[Textbook-l] Global Text Project

[Robert Scott Horning]

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>Robert Scott Horning wrote:
>  
>
>>The real purpose, for example, that the OLPC folks don't want to deal 
>>with EU or American states is because the laptop component 
>>manufacturer's that are offering price breaks for the OLPC don't want a 
>>competing computer product that would undercut their own sales in the 
>>USA and EU.  If that isn't a political agenda, I don't know what one is. 
>>    
>>
>
>Hmmm.... so, if a manufacturer is willing offer a donation in the form 
>of a price break, so long as the product is sent somewhere else, then 
>the OLPC should just give up and walk away?  I don't really understand 
>this perspective.
>
We do this all of the time with Wikimedia projects, where good and 
worthy contributions are turned away due to licensing conflicts.  We 
just turned a substantial body of work away from Wikibooks because we 
couldn't get copyright clearance due to a non-commercial use only 
license, to use an example.  I could cite other significant examples, 
but sometimes you need to identify what the goal could be and make sure 
you havn't made too many compromises early on that would limit your true 
potential.  BTW, I think selecting the GFDL as the target license for 
Wikipedia was an incredibly fortunate accident by you Jimbo, and 
something that has ultimately set the tone of all Wikimedia projects.

In the case of the OLPC folks, I think they are limiting themselves and 
their vision of what could be accomplished, and limiting the potential 
market of those who might both need and be able to pay for these 
laptops.  They are also significantly restricting their development 
community, as even software developers who would create content specific 
for the OLPC won't have access to the equipment unless they obtain them 
somehow from 3rd world governments directly.  I could cite numerous 
issues that would come up trying to develop software for the OLPC, but 
having actual working hardware makes the job of a software developer 
significantly easier.  That people are willing to put in effort in spite 
of these problems is more a testament to the volunteers than the OLPC 
organizers.

The proposed distribution system for these laptops is something that 
seems so prone to typical 3rd world graft and corruption that I don't 
know how realistically these computers can get into the hands of 
ordinary people of these countries except accidentally.  You can't even 
move a shipping container of wheat or rice to these countries without 
substantial quantities being diverted away from litterally starving 
people and into the hands of multi-billionaires who stash all of their 
money in Switzerland.  Why would electronic components be any different?

At least with Wikipedia, Donald Trump has just as much utility to the 
content that I do.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning