[Ubuntu-SG] Promoting Ubuntu among the very young

[suhaw koh]

Hi Nick,

2009/11/15 Nick HS <nickhs at ubuntu.com>

> This looks fantastic! I'm not sure how readily I'll be able to
> contribute support but I'm happy to come in at the beginning and set up
> computers.


Given the different abilities of volunteers to commit, I am considering
chopping up the work needed into little parts so that volunteers can sign up
for smaller chunks that they can commit to.

Still, there is a front-facing group which is difficult to "chop" up.
Ideally we should have 5 teams of 3 volunteers each that is directly
interacting with the Centres' staff and teachers.  While not all 3
volunteers need to be doing everything together, they do represent familiar
faces that the Centres can depend on to guide them out of the Windows
Wilderness.

Given that, I am also beginning to see the need/utility of "support
volunteers" who may not be able to commit to the "face-time" but can provide
technical support/advice remotely.  And if we do set up a web resource for
the volunteers and teachers to knowledge share, webadmin volunteers will
certainly come in handy too.

However, imho, the challenge is to find 15 front-line volunteers who can
commit to the face-time required to establish trust with the participating
Centres.  While it is not reasonable to expect all the 15 volunteers to be
working on the project throughout the 3+ years or more, we certainly hope to
have smooth transitions to new volunteers where needed.



> Reading through the wikipage now I agree the tech specs are a
> little bit high, but should still be usable in three years time. I also
> keep reading references to 4-8MB flashdrives, do you mean 4-8GB
> flashdrives?


Yes, typo on my part.  Corrected in the wiki.


> What about using Ubuntu One instead?
>

This assumes readily available Internet connection.  While it may be true
for some Centres, it may not be so for others.  At this time, I am working
on the lower common denominator and giving the respective teams flexibility
to implement the best solution suited to the needs of the respective
Centres.

Ubuntu One is certainly a good idea, but do bear in mind the additional
training needed given that cloud computing is a rather novel concept among
the less computer-literate.



> Finally you might want to look into the Linux Terminal Server Project
> (LTSP) [1] which only requires a reasonably powerful server and the rest
> of the computers act as thin clients. This could be useful if we don't
> get the funding we need.
>

Okay, you caught me out here: I confess that I am not a techie.  I presume
you are thinking of locating an LTSP server at each Centre and then hook up
the other clients via some router/switch.  I can see the advantage if the
clients were accessing the Internet and doing other stuff through the
server.  But if all the educational applications can be installed within
each "client" HDD, how does the LTSP server set-up help ?

>From the examples I have read about LTSP thus far, I get the impression that
they are great for managing clusters of 10 clients or more.  At this point
in time, I am only thinking of 3 to 5 PCs per Centre.  Given what I know of
kindergartens, etc, I don't see many of them having the space to set-up
whole computer labs of 10+ PCs.

If, however, you were considering using LTSP to remotely manage/maintain the
PCs, that would certainly be a plus if it is feasible.

Cheers.



suhaw

-- 
________________________
Koh Su Haw  许树浩
http://suhaw.teresaville.org/
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