OLPC Spanish America
It's a bit of a paradox that this page is in English when Spanish is its focus. A reason for this is here.
Spanish is the biggest language (in population terms) and (probably) the most fragmented (in terms of countries) in the whole of the Americas. This means that around 400 million people are distributed in over a dozen countries, and the OLPC efforts may suffer due to this fragmentation. A more elaborate rationale to band together all of the Spanish Americas together can be found here.
The development of the OLPC and its content in Spanish need not follow that route. Instead of having to keep track of each of the countries independently, we can work together.
You can see the status by country and the specific section for the Americas. Pages for the (currently) green/pilot status countries are: OLPC Argentina and OLPC Uruguay. Other countries with pages in this wiki are OLPC Chile and OLPC Colombia - in orange/expressed interest.
Localization into Spanish
Hardware
There are probably three main issues relative to hardware: keyboard, icons and power. Currently the Argentine keyboard should probably not be modified, except for localizing the keys with English wording. Icons on the shell/case are probably going to be 'global', but should not be overlooked for their fitness. Power—though not crucial—could be an issue depending on the bricks tolerance to voltage, frequencies and plugs (ie: in La Paz, Bolivia, you have both 110 & 220 V usually with the same plug as the US!). This is probably being taken care of, but again, it should not be overlooked.
Software
Please help us put the links into the 'global' efforts of localization in this section.
- In Argentina there are efforts in this sense with Wiki de Ututo
Operating System
As far as I know, Linux localizations for Spanish would probably be adequate enough, although care should be taken to focus on the target audience (kids, not techies) without knowledge either of english or computers. This means extra care in developing and/or tuning manuals, documentation and how-to's.
Active 'global' sections are System Software Software localization
Sugar
Sugar is the core HCI of the OLPC. Not having the real doesn't mean we can't emulate it and give it a try!
There are some tutorial / hacks on how to build your own activities.
Applications / Activities
This area will be somewhat redundant to OLPC software task list, Software localization, Basic OLPC Software Set
Teachers should not be forgotten! They´ll be a major player—either as promoters or detractors—and their needs should be properly addressed, not just in the obvious sense of capacity building and training, but also in the domain of tools that they lack (ie: taking attendance, keeping grades, etc.)
Content in Spanish
Development of local content should probably start by analyzing and doing an inventory of what is available in each country taking into consideration the source (official vs. grassroot/private), their media (printed vs digital) and the possibility of actual distribution (both in scale and license) together with the OLPC.
Besides the 'local' efforts, note should be taken of 'global' efforts in spanish (ie: Wikipedia / OEPC) and similar.
Websites
The intention here is to capture a list of possible software sources that could feed the OLPC with some content. License issues, open-source and OLPC compatibility—important as they are—are not being considered (yet). As the list grows, specific consideration may kick in regarding those and many other aspects—but we should start with something: this list is the placeholder for the real thing! Feel free to add, edit and remove things—as long as it's objective.
NOTE: The source for this ad-hoc list was Google (in Spanish) - trying to be neutral. Quality of the sites is not guaranteed, and hopefully knowledgeable people will evaluate them and add criteria to be used.
| Site | Observations |
|---|---|
| educ.ar | "El portal educativo del Estado argentino" Quite a bit of material, having it organized according to (argentina's) school system. |
| EducaGuia | Spanish site with resources and software. |
| KidsPC | Mexican site with interesting products. |
| Wikipedia (es / en) | May provide some pointers or leads to follow |
| EducaRed | Spanish site (of Fundación Telefónica) with an index of curricular software |
| Wikiversity (en) | Although higher level studies, not necessarily for kids, for teachers. |
| El-directorio | Colombian Wiki with information about OLPC |
Other Sources
There's some level of redundancy with OLPC Courseware Review, and we can feed from whatever is done there, but keep in mind that our focus is towards content in Spanish. There is a need for development of activities for Sugar in OLPC, this generation is needed to apropiate technology and generate education contents.
Why Spanish America
The Americas have three major cultural & linguistic clusters - legacy of the colonial period: English, Portuguese and Spanish. Of these three, only the Spanish was fragmented into independent countries; while the English and Portuguese maintained their's: Brazil & USA. Other European nations also colonized the New Continent, but with the exception of France (particularly in Canada) their legacies, although present, are rather small - at least in terms of population.
Not leveraging on this fact fragments the OLPC efforts when dealing in the Americas. Agreements with the UNDP and IADB are important - and give a supra-national structure with which the OLPC can work with - particularly financing and operational levels.
At the content level, this 'theoretically homogeneous' population (~400 million people) is an opportunity that shouldn't be overlooked. Hard sciences (physics, biology, mathematics, etc.) can be made available (both translated and locally produced) with a relative cost far lower than other localization efforts. Language studies is another major 'homogeneous' area of development. The concept of 'homogeneity' is always relative, but much in the same way that dubbing into Spanish can be done using 'neutral spanish', content can be developed like-wise.
A major localization 'obstacle' will be History and other social studies. Each country promotes 'their side of the story'—usually in conflict with their neighbor's—and involving a heavily edited version of their own history—usually in detriment of their pre-colonial cultural heritage.
Keeping this in mind would allow the OLPC to have a broad and linguistically homogeneous content base and is the major reason behind this page.
Comments
Moved to the discussion page, but are welcome here too!