Talk:Other ideas
hi when i heard of this project i am very excited to see it implemented, as one of the people who lived in countries that includes in your project map, I would like to point out some of what i think should be done, i hope it gives you more considerations so when this projects finally sets in motion, it run with greater chance to reach it's target
- would it be feasible to make and deploy sort of "charging station"? (pehaps can be placed at schools or other educational places) so that students that use the laptop could fully charge their laptops before use, say that they might be charging it during breaktime and use it during classtime (in combination with manually cranking it for use outside schools or places/events where electric powers are absent), since we have villages here that only has electricity on certain buildings and most the students also works which could make cranking the laptop might be somewhat "time wasting"(?)
- As you can see, worms and viruses multiplies in their numbers every year and it's eating up everything computers, so i might recomend that you should have some awareness about some "thrill-seekers" that may be trying to put malicious codes into the laptop system (as i read that the laptop have a degree of connectivity i assume that it has a possibility of getting infected by worms from internet or USB disk devices that got infected with viruses/worm that spread through removable medias)
Sadly recently there has been viruses and worms that is written by local people here that made only as "just-for-fun" or show of power. So it is assumable that if they write viruses targeting PCs for "fun" they would eventually write viruses targeting linux (and more importantly this laptop) "just-for-some-thrills"
- To help with the project (perhaps you can made a customized specially tagged version or whatever to differentiate with the original models) as well as easing the cost on the goverment (or whoever buying it for distribution) you might consider to make a "collectible" version of this laptop to the public, considering the aim of this project im sure there would be plenty of enthusiasts willing to pay more than $100(as long as it still has reasonable price surely) for either adding up some personal gadgets that has some "extra meaning" for themself and as to take a small part of this project (especially concerning the availability of the original model for the real targets; poorer students) which the money could go for buying more of the original models for them. (personally i would be interested to participate in such thing like this which some other people here already put this idea too)
To prevent any unwanted possibilites, this may be done by limiting the numbers that to be sold as "collectible gadgets" and put some markings that can be clearly used to identify between that of "public version" and that of the real models for students, IDs, cd-keys and such, model colors, just anything to keep those that "can be sold to public" with those that "only for educational purposes" identifiable.
- I have my own experiences of what happenings in the country that would require such a gadget like this; widespread corruptions which could end up seeing these laptops illegaly sold by schools to parents (that don't know if this laptop should be free as it is paid by goverments.)
Here there are lots of cases of illegals fees ranging from schools to whatever you could think of so i can assume that this could be flawed for doing such thing, as for cases where parents (or corrupting hands) might "attempts" to sold these with pretty much random price tags for the sakes of many reasons (from money for living, debts, or worse personal gain) and end up only saying "i don't know how to use these and i have no need of it... but i need money for bla bla bla bla" as a reason to affirm their "rights" to sell what is "given" to them... (yes, this one i can guarantee it will happen here without proper restrictions)
So to assure the flawless implementation of this project, there must be some kind of enforcement about (buying/ownership) that only students/teacher or those appropriate could carry/opearate... (which one of them you already stated; that the original models are sold only to goverments or educational agencies or alikes and to be distributed in schools)
- Here, most of us are very very far from near to "very basic, novice computer-user", infact some if not most doesn't know what is computer, and even the urban areas would hardly have idea of how to use the keyboard and mice.
so un"computer-literate" that you can find books that explain "what is desktop", "how to use googles" and even "how to use friendster" here, you can forget about "setting your computers for dummies" and such, because those people wouldn't understand even the words you'll find on that kind of book...
Therefore user interfaces is one that i think the most crucial factor about your project "usability", it MUST be very very easily identifiable of what it does and perhaps with tooltips and help pages there and here... as for softwares it must be VERY EASY to use FROM THE POINT OF USERS THAT YOU CAN ASSUME DOESN'T KNOW WHAT IS "NEXT" AND "CLOSE" BUTTON FOR! so i think one factor is not putting buttons that convenient to reach but also easy to understand it's function
this problem would lead you to one other problem: you have to teach them the basics understandings of GUI on OS (such as desktop, icons, what an "application" is and how those works in the computer to ease the usage of the users) as how to use the human inputs, the keyboard and mice/trackbalss/etc, first, before you give away those laptops
i would be most happy to see my country be included as "green colored one" in your project, i hope this helps a bit, thx :)
"Localization" efforts need to be cultural as well as practical (by practical, I mean fonts, high contrast screen etc). If the current global political situation can teach us anything, it is that cultural insensitivity p*sses people off, and generally makes them less likely to agree with you or your plans in the future. Possibly, the ownership of the project should eventually be "open sourced" in the local communities once the steward role of the OLPC organization has been discharged.
Ben Tobias, AU
