Advocacy efforts (was Re: [seul-edu] SEUL Licensing)

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

Hilaire Fernandes wrote:

>  > I am definitely doing so.  Your example is well chosen--Sketch exists as an initial
>  > effort towards doing the things that Corel Draw does.  Now, rather than ask MECC to
>  > port Amazon Trail to Linux, which free project should we attempt to help?  There
>  > _is_ no one working on similar programs for Linux; I've checked.  As soon as such a
>
> So why not looking for someone that can develop such a software
> instead of asking to MECC? BTW, can you tell us what is Amazin Trail
> and MECC?
>

I'm doing that too.  Amazon Trail is (from a description in a product review):

"Amazon Trail Rainforest Adventures 3rd Edition takes your child on an interactive trip
through the rainforests of the Amazon. While there, kids can take photos of wildlife, catch
fish and trade for supplies. They must remain healthy and avoid hazards along the way."

It's sort of a graphical adventure game with some educational value (how much is an open
question).  MECC used to be a small independent company, but from what I can see they've
been acquired by The Learning Company, which now includes Brøderbund, Creative Wonders,
Compton's, The Learning Company, MECC, and Mindscape.

I started working with a group of artists (Roger Dingledine put me on to them) who wanted
to write an adventure based on various culture's afterlife concepts that they tentatively
called, "Where in Hell is Carmen Sandiego?"  (For legal purposes we decided to call the
central character Aida Sanfernando.)  Work on that languished, but a secondary effort was
formed to develop an adventure based on a George MacDonald story called "The Light
Princess."  That project is proceeding nicely at <http://light-princess.sourceforge.net>.
We hope to develop a graphical adventure game engine that non-programmers can fairly easily
write data sets (adventures) for.  We want to encourage artistic and other non-technical
types to use it to make many more adventure games for Linux, both educational and
entertainment.

At any rate, advocating ports of existing commercial software doesn't take lots of time or
effort, and I don't think it significantly detracts from other efforts to develop similar
free software.  And to speak to one of Ray's concerns, when I advocate porting to
commercial organizations, I never mention foreswearing the development of free
alternatives.  I'm not part of their company, and they understand that if there's a valid
niche for their programs competition will develop.  Anoyne in the software field who isn't
aware of the possibility of competition for their programs from free software is horribly
blindered.  I'm not trying to get Amazon Trail for Linux, I'm trying to get good
educational software for Linux.  If they want to be a part of that, great.  But I won't
ignore other possibilities to try to persuade them.

> I know that Doug. But i'm concerned that the two directions you take
> in the same time will hurt free software spirit in education and
> teaching.  I think that commercial edu soft will be ported when
> GNU/Linux will spread in school and home, we don't need to advocate
> for that.

I think it's important for everyone on this mailing list to understand that Hilaire and I
agree on 99%+ of everything to do with Linux in education, and that this discussion is
based on slightly divergent views of where our efforts should be focussed.  We have great
respect for each other (back me up on this, Hilaire :-) ).

--
Doug Loss                 God is a comedian playing
Data Network Coordinator  to an audience too afraid
Bloomsburg University     to laugh.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Voltaire