Re: [edu-eu] FWB: Foss with benefits

[Charles Cossé]

Hi All,

In light of points made in this conversation I spent some time reviewing FSF literature and definitions.   At the end of "Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software" there is the following:

Thus, free software activists are well advised to decline to work on an activity that calls itself “open.” Even if the activity is good in and of itself, each contribution you make does a little harm on the side.  (src)

At the risk of cluttering simple sentences I have modified my text throughout to read "free/open-source (GPL'd) education software", so as not to preclude anyone from participating or endorsing the project. 

I also unpublished Asymptopia Software's Facebook page, for my own reasons, namely that it's not helping anything, but noting that it's also consistent with RMS's philosophy. 

Here is an issue I have with much of what I read today:  The notions of fundamental "rights and wrongs" are used often.  Personally, I don't believe that there are such things at all ... in the universe.   That has nothing to do with software, or religion, or anything except my cosmology.   So FSF philosophy alienates me long before considerations of software ... whether I agree with the goals or not.  That argument is loaded with implicit assumptions that have nothing to do with software.

"Education" is at the core of FSF's mission, but it is really just Computer Science Education that FSF is referring to, as far as I can tell.

Free Software supports education, proprietary software forbids education.  (src)

If, for example, I were to put a new version of my FSF-listed game TuxMathScrabble online without GPL-ing it, that certainly isn't "forbidding" any education that it was ever intended for, i.e. kids to use.   In fact, it's _javascript_, so Computer Science students can even still read the code and learn. 

Anyway, we share the common goal of wanting to make the world a better place, expand "free" software for education, etc ... so I hope the changes I made, and will continue fine-tuning and cleaning-up tomorrow, will make the project more agreeable to all. 

Is there any way FSFE and/or other heavyweight organizations reading this could publicly endorse the project at this early stage?

Charles

On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:15 PM, Charles Cossé <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi Cecilie,

On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 5:14 AM, L.Cecilie Wian <address@hidden> wrote:

So had a look at it.

Great!!

 

AT: Simple is better, while wanting the parents (users) to be able steer the payments to whatever program they prefer is a nice idea, i fear the complexity may kill it.

Perhaps ... i did spend some time trying to design usage-tracking mechanisms into the system and as you observed it got very messy.  Maybe if other developers with experience here become involved it could work.   Aside from the implementation, though, my biggest concern is being in the middle of it all, i.e. money considerations.  I still have hope that, implementation-wise, complexity will be lower with direct allocation.  This is at the top of my to-do list, i.e. a stand-alone proof-of-concept of the slider idea.  

So picking up some experience from other applications: Spotify. The base idea is that the artist i play gets the money, in addition they have a really intricate payment structure, that i , as the user, never sees.

Keyword: "intricate"!   Infrastructure developers would be needed, and more than welcomed / appreciated. 

 

Flatter, a system i love the idea of, became to much work, and i forgot about it. So how about making it an system setting that can be changed? Autodistribute based on usage, and then forced distribution of the user is interested? (what happens if they do not distribute payments?)

 

Yes, I also came to a similar conclusion ... but using the slider-distribution idea, and then a "managed auto-distribution" plan if they (parents) found the former to be too much trouble.  

Detailed tracking seems like it's ripe for exploitation, too.  How could you know if someone were just pumping-up their own usage stats?  The "managed distribution" approach would still involve some tracking, i guess, but hopefully there could be a manageable, less intricate way to implement.

 

The programs:

I am mostly curious about your Forced reader. It seems like you got a new way of thinking about this. And thats good, this is a difficult problem, since, well, making it easy and automated (so the parents have an easy job) while still ensure the wanted action is taken. 

These are just examples to demonstrate the potential, and that such things are possible in a web environment, and to inspire others.   The take-away message that I want everyone to get about the programs is that "the sky is the limit".  We have a developer trying to make an interactive avatar app for use with autistic children, and another quiz app which shows paintings of famous artists and has the student identify the epoch, etc. 

 

The program description, way to long and intricate, i assume it is b/c it is a draft, and that you will sharpen it. Take a look at some other project description pages for things backed. Ops! I see you allready lanched the kickstarting for this. Can you make changes to the project when it is started? 

Yes indeed.  Just realize that i've been a one-man-band until this point, as far as websites and community-building ... although that's in the process of changing.  My hope is that we can assemble the 2x communities and infrastructure such that the whole system will come-together simultaneously and just function.  Is there any way FSFE and/or other heavyweight organizations reading this could publicly endorse the project at this early stage? 

Really glad for this discussion so far!  Thanks for all the thoughtful inputs. 

Charles Cossé

AutoTeach Project