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Volunteers Change the World
===========================

Join us in our global mission to improve education for the world's
children! Volunteer contribution is central to the educational spirit of
OLPC. The ways to volunteer are as varied as your interests. The
sections that follow provide information to learn how to become a
volunteer, based on your interests and background.

If learning matters to you, you will be welcome. To directly get
involved, visit the web site [http://olpcMAP.net](http://olpcMAP.net) or
email [volunteer@laptop.org](mailto:volunteer@laptop.org).

Finally, know that there are LOTS of fun, cool people out in the world
who'd like to work and play together with you as contributors, to help
spread our mission and to improve children's lives.

Kids, siblings, and parents
===========================

The XO is meant for the entire family to use, so learning as much as you
can to help each other learn is one way to volunteer with (and for)
other OLPC learners worldwide.

You can contribute to the wiki, a web site that you can edit, at
[http://wiki.laptop.org](http://wiki.laptop.org) to share your knowledge
and XO laptop experience.

You can tell others about your projects and recruit others to join your
efforts. To understand how easy it is to edit the wiki, go to
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Wiki\_getting\_started](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Wiki_getting_started).

You might want to get involved in a regional group with other XO owners
in your area. You can find many such vibrant communities at
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Regional\_community\_groups](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Regional_community_groups).

Teachers, students, and educators
=================================

The OLPC project is an education project above all else, so your
contributions are highly valued. You can contribute by testing,
developing content, mentoring, or running group activities. You can
start a University chapter of OLPC users -- both formal Community
Service Learning and great informal clubs exist. Details may be found at
wiki.laptop.org/go/University\_program.

You can try to meet with other teachers and students within your
geographic region, or look up pre-existing groups within the list of
regional groups here:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Groups](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Groups).

Support Gang
============

If you enjoy personally helping others, and the challenge of solving
problems with learners worldwide, you would be a perfect fit for the
Support Gang. We work together answering all kinds of questions about
the XO, peripherals, software, volunteering, deployment, organizational
development and anything else OLPC users ask about.

Community Support Volunteers are an extremely friendly and supportive
group, who came together from all around the world, and work together
closely online. We also meet weekly with invited guest speakers by
phone, and in person whenever possible.

When you volunteer, fellow volunteers and OLPC will help you get started
and assist you in finding answers to difficult or unusual technical
questions. Bilingual volunteers are most especially welcome. Please join
us at
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support\_Gang](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_Gang).

Documentation
=============

If you would like to help others learn about the XO then you can help
with the documentation. We have a dedicated team and we eagerly welcome
new contributors! You don't need to be a expert on the technology to
participate - you may wish to just spell check or check images. You may
also be inspired to write a chapter or improve existing chapters. You
can learn more on how to contribute by joining the OLPC Library mailing
list
[http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/library](http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/library)

Existing XO and Sugar manuals are written and hosted at FLOSS Manuals.

Translators
===========

OLPC is a world-wide program that tries to reach people in many
countries, who speak many different languages. You can get an idea of
the program and look for your languages on the Sugar Labs translation
server. If you speak and write more than one language, you can help
translate the wiki or the software. If you can help, please see
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Translation](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Translation).

Content creators, writers, artists, photographers, videographers
================================================================

Everyone is a creator: by creating and sharing something, you inevitably
understand it better. Writing about the XO can also be one of the
greatest contributions to helping others.

Please consider offering your communications or media talents on the
OLPC Wiki - whether by writing, designing, editing, storytelling or
simply organizing - anywhere within
[http://wiki.laptop.org](http://wiki.laptop.org).

If you want to create art for the XO, you can join other artists at the
Art Community page at
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Community:Art](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Community:Art).

You can upload photos to a great, growing worldwide archive at
[http://www.flickr.com/groups/olpc](http://www.flickr.com/groups/olpc).
One group of photos even shows those specially taken by XO laptops
themselves, using the Record Activity. Hardware designers and testers

There are lots of volunteer hardware opportunities, from brainstorming
about alternative power to developing peripherals to repairing XOs. You
may want to develop peripherals for the XO that use its USB ports or
other inputs, for health applications or beyond:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Health](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Health).

You can get involved with community repair centers or start your own,
with volunteers or as a business:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Repair\_center\_locations](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Repair_center_locations).

You may want to work on power generation:
[http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/power](http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/power).
Or firmware coding:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OFW](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OFW). To find
out more about all of these types of hardware projects search for those
keywords at:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Category:Hardware](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Category:Hardware).

Software
========

Software Developers especially should connect with Sugar Labs:
[http://join.sugarlabs.org](http://join.sugarlabs.org)

The XO's software is designed to be malleable because we want the help
of all the people in the world who are capable of writing free software
to help other people learn. To get involved, you can:

-   Write activities
    [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activity\_Team](http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activity_Team).
-   Fix, report, or triage bugs
    [http://bugs.sugarlabs.org](http://bugs.sugarlabs.org) and
    [http://dev.laptop.org](http://dev.laptop.org).
-   Help test
    [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Friends\_in\_testing](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Friends_in_testing).
-   Hack Sugar and our OS
    [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developers\_manual](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developers_manual).

In short: "patches are welcome".

Local opportunities
===================

Help create changes in the community you live in - as well as ones you'd
like to visit. Start or join a grassroots group:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Groups](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Groups).

-   Create a Community Repair Center:
    [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Repair\_center\_locations](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Repair_center_locations).
-   Help out at a nearby Pilot deployment:
    [http://planet.laptop.org](http://planet.laptop.org).
-   Run, host, or attend an Event or Jam:
    [http://olpcMAP.net](http://olpcMAP.net).

Deployment
==========

Volunteering at an OLPC deployment or school of any size is sometimes
possible, in exceptional cases:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/ClassActs/Resources](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/ClassActs/Resources)

Volunteers working on their own much smaller deployments, work together
leveraging their mutual insights:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/ALEARN\_Network](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/ALEARN_Network)

A great way to get started is to explore others' work at
[http://planet.laptop.org](http://planet.laptop.org) and then email your
specific interests and qualifications to:
[mailto:volunteer@laptop.org](mailto:volunteer@laptop.org)

Annual Community Summits
========================

Nothing beats meeting in person, and the OLPC community's biggest annual
summit occurs in October in San Francisco, thanks to:
[http://olpcSF.org](http://olpcSF.org).

Similarly a more technical spring summit generally takes plan around May
in Montevideo, Uruguay: [http://ceibalJAM.org](http://ceibalJAM.org).

Conclusions
===========

We weren't kidding when we told you that we accept volunteer
contributions of all shapes, sizes, and kinds. Would you enjoy making
presents for millions of children every day? Can you help?