OLPC Idea Pool

Maybe this should be split into individual sub-pages? (Vorburger 20:06, 9 February 2006 (EST))

I second this idea. It's getting quite lengthy now. --Neovos 01:52, 13 March 2006 (EST)

Software Ideas Hardware Ideas

Other Ideas

Other ideas, not specifically for hardware or software of the laptop itself:

I think the function of OLPC and UMPC should be the same, right?

Wireless Networking

A book called Wireless Networking in the Developing World is now available on the net in pdf at http://wndw.net/. It has a lot of information that might be useful when deploying the OLPC program. In addition to covering WIFI theory and design, it covers practical, social, and economic problems that they encountered. One idea is to share the cost of the infrastructure with other local groups like businesses and local government. Another is to disperse the knowledge of how to operate the system so that if one person moves away, critical knowledge isn't lost.

Wireless Thin-Client as alternative?

The main counter argument for a thin-client approach is probably the need for maintenance/administration and general dependency on the central server, think e.g. particularly power in this context?

Still, maybe providing a (much) cheaper wireless portable thin client (think one-chip LCD+wireless controller; nothing else inside, particularly no memory and real CPU, which are probably the next most expensive part after the display?), for say $20 instead of $100, plus a commoditized say $1000 Dual-CPU with 2 GB RAM server, per school/entire village, could of interest in some situations? This is assuming that the configuration and loaded software etc. of all devices would be very homogenous, which is probably a fair assumption in this context? If the server could run say 100 clients (essentially running very similar software to what was built for the full $100 laptop of 128 MB RAM each, but with all of the OS and application code shared, thus only using about 16-32 MB for per-client data) then this seems at least imaginable, and would mean a total cost of just $3000 instead of $10'000 - for the 100 children.

That's a lot of ifs and assumptions of course, and only real pricing, scalability and the "market" can tell if there was an interest for (also) providing this - later. Just an idea, really.

Development Process

How much coordination of the Software Development Process is useful? Just make an SDK available and hope for self-organization? Or maybe e.g. a registry of suggested/needed software, a forum to coordinate software development between parties using this. Or how about volunteer summer projects for CS university students, like Google's summer of code thing?

User interface

Get John Maeda involved with the UI and other design elements.

Remember the Social Context of your Technical Solutions

I think that the ideas here need to be seen in the context of how networking and distribution of data is going to be performed. In the poorest countries, the ideas may need to be modified due to limited scope for immediate netwoking. Also the role of charity will be very improtant; remember that most of the african countries have not yet been involved in the project, so charity support will be a major driving force in distributing the hardware.

I suggest a charity funded system of data distribution, but flexible enough that it could be a commercial venture for a citydewller with transport. Western charity could provide data transfer credits to individuals in remote villages, to be spent on delivery of data serveices to and from the village. A courier would have a laptop with large storage expansion, and travel to villages to deliver data designated for them, and to recieve data for delivery from them. They would expend their credits in the process of givig their data transmission, and recieve a secure reciept for their last communications sent from the data courier. When the courier returned to the city, they would access the internet via a larger access point if available, or just by telephone if not, and would load the appropriate dvd into a usb drive to retrieve the appropriate requested data from several repositories of information - e.g. encyclopedia (possibly wikipedia), educational syllabus for the next month or year as developed by national education system, etc. The delivery of the data would be accompanied by a cashing in of the data-transfer-credits collected on their journy around the villages, and converted to cedits for cashing at a bank, or directly at the internet access point if appropriate. Email based securely encoded credits designated for the individuals in villages as charity gifts would then be recieved from the internet and delivered by the courier to the village on their next visit. To prevent ransom of the delivery of the credits, the entire collection of data intended for the village would be bound in to a 'delivery package' only decodable and seperatable by the intended recipient and then distributed to the individuals by a simple username and password (the username selected from a village specific list, to avoid confusion).

