There once was a game called SkyTime. SkyTime was created by a group of brave and super attractive RIT students. This game, being of humanitarian purpose and just cause, was honored by the White House in Washington DC. (You know, the one that is the center of American politics and all of that :D)
It is the night before the event, and our fantastic heroine (me) is preparing to leave for the airport. I make a call to check the flight status, but to everyone’s dismay: THE FLIGHT IS CANCELLED. (Cue dramatic music)
I frantically bought an Amtrak ticket and rushed to Penn Station. I arrived in DC as the clock struck twelve am.
I am walking towards the White House in my new, moderately uncomfortable shoes. The hotel is just around the block, so it takes only a few minutes and one conversation with a security guard to find the correct entrance. The security line winds outside the gate. I get in line behind a woman who is most probably a CIA agent; she just looks like someone that gets shit done. She carries a metal brief-case, the kind that often self-destructs in movies. I nervously ask if this is the 17th street and NY Avenue entrance. It is. She casually mentions she has an important meeting. No big deal. I try not to appear too in awe of someone who has important meetings in the White House.
The line moves slowly. I get up to the first round of security guards, give my license, get back on line. It is pretty easy to distinguish who is here for the Champions of change event and who is just here for another day at work. Some guy is not on the list, the guards kick him out.
I finally arrive at the last security check. I shuffle into a room with a dog and trainer behind a screen. I step onto painted footprints and fans blow my sent towards the dog. Apparently I am only smelly in the pleasant sort of way, (must be all that fancy hotel soap) so I am given a green visitors pass and shuffle inside to the South Court auditorium.
The room is not huge, a lot of people are milling about. I manage to find an empty seat. I am pretty sure I was sitting in the room where Obama gives press releases. SUPER COOL! The event begins. You can watch it in all of its humanitarian hacking glory here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/07/23/champions- ch...
As it finished everyone got up for lunch, I made a beeline for one of the Champions of Change, Jessica Klein.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions/civic-hacking-and-open- government/je...
I was on a mission. She is working for Mozilla on open badges. FOSS@RIT has been doing a ton of work with that this summer. It was important that I connected with her! We exchanged contact info and talked. She seemed very interested in the XO laptop and helping to get Open Badges working on them. Hopefully she will visit RIT sometime next year.
There wasn’t really a good place to eat lunch, so I took the opportunity to aimlessly explore the White House. I took the spiral staircase up and down, always trying to convey an air of certainty, like I knew where I was going and that I was supposed to be there. Some things I learned about the White House:
-The pillars along the walls are mostly painted white, but the ones near the staircases are painted purple.
- There are very ornate knobs on every door. (Even to the bathrooms.)
-The library is a sacred place. It conveys such a strong aura of knowledge and beauty I was scared to approach.
-There are small TV’s in every room. (Also including the bathrooms)
After lunch there were workshops we could choose to attend. I went to “How to apply Tech and Civic Hacking in Your City.” It was a really interesting conversation. Hackathon organizers from around the country took the opportunity to tell the government officials running the workshop their opinion of the best methods of releasing data useful for civic hackers. I learned of a civic hacking space in San Francisco called “Free Space,” and connected with one of the other champions of change Rob Davis.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions/civic-hacking-and-open- government/ro...
It was nice talking to someone of similar age, and he was a really cool guy! I also briefly introduced myself to Brad Lander. http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions/civic-hacking-and-open- government/br...
He is a councilman near to my home town, so it was pretty fabulous exchanging cards with him.
The events in the White House were over. I took the opportunity to explore some more and to have a gruella photo shoot with the XO laptops. I would set them down in an interesting location and quickly snap a bunch of photos. I did not get too many stares. (You have to take these kinds of opportunities!)
Finally, tired and ready for a shower I took my leave of the White House.
Next up, Hill Side bar for a Champions of Change social meet up. I started up a conversation with a guy who I had been sitting next to at the event. It turns out he is from Gambia. Even cooler, he recognized the XO laptop from his childhood. There had been a small test deployment in his village, but they never received enough for all the students to use. He was engrossed with playing with the laptop so I took the other XO out.
Suddenly I was surrounded. People appeared from nowhere to come and take pictures, poke at, and play with the XO laptop. “I have never seen one in real life before!” several people exclaimed.
Who knew that those laptops would be such a great networking device? Nervous to start a conversation, take an OLPC computer. The people will come flocking.
Meanwhile I spoke to a bunch of people who worked on the Keep Austin Fed project. Very cool stuff. That is an amazing charity! http://www.keepaustinfed.org/
This trip was an absolutely fantastic experience! I got to meet a bunch of really amazing people who have worked on truly inspiring projects, made some connections for FOSS@RIT, and had a blast exploring the White House!
Thank you everyone who helped me receive this opportunity! Thank you, thank you!!! This has been such an honor.
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