Community Built E-Ink Laptop
One of the barriers to entry when working with e-ink panels of larger sizes is the price. One idea I had around this was creating the: “The Community Built E-Ink Laptop Project”, where community members pool resources and knowledge to build an e-ink laptop.
The laptop and panels travel to different people, they can hack and play around with it for some time, and they ship it to the following community member so we can test ideas out and reduce the cost of entry to people. The process of building an E-Ink laptop will be documented in a blog, a YouTube channel, and Livestream, allowing more people to access E-ink, learn, iterate, generate interest, increase visibility and benefit everyone.
Next steps
To share on social media and places where e-ink conversations are happening, to start conversation on this project and find people who are interested in contributing.
Creating topics in the eI-2030 forum to focus the conversation, with framing/context of a community built e-ink laptop :
Community members share their idea of a community-built e-ink laptop and provide a template for folks to provide a high-level or technical overview/breakdown of the computer, and community members vote.
Brainstorm what the process would look like to build a community e-ink laptop, setting expectations/intentions and norms.
E-ink laptops or projects in the wild were found and linked here, or latest trends, research on it.
Pooling our resources and knowledge: People share and volunteer, lend their resources/knowledge to create an e-ink laptop.
Create a list of community members where the e-ink laptop travels and some form of setup to document Livestream the whole thing.
Create a plan or queue of community members who want to work on the computer and figure out the best way for it to travel and who it will get delivered to, and keep track of it all.
Become Involved
About
Hi, I’m Alexander Soto.
I’m a community organizer, educator, software engineer, hacktivist, and agent of social change. My interests are in exploring community-building, social justice, education, and leveraging technology to address social problems.
In the past, I’ve worked as a labor rights organizer, a teacher, and I’m currently the Project Lead at EI2030, an Expert In Residence at Resilient Coders, and founder of Modos.
I enjoy tinkering/playing/breaking things, 3D printing, painting, playing piano, swimming, and writing in my spare time.
This site is the scattered and unfinished version of my thoughts while documenting what I’m currently learning and exploring.
If you’d like to know the updates of a post, have questions, comments, suggestions, or would like to collaborate, send me a direct message on Twitter, or an email and we can talk.