For adults, with limited postal service or reliability, A major application of importance would be political communications, and the option of communications by pgp communications is essential, but should be very user friendly. There must be a pgp-like delivery certification to ensure that deliveries of emails is made without being intercepted or held ransom by delivery people is also very important. - a user or regular email would confirm reciept by clicking a url on the delivered email to confirm reciept to an international reciept confirmation server. reciept confirmation of the village resident would be sent by pgp based confirmation.

access to personal data must be able to protected, by user/password encoded access only, also for deleting data - there should be a firmware controlled partition or directory on the flash which can only be accessed by users' passwords, or deleted in its entirety (not per user) - also there should be a limit on the space used by each user. There should be a hardware switch for deactivating wifi if installed, to prevent hackers and viruses in potentially unstable political climate - likely used to prevent political dissent.

I think that the social model of data repositeries on dvd, and internet access, in cities or perhaps towns is a realistic and efficient solution. With funding of data distribution by digitally secure credits or tokens delivered securely to villagers, access to data by the holders of the laptop can be guaranteed.

-- suggested by ma http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/User:Ma

Proposed Educational Models

I think with the prospects of using a system such as this on the global level that it's designed for, this would be a good opportunity to start a global mentality of "United in Education." This is done first by the fact that no country in need will be left out of the opportunity for use of this technology. But I think also that it should extend beyond that.

The Internet As A Backbone

The internet is the living example of what global unity in information exchange is, and the upcoming idea of "Web 2.0", or an "always-on, integrated" internet I think proposes a way to provide the educational content on the scale that it needs to be. I feel that once these laptops are distributed to local communities across the globe, through local wi-fi (the idea of which is not unique to me by any means) that is distributed through the schools or a designated "community center," the internet can be accessed.

Once this connection between the world's young students and the world's information is established, I feel that the best way to start the education process would be a very meticulously crafted website or series of websites that cover the educational needs for various grade levels. For example, very easy to navigate lessons using flash websites and pictures for pre-school to middle school children. Then as fluency in the use of the internet increases and a more advanced study continues, use of other web sites and internet services can be brought in to the more advanced students in high school/college area.

Language Barriers

While trying to be as objective as possible, I feel that the best solution for the concept of language barriers is such: If using the website oriented education concept above, instead of spending time and money to translate the many lessons, concepts, and websites to the respective countries native language, I propose the use of a constructed language, preferably Esperanto, the most popular one in use today (with about 5 million users worldwide) as the language of education worldwide. This idea has many benefits which I will explain:

-Esperanto was designed to be easy to learn and to the best of my knowledge and personal experience, it is. This could be the first of the lessons that the student would learn. In keeping with the idea, http://www.lernu.net/ is an example of a site where one may go to learn the language. To ensure the quickest possible learning, and to root out problems involving an individual’s first language, the "Direct method" of teaching it is used here. There are other websites I'm sure that are just as successful in teaching this way.

-English and Mandarin are the top spoken languages in the world. This is not by choice. Population is the reason in the case of Mandarin and English just happens to be the language of business and the internet. I feel that a strong sense of global satisfaction in this project would result if not only the students of the third world countries had to learn Esperanto in order to learn, but also the many nations across the globe that are teaching them had to learn it as well. That would allow for any country to communicate and teach directly with the students. No language barriers.

-What happens when people from the U.S., Europe, or Asia decide to visit these nations involved in the project? Immediate communication is established without the idea of the students needing to switch their native language. Without the use of Esperanto, these students would have all this valuable information, but not be able to do anything with it due to language barriers. Imagine a flourishing of education in South Africa and the schools put out some great talent. What then for them? They would travel in search of prosperity. While the many dialects of Africa are definitely beautiful, they aren't popular business languages and these student's talents' would not be able to flourish with their new education. It would be giving someone a brand new car without any keys to go with it. Learning of the worlds main business languages (English, French, Japanese, Arabic) is not ruled out by any means to those that want to learn it. But it represents a higher level of education that most will probably not obtain. I feel that the ability for even the individual schooled in just the arts, or just math, or just the sciences (all of which are not normally ventures that promote the assimilation of foreign languages) be able to gain the advantage of having that common language anywhere in the world.

Comment on the idea of using Esperanto

Esperanto was designed to be an auxiliary language, with the idea that it could be a second langauge for everyone: it was not intended to become the first language of users.

