Is this the "Idea Funnel?"

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Bryan Berry-2
Is this the "Idea Funnel?"
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Some time ago Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote about the challenges of
harnessing the ideas of an open-source community and focusing its
collective energies
http://gregdek.livejournal.com/30505.html

Yesterday I came upon Idea Torrent www.ideatorrent.org , used by Ubuntu
Brainstorm, which seems to embody the ideas that Greg espouses.

Could be quite useful for the OLPC community

--
Bryan W. Berry
Systems Engineer
OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org

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Tomeu Vizoso
Re: Is this the "Idea Funnel?"
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I would love to get feedback in this way.

Regards,

Tomeu

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 4:36 PM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry@...> wrote:

> Some time ago Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote about the challenges of
> harnessing the ideas of an open-source community and focusing its
> collective energies
> http://gregdek.livejournal.com/30505.html
>
> Yesterday I came upon Idea Torrent www.ideatorrent.org , used by Ubuntu
> Brainstorm, which seems to embody the ideas that Greg espouses.
>
> Could be quite useful for the OLPC community
>
> --
> Bryan W. Berry
> Systems Engineer
> OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Grassroots mailing list
> Grassroots@...
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots
>
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Sameer Verma
Re: Is this the "Idea Funnel?"
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In reply to this post by Bryan Berry-2
Bryan Berry wrote:

> Some time ago Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote about the challenges of
> harnessing the ideas of an open-source community and focusing its
> collective energies
> http://gregdek.livejournal.com/30505.html
>
> Yesterday I came upon Idea Torrent www.ideatorrent.org , used by Ubuntu
> Brainstorm, which seems to embody the ideas that Greg espouses.
>
> Could be quite useful for the OLPC community
>
>  

IdeaTorrent/Ubuntu Brainstorm is a neat project. It is simple and easy
to use. What matters though is that once such a mechanism is in place,
people who propose and/or vote should be as diverse as possible,
otherwise we get a bunch of developers who pat each other's back (self
selection bias). I still feel that this project does not involve enough
educators. That's where majority of the ideas should come from.
Educators know challenges in the classroom firsthand. They also know
what works. So, in implementing ideatorrent or some such thing, the
barrier to entry for an educator should be minimal.

Once a project gets a lot of votes, the next step becomes crucial. How
does an idea become a project? Who takes it on? etc. That workflow must
be established as well.

Sameer

--
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/

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Bryan Berry-2
Re: Is this the "Idea Funnel?"
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On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 10:25 -0700, Sameer Verma wrote:
> IdeaTorrent/Ubuntu Brainstorm is a neat project. It is simple and easy
> to use. What matters though is that once such a mechanism is in place,
> people who propose and/or vote should be as diverse as possible,
> otherwise we get a bunch of developers who pat each other's back (self
> selection bias). I still feel that this project does not involve enough
> educators.
Absolutely, I share that concern

> That's where majority of the ideas should come from.
Agreed, esp. While kids can tell us what they like and don't like. They
can't tell us what they aren't learning.

> Educators know challenges in the classroom firsthand. They also know
> what works. So, in implementing ideatorrent or some such thing, the
> barrier to entry for an educator should be minimal.

absolutely.

> Once a project gets a lot of votes, the next step becomes crucial. How
> does an idea become a project? Who takes it on? etc. That workflow must
> be established as well.
>
> Sameer
>

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Sami Gharres
Can OLPC distribution be run as a business?
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Some javascript/style in this post has been disabled (why?)
All

Apologies in advance for barging in, but I am rather new to this forum and I have a couple of basic questions I would like to ask if I may.

I was recently in an African country and I was shocked by how few youngsters have access to computers, primarily because no one could afford them. I came across this OLPC concept and thought about setting up a distribution and after care network there.

My prime goal is provide a whole generation with a truly affordable computer but I also need to run this as a business that can generate revenues and support itself. I believe that a 170 USD laptop is within the reach of a lot of people there, most of them carry prepay cellphones worth that much or more. I also have few ideas to subsidize the price further for schools, youth centers etc. I have influential business and technical contacts in that country and I can get funds to set it up if I can put forward a decent business case.


My question is, does a commercial distribution scheme sound like a viable idea, is it within the spirit of this scheme? If so, who can I contact to take this further?

