[sword-devel] Most 3rd world children can learn a little Python but not a huge C++ Re: OLPC interest still?

Jason Galyon jtgalyon at gmail.com
Sat Jan 19 09:47:30 MST 2008


I too will be at PyCon08, I will look you up.

avolunteer DrStovallFoundation wrote:
> If you want a project in the 3rd world 
> to be a success, involve the local people from the start and at 
> every phase possible instead of just handing them something.  
> I have said it before, Most 3rd world children can learn Python,
> but C++ is unrealistic.  
>
> Olpc has inspired the Asus Eee, the classmate, and many other 
> imitations and innovations.  When can we get a group of sword-devel 
> people to be inspired with what we should have been working 
> together to do a long time ago?  The Bible has plenty of 
> linguistics, psychology, sociology, and other educational 
> materials.  When can we get a team as interested in these things 
> as sword-devel has been interested in searching words in commentaries, 
> and dictionaries?  A few suggestions have been made on this list 
> for text to speech and other things which could be of great benefit 
> to 3rd world children.  Now that we have two versions of the sword 
> available on Python, let's move on to more important things.
>
> Pycon.org registration is open for staff now and will be open 
> for everyone soon.  There will be a OLPC tutorial March 13 and 
> then some talks.  From March 15 p.m. until March 20 there will 
> be OLPC development sprints.  Last year I was told that anyone 
> with decades of experience in the third world was not needed 
> and that experience in team leadership was plan B.  With such 
> attitudes, OLPC may continue to make less impact than their 
> excellent technology deserves.  Perhaps the same could be said 
> for many other excellent technologies.
>
> Anyone who is interested in technology and serving children should 
> keep on showing their interest on this list.  I was able to work 
> with the Rapier developer one weekend in Paris.  Because he knew 
> a lot of things I did not know how to do and because I understood 
> some things he did not, we were able to do something that neither 
> one of us could have done alone.  Anyone who can go to Chicago 
> for pycon.org largest regional meeting in March should do so.  
> Everyone else who is interested should sprint with us via eMail 
> and IRC.  It costs money to dispose of computers in Europe.  It 
> is better to send them to me in Indonesia.  If people will help 
> to develop the appropriate studies in Python and Scala we can 
> help many children and adults.  OLPC here would be great.  But 
> we can do a lot with other technologies as long as they are not 
> dependent on C++, huge data files, and things that are not 
> realistic for the undeveloping part of the 3rd world.  BTW please 
> Google Nias site: TheJakartaPost.com and see how much progress 
> has been made among the hardest hit tsunami/earthquake victims 
> after 3+ years and the largest foreign contributions ever given 
> to a 3rd world country.  The Jakarta Post says there is still 
> traffic of children, 1.2 million children drop out of school 
> each year, and the majority of the houses have not yet been 
> rebuilt so many people are still living in tents.  Nias, the predominatly 
> Christian island is worse off than Muslim areas that got more 
> aid.  But I am still working in Muslim areas with people who 
> live still with great trauma and little hope for the future 
> although they again have a brick home.
>
> I will be at Pycon in Chicago.  But please contact me and others 
> who are interested if you really want to do something appropriate 
> for 3rd world children.
> Johnny Stovall - a volunteer 
> The Dr. Stovall Foundation 
>
> --- "Zachary M. Oglesby" <zoglesby at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> I am still learning Python but I think this is a great idea. OLPC is
>> designed for children in developing nations and that would be a great
>> resource for  people  trying to spread  God's word to them.
>>
>> On Jan 14, 2008 12:38 PM, DJ Ortley <djortley at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Having started at least one of those conversations, I still mildly
>>> have an interest.  Especially as I've learned Python since then. :)
>>>
>>> It seemed that the conversation ended with people thinking the intent
>>> was to get sword stuck on the the laptops before they ship, which
>>> obviously isn't going to happen (and definatly weren't my original
>>> thoughts.)
>>>
>>> As I said, I'm still mildly interested, but I don't know how involved
>>> I can be in the short term as I have many other plates spinning (and
>>> falling down.)
>>>
>>> -DJ
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 14, 2008 10:02 AM, Jason Galyon <jtgalyon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>       
>>>> There were various conversations in the past relating to Bible related
>>>> software for the One Laptop Per Child or XO project.  I would like to
>>>> start the discussion back up if anyone is interested.
>>>>
>>>> At my local Python Users Group meeting (http://dfwpython.org) we had
>>>> three of the units and played around with them including messing with
>>>> the mesh networking and collaborative activities.
>>>>
>>>> These are very cool, I can't say enough good about them.
>>>>
>>>> While large amounts of text are out due to storage (and RAM) is there
>>>> interest in developing client or server software for and lesson
>>>> management applications?
>>>>
>>>> For example, you could still have bible reading assignments (including
>>>> the follow along in the class) using either the browser or just the
>>>> normal pyGTK interface receiving its information from the class (school)
>>>> server.
>>>>
>>>> There have been some great ideas generated already however having seen
>>>> some of these, I can say that the potential for teaching the world the
>>>> Word is limitless.  Combining these with general education setup
>>>> missions would be a great boon for witnessing.
>>>>
>>>> Some resources:
>>>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home - general website
>>>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developers - development info
>>>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sugar_with_sugar-jhbuild - development
>>>> checkout of the sugar environment
>>>>
>>>> note that with sugar, you have the latest development versions available
>>>> (my preference) with sugar-jhbuild, downloadable packages for many
>>>> platforms, and vm images such as for VMWare, Parallels, and QEMU.
>>>>
>>>> Download a copy and see what the potential is!
>>>>
>>>> Jason
>>>>
>>>>
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>
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