Can't someone put the Sugar interface on top of non OLPC boxes, and
make a distro out of it? That would get allow HOSEF to pitch
Hawaii's schools on a OLPC-like setting (the sizzle) on desktops
without having to sell the steak (FLOSS).
Or perhaps Bishop Estate / Cambell Estate / Kaneohe Ranch could be
persuaded to buy OLPCs for youth in Hawaii Homelands housing, or HOSEF
could find the grants to purchase and administrate OLPC programs to
reach Hawaii's disadvantaged youth. Maybe Kamehameha school students
could BOGO, with the "GO" going to a disadvantaged Hawaiian youth.
Yes, its OPM.
Play the game from the inside, not the outside.
Maybe we could revive Kuokoa then.
Jim
On Dec 1, 2007, at 12:07 PM, R. Scott Belford wrote:
I fear that far too often good-willed and well-intending education
advocates fail to fully understand the extent of OPM addiction in
the American education system. More successful advocates have
learned to enable the use of OPM within the schools. They fund this
addiction with enticing technology trinkets and strong-armed
contractual agreements.
OPM, Other People's Money, is a delight to use. It feels so good,
and it spends so well. It is not to be confused with what most of
us are left with, Money. It is hard to come by, painful to spend,
and there never seems to be enough of it. When using OPM you'll
take two of whatever, and make it a deluxe. When using M, you clip
coupons.
If you would like to succeed in helping most schools and education
systems, experience shows that they need you to facilitate their OPM
use. You must appreciate their appetite is voracious, and that if
they do not use their entire hoard of OPM each year, they don't get
more next year, as promised. Successful vendors succeed by
supplying schools with OPM on a consistent and reliable basis.
This is where the conspiracy lies, so take it for what it is worth.
Some vendors offer luscious, enticing hardware that everyone wants.
Though they use some fruit as their name, they still succeed in
getting schools to eagerly adorn themselves in their regal iJewelry.
Understanding how important it is for the children to see their
schools wearing only the best, the public eagerly supplies
sufficient OPM without question. Some is sold off to Vendors who in
turn build more eye iJewlery. It could be, and it does get, worse.
Sometimes the OPM trade is a bit more ugly. For those with
squeamish stomachs, please put down your bialy. Some Vendors have
managed to enslave our schools in barbed chains of sophisticated
contractual agreements. In order to get the DEHLENIB hardware
necessary to adorn themselves, they must commit to consecutive years
wearing the same undergarments. In the past they could at least
change these undergarments or add new hardware trinkets. Now they
are contractually forbidden to make such hygiene changes. This
becomes smelly.
It is true that there are some schools that are trying to Free
themselves from this OPM addiction. All the OPM abuse has given
them very bad teeth, and now they need FLOSS. They are looking for
the kind-hearted souls out there willing to help them stay OPM Free
and well FLOSSed. This is where many of the more benevolent among us
have invested our passions. However, we must appreciate that these
recovering schools are usually the least capable of stopping the
abuse of OPM in their districts, regardless of how noble and
economical their story.
So to you I say learn to use OPM, but find a way to ween our blinded
and addicted schools. Forgive them for they know not what they do.
Instead, show them how FLOSSing can actually help them to spend
their OPM on other things, like more counselors and educators.
While they too may be OPM users, perhaps they won't be. If properly
educated, our youth don't have to be OPM users.
By reaching out to our youth and our college students in non-
academic environments(1), they can see the benefits of FLOSSing
instead of using OPM. They will eventually be hired by those
schools you have taken to lunch, intoxicated with OPM, and adorned
with your own FLOSS filled Trinkets. You never know when they may
want to open them up for a little cleaning.
--scott
(1)http://www.youtube.com/sctinc
--
R. Scott Belford
Founder/Executive Director
The Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation
P.O. Box 2644
Ewa Beach, HI 96706
808.689.6518 phone/fax
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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