I feel that it would be a good idea to make available Esperanto versions of learning material so that people can use that to become skilled in using the language if they so desire. However, although producing many versions of learning material in many different languages will as you write involve "spending time and money to translate the many lessons, concepts, and websites to the respective countries native language," that is, I feel, part of what needs to be done to make the project work. If some people can produce Esperanto versions by volunteer effort then hopefully they will be made available within the system: I feel that as auxiliary items they could be very useful, they need not be regarded as replacing versions in native languages. Nevertheless, if a learning module starts in English and then versions in Spanish and Portuguese are produced fairly quickly and then other versions take longer due to the amount of work and the possibly smaller number of translators available for localization into languages with a smaller number of users, then an Esperanto version might well be a valuable resource for a teacher whose native language is such a rarer language and who does not know English.

I am interested in Esperanto and indeed have included the accented characters for it in most of the fonts which I have produced. I feel that it has much to offer in the context of being an auxiliary language. I do feel, however, that children should have the opportunity to be educated in their own language. However, the word "should" is easily written yet does not deliver a solution, so using Esperanto is, I feel, certainly a tool which is there to be used and which could, in certain cases, perhaps be of great usefulness.

Some years ago I produced an animated gif file, when I was learning how to make them, which mentions Esperanto.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/de000000.htm

William Overington

12 March 2006

[Comment by Brian Clements 12 March 2006

"Esperanto was designed to be an auxiliary language, with the idea that it could be a second language for everyone: it was not intended to become the first language of users."

I may have been unclear in my wording, but that exactly was my intention: to have Esperanto function as an auxiliary language. Even though the users would spend a great deal of time on it and probably get it to fluency very quickly, the idea and intent was that the individual’s native tongue wouldn't be threatened by whatever country decides to do the most teaching. I have trouble explaining it fully, but I think that a large influence of a language that has no native country or culture isn't as threatening as a language that has a nation and a culture backed behind it such as English or Mandarin. I feel too that just by staying in their particular geographic location with the cultures they know and love, they will not loose their native tongues, which is exactly my intention.

"Nevertheless, if a learning module starts in English and then versions in Spanish and Portuguese are produced fairly quickly and then other versions take longer due to the amount of work and the possibly smaller number of translators available for localization into languages with a smaller number of users, then an Esperanto version might well be a valuable resource for a teacher whose native language is such a rarer language and who does not know English."

And I do like this point and agree.

Should translation of text to native tongues be a not too difficult task, then that is a more direct way of teaching and should be used. I would think though, that from the standpoint of volunteer teachers coming from developed nations, the prospects of learning one language, then being able to help out anywhere in the world with this project seems like a definite plus.

End of Comment by Brian Clements 12 March 2006]

Teaching Barriers

As much as a teacher wants to teach, they can only teach what they know. The, for lack a better term, "flaw" in the educational process of third world countries is the knowledge available to the teacher. This is either by their own unfortunate lack of knowledge or by their inability to obtain new information for teaching. Since the emphasis of the project (I think) is toward the children more so then the actual teachers, I would think that some standard of training is necessary for the teachers that are involved with use of these laptops. I would think too, that this training would mainly be in the technological side of how to operate the laptops so that there would be nothing stopping the flow of information from the internet to the student.

Perhaps these laptops and the aid of volunteer workers that are familiar with the technology could be used in conjunction with another specific website to give this training to the teachers. Initial help could be given in person so that the individual could continue to teach themselves the particulars of using a website devoted to teaching them how to teach students on these laptops. This is the first step in helping people help themselves. This is essentially enabling the teachers the ability to teach on the new medium.

