#rdc2009 Hacker Days kicked off this week.
We warmed up with robots from Maker Faire!
view full #rdc2009 Scrapbook on Flickr →

We decided that Wednesdays will be our designated #rdc2009 Hacker Day where the whole RDC gang will be on-site to make progress on the “IACL-4-OLPC” project – and we will share what we are doing online. Next week, Scotty Auble will lead the crew with an orientation of the XO to the RDC mentees. I will be on a fact-finding mission that day, so we probably won’t make it a live online event until the week after next.

Speaking of which, I made a misstatement in a prior blog post (and in a press release to our local media) – we will not be “filling the hard drives of the XOs with public domain books” because, of course, the XO-1 does not have an internal hard drive at all (and the XO-2 will use the same NAND Flash storage). So, we are currently exploring whether we will attempt to maximize compression of the available formats of the Internet Archive Children’s Library (IACL) books when we create the XO bundles (.xo) onto the installed flash memory on the little green laptops – or if we will simply use the web as the mechanism to deliver the books. All of this is somewhat difficult to convey in a short press release – but things will get more technical as we go along!

It is going to be a fun summer. I will be posting a production schedule and a list of our target books to the site soon – stay tuned!

Steven McKenzie joins the RDC as a 2009 Mentee. Steven has strong computer skills and an interest in coding and programming. He brings a keen eye and clever wit to the current team, and his background in all things PC provides a cross-platform balance to the RDC. He will be working closely with Levi Thompson, who will be joining the RDC for a second year to focus on developing his HTML and CSS skills.

R. Scotty Auble joins the crew as a development mentor focusing specifically on the OLPC Laptop Project. Scotty has years of project management experience and is well known in the Port Orford area as a knowledgeable and helpful technical resource. He brings seasoned programming skills to the RDC and has considerable background in education. He is already diving into the code for the bookreader that we plan to install on the little green laptops. We are thrilled to have him on board!

Look for updates from all of us here on the Rural Design Collective blog! The official start date for the program is June 3rd when Steven’s new PC arrives at our headquarters on 246 6th Street – stay tuned!