[@OKFNau] Robotics and Technology Road Trip idea - Request for help

[Tennessee Leeuwenburg]

Sounds like a fantastic idea! What time-frame did you have in mind?

If you need to make enough money out of it to eat, you could possibly run
it as an education roadshow, and apply for government grants. I think you'd
get a strong interest from schools in hosting visits, and you'd also get
some interest from universities. You could conceivably partner up with a
hardware seller like element14, lego or little bird electronics for anyone
who is interested to purchase appropriate kits at a reasonable rate. You
could have a showcase of DIY robots, but also things like the Roomba as
demonstration of commercially available robots, and of course kids toys are
another commercial example of simple robots.

I think the main challenge would be the revenue model, and maybe grants
would be the way to go. Kickstarter is one way, but I feel like government
grants would be more effective. The Australian Computer Society also
provides some money for conferences such as PyCon, and they might be very
happy to sponsor a leg of a roadshow as well.

Cheers,
-Tennessee


On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 5:39 PM, Maia Sauren <maia.sauren at gmail.com> wrote:

> hey samantha,
>
> this sounds like a great idea.
>
> i work for thoughtworks in melbourne. happy to help with having those
> conversations if that's where you're at.
>
> cheers
> maia
>
> maia sauren, phd
> maia.sauren at gmail.com | +61408824846 | @sauramaia
>
>
> On 28 August 2013 12:55, A List for Open Knowledge Networks in Australia.
> <okfn-au at lists.okfn.org> wrote:
>
>>  Hi All,
>>
>> please let me know if this is breach of spamming but I've got a dream I
>> would like to share.
>>
>>
>>
>> Robotics and Technology Road Trip - Request for help
>>
>> I want to take Robotics and Technology based workshops all around
>> Australia to Promote Engineering and Technology to young people (Or at
>> least promote why Maths, Science and Technology are important in High
>> School). There could also be a focus on careers. I created Robogals UTas,
>> have run quite a few Lego Robotics Workshops and I know I can take it
>> further.
>>
>> Alongside or before this road trip I want to create a website to support
>> Technology based videos/workshops and release them under a creative commons
>> licence so people can change them and create their own. The website could
>> be similar to http://www.drgraeme.net/ but have an updated look and feel
>> like http://www.codecademy.com/ .
>>
>> Now I would love to do all of this work for free but unfortunately I need
>> some modest income to live off. So I’m currently looking into funding
>> options. I will even look into a kick starter-esk crowd funding campaign to
>> see what I can source there. There will also be lots of applications for
>> grants and a lot of conversations to be had.
>>
>> This is where I need help, I’m not an expert in media, business,
>> education, intellectual property or websites and I’m looking for any
>> advice/ideas/assistance that you can provide. What do you think is good/bad
>> about this idea? I need constructive criticism just as much as great
>> support to ensure I don’t develop unrealistic expectations.
>>
>> I’ve got many options. E.g. I could run it under Robogals and name it the
>> Great Australian Robogals Roadtrip (GARR) for short but being a non for
>> profit may cause some issues with crowd funding and I’m not sure if I want
>> the “female” focus that comes with Robogals. I could run it as my own
>> business or under another organisation. E.g. some people from ThoughtWorks
>> and the Python Software Foundation might be able to help. I can’t start all
>> of these conversations myself though, so any help spreading the word would
>> also be greatly appreciated. I’m thinking of engaging my old college to
>> help with media. I want the focus of my efforts to be on education and open
>> technologies.
>>
>> **** **
>>
>> Any feedback would be greatly appreciated ^_^.
>>
>> From Samantha Connelly
>>
>> Twitter: @sammy_lee12
>>
>> Website: http://samanthaconnelly.com/
>>
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>>
>
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-- 
--------------------------------------------------
Tennessee Leeuwenburg
http://myownhat.blogspot.com/
"Don't believe everything you think"
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