Services Available to Teachers/Community Leaders

    -A central website devoted to the posting of technical issues about the laptop hardware where MIT or
     other certified people can respond and help
    -Perhaps a site/wiki where the specific communities could have their own page and be able to post and
     inform the world what their current activities are or what they’ve learned or are working on (could be a
     tool to spawn educational competition or collaboration amongst neighboring cities or nations or to get
     artistic work on the web)

Teacher Basic Training

    -Basic functionality of the physical laptop (on/off, charging, maintenance)
    -Ability to get around the user interface and perform simple tasks (to be clarified)
    -Be able to assess/troubleshoot networking problems? (perhaps too advanced?)
    -Be already quite versed in Esperanto (should use of that language be an accepted proposition)

Educational Outline (This list is to be critiqued by experienced educators)

1. First Steps (pre-school to middle school):

    -Learn the language of learning, Esperanto
    -Learn the metric system
    -Basic physical sciences and early math
    -Art/Music (I feel arts education is just as crucial to healthy education as anything else, but there
     is no set way to teach this. This would purely be left up to the specific teachers and their staffs to
     organize)

[Comment by William Overington 12 March 2006

> Art/Music (I feel arts education is just as crucial to healthy education as anything else, but there is no set way to teach this. This would purely be left up to the specific teachers and their staffs to organize)

Well, maybe some project supported music education might be possible, though teacher support might be needed to organize it.

An idea I thought of some time ago was called Chloe and Phil music.

Chloe and Phil music fonts can be used to produce graphics showing the scores of short pieces of percussion music using untuned percussion instruments which each produce one note. People can hopefully enjoy playing such music and enjoy writing new pieces.

There are some notes about it just after half-way down the following web page.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/font7001.htm

A quick try can be produced using the following font in conjunction with the Microsoft Paint program on a PC. The font would need to be installed on the PC. The font is rather old and from some way back on my own learning curve of fontmaking, yet it works!

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/CPMUSICA.TTF

The glyphs, slightly altered in design, and some further glyphs for the music, are also in the Private Use Area of the present version of my Quest text font.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/QUESTTXT.TTF

(The notes about problems with Quest text are now obsolete, I need to update that old web page.)

The further glyphs provide for more complex rhythms using single tone instruments and so that two tone drums and improvised two tone instruments can be used and so that a repeated section with different endings can be used.

The music glyphs of the Quest text font cannot be accessed directly from Microsoft Paint on this PC, yet can be accessed using Alt codes using Microsoft WordPad. One can then Print screen and then paste into Paint. The further glyphs are in U+E4C4 to U+E4C6 Alt 58564 to Alt 58566 and in U+E4CC Alt 58572 and in U+E4E4 to U+E4E7 Alt 58596 to Alt 58599 and in twelve of the sixteen places from U+E4F0 to U+E4FF, Alt 58608 to Alt 58623 (not in U+E4F0, U+E4F4, U+E4F8, U+E4FC).

Anyway, just a thought in the hope that it might be of interest.

End of comment by William Overington 12 March 2006]

[Comment by Brian Clements 12 March 2006

I think it's a good idea I think that perhaps introductory lessons on music theory could involve that to some extent early on. But I think it may get limiting too quick. An program I found on the web that is currently only for windows, but is open source, is LenMus Phonascus found here http://www.lenmus.org/ . I haven’t used it yet but allows for anything from theory lessons to advanced ear training. That would cover the gamut for all levels of involvement; introductory to mastery.

In keeping with the web 2.0 mentality however, http://www.musictheory.net/ allows for a GREAT way to cover all music theory topics, again from basic to mastery. It has a great interface that is clean and functional.

End of comment by Brian Clements 12 March 2006]

2. Welcome to the World

    -Learn the basic workings of the internet and how the technology the students are using works
    -Perhaps learn how to use the internet for personal use, blogs and wikis on their community page?
    -Learn literature, both unique to their particular culture (in native tongue) and accepted works
     worldwide (translated to Esperanto)
    -History oriented for their specific country
    -Continue the mastery of Esperanto
    -More advanced learning of math and sciences, more incorporation of current worldwide news and
     relevant scientific discoveries

3. Higher Learning

    -By this point the students should be enabled to get around the internet with ease, therefore
     seeking and finding any information and news they are interested in. 

As a note, I feel, and I think this is obvious, that no specific religious education should be brought into the education until much later in the students learning when it becomes a personally driven academic venture. Their native culture and religion should be preserved and held in high regard. I think since this common educational ground is spanning so many different cultures and religions, this is an important ideal to be set early on.

Brian Clements

11 March 2006