ILXO V.1.0. Who knows? It could always rise again.
Our mission sounds all well and good, but...
We're going to be as transparent as possible this summer. Our meeting transcripts are readily available (here), our expenses will be kept in a publicly viewable document - in short, if it can be documented, we'll do so. Why? Well, we can't actually be an experimental model for grassroots development if no one knows what we've been up to. If it's not documented, it didn't exist.
The grassroots community in Illinois is large and varied. We don't doubt that each group can do good work as it stands - however, the knowledge flow between groups is far less apparent. We aim to foster connections between the groups. Ideally, we'll have information about the various resources available, the ongoing projects, and areas in which more help is welcome. Really, why work alone if you don't have to? Between the existing OLPC support groups, education groups, and Python enthusiasts, there is a huge wealth of information out there. We want to see this knowledge spread.
We want to share our knowledge and our resources as well! We want to spend our two months in Chicago hosting our own community events - we want to host workshops on a variety of topics (for more information, see here) and work in conjunction with existing groups to set up Jams.
Finally, we'll be working on our own research projects. Our focus will be on off-grid power and accessibility. We want to develop a simple voltage regulator for attaching power options, in addition to a variety of other things. We'll be examining XO usage for children with various learning or physical disabilities. We'll also have a few miniprojects to keep us busy. (as if we needed help with that!) For more information, visit our Projects page.