Re: Major interview

[Barret Dolph <white129@ms7.hinet.net>]

This is a great idea. There is some group somewhere that does local culture sites.
I will try to find this.

S. Barret Dolph

"Jose C. Lacal" wrote:

> A comment on the issue of "edsoft costs a lot of money to produce
> because of the royalty fees paid for the included content." The point is
> well taken. let's flip it on its head.
>
> Dumb idea:
> - there are millions of video cameras and portable audio recording
> devices in the world today, even in less-developed countries
> - a significant number of kids in schools worldwide have access to such
> devices
> - video and audio encoding equipment (composite video to digital format,
> audio to MP3) is getting cheaper by the day
> - the Internet allows for instant, worldwide collaborative projects
>
> So, how difficult would it be to set-up an OpenSource-centered project
> where students worldwide create audio and video content (of their own
> city, museums, significant historical places, musical traditions,
> typical dances, etc.) and contribute such _royalty-free_ content to a
> central database? Then, edsoft authors can take such "free" (think free
> speech here) content, add their intellectual talent (historical
> background, pedagogical expertise, etc.) and create OpenSource edsoft
> materials? At a much lower cost than traditional software development
> costs.
>
> Is that too crazy an idea, folks?
>
> Regards.
>
> malonowa wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Hilaire Fernandes <hilaire@seul.org>
> > To: <seul-edu@seul.org>
> > Cc: <seul-edu@seul.org>
> > Sent: samedi 4 septembre 1999 02:42
> > Subject: Re: Major interview
> >
> > >    From: Michael Williams <michael@haywood.k12.nc.us>
> > >
> > >    > Ray Olszewski wrote:
> > >    >
> > >    >> The general question is the relative merits of encouraging
> > >    >> EdSoft developers
> > >    >>
> > >    >> to port their (proprietary, fee based) applications to Linux,
> > >    >> versus relying
> > >    >>
> > >    >> on the Open Source/free software community to create the needed
> > >    >> apps and distribute them at no charge.
> > >    >
> > >    In our district, 'free' opened the door to linux as an NOS. It will
> > >    take 'free' to get it on the desktop, but once it's there, I expect
> > >    that the proprietary software applications will follow as soon as
> > >    they realize the potential for profit.
> > >
> > > Yes, you are totaly right. Edusoft companies doesn't need us to take
> > > the decision to port applications. We can advocate as hard as we can,
> > > they will do so only if there is profit to be done, not because we ask
> > > them. We should spend more energy asking developper to start free
> > > project education oriented.
> > >
> > This is not true for everyone. Whilst I appreciate your passionately held
> > views you mustn't fall into the trap of making such sweeping generalisations
> > with regards to the "Edusoft companies". They don't all follow the same
> > business model. Take Topologika for example, as far as I can see they would
> > port software simply because "we asked them to". I will port software
> > because "you ask me to". There are people out there who will do things
> > simply because they believe it's right to do it and if they can avoid going
> > bankrupt in the process then that's a good thing. Please don't de-humanize
> > all companies, there are people behind these companies who have genuine
> > beliefs and share much of the good will and intention for young people as
> > you do - but they do need to earn a living in the process. I've known the
> > guy who owns topologika for about 8 years now and I can definitely tell you
> > that this is a good man and not at all the sort of person you'd like to
> > believe he his.
> >
> > As for starting "free" projects, these companies are much too small to take
> > such risks. They could quite easily go bankrupt very quickly with just one
> > mistake here. It's just not viable. And remember that NOT ALL software can
> > be developed for free. If we insist on an entirely free development model
> > then all the software that requires licensing, royalties etc. just wouldn't
> > exist - and that's a lot of resources that we're all accustomed to that
> > would suddenly become unavailable.
> >
> > There's a tendancy to believe that the free software model can do anything.
> > Is this really realistic? Take a really good piece of multimedia software
> > that contains lots of video footage etc. Could you pay several hundred
> > thousand dollars to licence it and then give it away? The free software
> > authors certainly couldn't raise the money to develop the product in the
> > first place.
> >
> > You mentioned in a previous e-mail that too much commercial software would
> > limit freedom. This simply isn't so. Whilst this may be true if the
> > operating system isn't free, I fail to see how a piece of edsoft. could
> > effect the community's freedom. I'm all for co-existance with all
> > philosophies in life. Remember that wars have been started simply because
> > people didn't share the same philosophy or religion. If we go to far with
> > either model then we risk destroying our own arguments - we cannot argue for
> > freedom if we wish to eliminate the others, that would inevitably lead to
> > the removal of choice for those who don't agree with us and therefore
> > defeats the purpose of it all.
> >
> > Remember that to be able to develop any and every product free would require
> > a fundamental change in society as a whole - it's not just about
> > programming, the implications are far wider than that. To expect this to
> > happen overnight and not in a progressive manner is quite unrealistic. We
> > should all try to be patient and do what we can when we can.
> >
> > Those who preach too hard are often not heard.
> >
> > Roman.
>
> --
> Jose C. Lacal, Chief Vision Officer
>
> jose.lacal@openclassroom.org
> http://www.openclassroom.org
>
> OpenClassroom: bringing the power of OpenSource to Education.
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