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

Thu Sep 5 22:40:12 UTC 2013

Thanks Tennessee,

I've spoken to a few people now and the road show aspect might not start till mid next year or the start of the following year. I might be able to create the workshops as an honours project or atleast spend 6 months building up a spectrum of tech based workshops, then maybe I could spend another 6 months testing and improving workshops while in Tasmania before taking a well polished program accross Australia. If it turns into something I can feed myself off it might be an ongoing road trip.

Ideally when I start the road trip I would like to spend atleast a school term in each state/territory excluding canberra and tas. That is around 6 school terms which is a year and a half.

>From Sam

----- Original Message -----
From: Tennessee Leeuwenburg <tleeuwenburg at gmail.com>
Date: Friday, September 6, 2013 7:25
Subject: Re: [@OKFNau] Robotics and Technology Road Trip idea - Request for help
To: "A List for Open Knowledge Networks in Australia." <okfn-au at lists.okfn.org>

Oh -- and I wouldn't run it as a charity or nonprofit, as the rules are restrictive. I also wouldn't choose to run under a RoboGals / female-focused banner unless that was what you wanted anyway. It's perfectly fine if your goal is to support women, but if your goal is more broad then I don't think it will help tremendously.  

Maybe you could end the roadshow at CeBit 2014 and host a stall with some kind of mini robocup or technology demo as well. Give a bit of ceremony to the whole thing?

On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 12:01 PM, Tennessee Leeuwenburg <tleeuwenburg at gmail.com> wrote:

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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Tennessee Leeuwenburg
http://myownhat.blogspot.com/
"Don't believe everything you think" 

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Tennessee Leeuwenburg
http://myownhat.blogspot.com/
"Don't believe everything you think" 
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