Regards

Sami

> From: bryan.berry@...
> To: sverma@...
> Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:31:33 +0545
> CC: its.an.education.project@...; grassroots@...
> Subject: Re: [Grassroots-l] Is this the "Idea Funnel?"
>
> On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 10:25 -0700, Sameer Verma wrote:
> > IdeaTorrent/Ubuntu Brainstorm is a neat project. It is simple and easy
> > to use. What matters though is that once such a mechanism is in place,
> > people who propose and/or vote should be as diverse as possible,
> > otherwise we get a bunch of developers who pat each other's back (self
> > selection bias). I still feel that this project does not involve enough
> > educators.
> Absolutely, I share that concern
>
> > That's where majority of the ideas should come from.
> Agreed, esp. While kids can tell us what they like and don't like. They
> can't tell us what they aren't learning.
>
> > Educators know challenges in the classroom firsthand. They also know
> > what works. So, in implementing ideatorrent or some such thing, the
> > barrier to entry for an educator should be minimal.
>
> absolutely.
>
> > Once a project gets a lot of votes, the next step becomes crucial. How
> > does an idea become a project? Who takes it on? etc. That workflow must
> > be established as well.
> >
> > Sameer
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Grassroots mailing list
> Grassroots@...
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots


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Sameer Verma
Re: Is this the "Idea Funnel?"
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On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 8:46 PM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry@...> wrote:

> On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 10:25 -0700, Sameer Verma wrote:
>> IdeaTorrent/Ubuntu Brainstorm is a neat project. It is simple and easy
>> to use. What matters though is that once such a mechanism is in place,
>> people who propose and/or vote should be as diverse as possible,
>> otherwise we get a bunch of developers who pat each other's back (self
>> selection bias). I still feel that this project does not involve enough
>> educators.
> Absolutely, I share that concern
>
>> That's where majority of the ideas should come from.
> Agreed, esp. While kids can tell us what they like and don't like. They
> can't tell us what they aren't learning.
>
>> Educators know challenges in the classroom firsthand. They also know
>> what works. So, in implementing ideatorrent or some such thing, the
>> barrier to entry for an educator should be minimal.
>
> absolutely.

I wonder if Ideatorrent will accept audio (or even video) files as an
initial idea/entry. After all, we need an idea seed to get started and
if that comes from someone who cannot type, then audio or video should
work.

Sameer
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Edward Cherlin
Re: Can OLPC distribution be run as a business?
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In reply to this post by Sami Gharres
On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 3:44 AM, Sami Gharres <sami_gharres@...> wrote:
> All
>
> Apologies in advance for barging in,

No need to apologize.

> but I am rather new to this forum and I
> have a couple of basic questions I would like to ask if I may.
>
> I was recently in an African country and I was shocked by how few youngsters
> have access to computers, primarily because no one could afford them. I came
> across this OLPC concept and thought about setting up a distribution and
> after care network there.
>
> My prime goal is provide a whole generation with a truly affordable computer
> but I also need to run this as a business that can generate revenues and
> support itself. I believe that a 170 USD laptop is within the reach of a lot
> of people there, most of them carry prepay cellphones worth that much or
> more. I also have few ideas to subsidize the price further for schools,
> youth centers etc. I have influential business and technical contacts in
> that country and I can get funds to set it up if I can put forward a decent
> business case.
>
>
> My question is, does a commercial distribution scheme sound like a viable
> idea, is it within the spirit of this scheme? If so, who can I contact to
> take this further?

I would love to work with you on this. The problem is that the current
terms are cash in advance and wait months for delivery, with no date
given until two months after receipt of your order. Current terms are

100 @ $299: $29,900
1,000 @ $249: $249,00
10,000 @ $199: $1,990,000

> Regards
>
> Sami
>
>> From: bryan.berry@...
>> To: sverma@...
>> Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:31:33 +0545
>> CC: its.an.education.project@...;
>> grassroots@...
>> Subject: Re: [Grassroots-l] Is this the "Idea Funnel?"
>>
>> On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 10:25 -0700, Sameer Verma wrote:
>> > IdeaTorrent/Ubuntu Brainstorm is a neat project. It is simple and easy
>> > to use. What matters though is that once such a mechanism is in place,
>> > people who propose and/or vote should be as diverse as possible,
>> > otherwise we get a bunch of developers who pat each other's back (self
>> > selection bias). I still feel that this project does not involve enough
>> > educators.
>> Absolutely, I share that concern
>>
>> > That's where majority of the ideas should come from.
>> Agreed, esp. While kids can tell us what they like and don't like. They
>> can't tell us what they aren't learning.
>>
>> > Educators know challenges in the classroom firsthand. They also know
>> > what works. So, in implementing ideatorrent or some such thing, the
>> > barrier to entry for an educator should be minimal.
>>
>> absolutely.
>>
>> > Once a project gets a lot of votes, the next step becomes crucial. How
>> > does an idea become a project? Who takes it on? etc. That workflow must
>> > be established as well.
>> >
>> > Sameer
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Grassroots mailing list
>> Grassroots@...
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots
>
> ________________________________
> Find out how to make Messenger your very own TV! Try it Now!
> _______________________________________________
> Grassroots mailing list
> Grassroots@...
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots
>
>



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And Children are my nation.
The Six Worlds are my dwelling place,
And Truth my destination.
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