October 2008

World Bank webcast: How much does it really cost to introduce and sustain computers in schools?

Submitted by Jon on Wed, 10/29/2008 - 06:14

I'll be leading the discussion at the World Bank this Thursday with a presentation by Vital Wave Consulting on their recent TCO calculations for low-cost computing models (both lab- and 1:1 computing approaches).

Come by or watch the event live online! (rsvp below).

A World Bank ICT and Education Community of Interest Discussion (EduTech), in
collaboration with the World Bank e-Development Thematic Group, infoDev and the
Technology Salon invite you to a seminar/live webcast:

How much does it really cost to introduce and sustain computers in schools?
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): A Study of Models of Affordable Computing for
Schools in Developing Countries

Drupal and GYSD Maps II: Modules in Play

Submitted by Jon on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 14:02

Series: Overview | Modules | Structure and Taxonomies | On Drupal 6 | Functionality

Drupal by itself is pretty powerful, but where it really shines is when you start plugging in the modules which have been developed for it. There are hundreds (if not thousands), and the first mistake I made on my first Drupal install was to just start clicking away before I'd learned the ropes. Luckily, this is what sandbox installs are made from, so a few database drops and folder deletions later I could start from scratch (again).

To get this all working, I now present you with the modules I activated or installed for the map project:

How I made a map for Global Youth Service Day 2009

Submitted by Jon on Wed, 10/22/2008 - 13:36

Series: Overview | Modules | Structure and Taxonomies | On Drupal 6 | Functionality

This is my "journal" of work in creating a user-modifiable map of the Global Youth Service Day events taking place around the world. The goal was to create a map that staff non-techies could manage, non-techie youth and organizations from around the world could add to, and still (a) work and (b) be friendly to the techies managing it, allowing for mass import and so on.

The GYSD Map in progress!

This is the first part of a series of entries (four or five probably). This first one covers the overview and core software I'm using, and some discussion of why I've chosen what I have. The next entry will cover modules and initial configuration work.

This guide is going to be a bit on the techie side, and I presume at least a bit of Drupal and webhosting experience when going through it, but nothing you can't google for help on from the community. As a caveat, I'm also relatively new to drupal, this is only my third foray into the more complex worlds it offers.

The latest OLPC Upgrade

Submitted by Jon on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 10:57

OLPC Upgrading - like an old defrag!Last Thursday, I upgraded my OLPC over some beers -- sometimes, the best (and worst) ways to really test technology's limits is while slightly inebriated. The upgrade (using a Microsoft Unlimited Potenial USB stick gimme as the boot USB.

The upgrade went surprisingly smoothly, and it even included a good chunk of activities, which saved a big post-upgrade time sink in Update.1

Linux Audio Server amusement

Submitted by Jon on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 10:28

I'm currently using the laptop as the interim solution / testbed for the LAS idea. It's struggling to run amarok, but works nicely with qiv running a slideshow on top of it, usually.

Social Media and ICT in Kenyan Agriculture

Submitted by Jon on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 19:00

CropScience.org has a great paper on the potential use of social media and Internet access for rural farmers. What sets it apart from most Social Media for Development writings is that is takes a serious look at what must be in place for a project of this scope to work.

It compares farmers in Uganda and Australia, which is less ridiculous than it sounds. The Australian farmers - with training and a significantly higher support network (from government regulations all the way to average numbers of computers/100 people;

A Linux Audio Server

Submitted by Jon on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 16:19

I admit it. I have a Windows laptop at home. For a very long time, it was my primary system.

For the past year or so, I've been using a Linux laptop as my daily system, reverting to the Windows system for reliable video and HD audio -- basically, it was my media system, which just happened to also have all my email, files, and whatnot.

SMSing political questions

Submitted by Jon on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 11:38

This is pure brilliance, courtesy BoingBoing:

This giant billboard, posing hard questions for Sarah Palin, was lit up across the road from her LA rally site on Saturday: you could send your own Palin questions to it via SMS. Nice technology use from the California Dems.

What's old is new again

Submitted by Jon on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 11:23

Thin Clients - a.k.a. "dumb terminals" have a long history in computing, and tend to come up every few years (seems to be a ten year cycle) as the Grand Solution to Desktop Computing, promising mind-numbingly easy centralized configuration and software maintenance, simplified licensing, and low-cost, low-profile desktop terminals that provide enough power for almost all users without wasting resources.

Venezuela Chooses the Intel Classmate over the OLPC XO - kinda

Submitted by Jon on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 09:18

The Chavez likes Intel -- but not Windows? (BBC)The BBC is reporting that Venezuela has ordered a million laptops "based on the Intel Classmate" in partnership with Portugal:

Venezuela is buying the portable computers as part of a $3bn (£1.66bn) bilateral trade deal with Portugal that also covers housing and utilities. Portugal is manufacturing the blue and white laptops under licence from Intel and are broadly based on the chip maker's design of its Classmate computer. [...]

The deal with Venezuela follows an agreement between Intel and Portugal, signed in August for Classmate machines.

Under that deal Portugal agreed to buy 500,000 machines to enable every six-to-10-year-old in the country to get one.

It sounds like this is an extension of Portugal's original tender for 500,000 laptops, but whether the hardware changed discussed are merely the same ones already mentioned or not is uncertain, but the article does hint that it will be further hardware-customized for Venezuela. The BBC article describes the modified Classmate as:

October 2008

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