UNICEF school in a box (was Re: networking scenarios)

[Edward Cherlin]

2008/4/11 Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com>:
> Javier,
>
> The humble towns are most important.
>
> An aside : when I was last in New York (for the story jam a couple weekends
> ago) I saw a UNICEF poster display of a disaster-area "school in a box" --

http://www.unicef.org/supply/index_40377.html

> two suitcase-sized containers with all of the materials and power-generators
> needed to run a single server creating its own sat or radio internet
> connection, and a few attached terminals.

That isn't the kit listed at UNICEF. It sounds like both posters were
for concepts that haven't come out yet.

"n addition to the basic school supplies, such as exercise books,
pencils, erasers and scissors, the kit also includes a wooden teaching
clock, wooden cubes for counting and a set of three laminated posters
(alphabet, multiplication and number tables). The kit is supplied in a
locked aluminium box, the lid of which can double as a blackboard when
coated with the special paint included in the kit. Using a locally
developed teaching guide and curriculum, teachers can establish
makeshift classrooms almost anywhere."

> The design was for regions with
> no infrastructure at all.  A poster mockup listed XOs as ideal terminals...

Do we have any contacts with the people responsible for this kit?

> SJ
>
> 2008/4/11 info at olpc-peru.info <info at olpc-peru.info>:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hello Dafydd and all...
> >
> > Question:
> > I think that you mean that the "school server" has "internet access".
> > Is it possible to have a "school server" without "internet access" ? (just
> to do... what? bigger "collaboration" between the XOs? software repository?
> documents & books repository?. Many scenarios are possible.
> >
> > So I think you can add to the fourth scenarios: "Internet access" or "No
> internet access" and what kind: ADSL, phone line, Satelital, or other ways.
> >
> > Idea:
> > Add to your scenarios:
> >
> > "Kind of energy available for the XOs:"
> >
> > Then we will face the "forgotten" problem: the humble towns, the ones that
> are over the
> > 3,500 meters altitude, the ones that are in the "worst" scenarios... they
> don't have any
> > kind of electricity. So the "cranck", the "solar panels", air or human
> generated energy
> > is part of the equation IF we are going to reach those "worst scenarios".
> >
> > Helping first the ones that will survive? That is for first aid in
> disasters. In this
> > case we must try to help the "forgotten" worst scenarios and I hope that
> MOST of the
> > XOs that come to Peru will go to the poorest towns.
> >
> > Comment:
> > You say: "...
> >  - school WiFi
> > - access points
> > - school server with Jabber server
> > - only one server at a time
> > - this is what is deployed in Peru ...
> >
> > ... this is the situation most of our existing laptops are
> > deployed in, and it's likely that upcoming deployments will be similar."
> >
> > I think that this scenario is good for a test, not as the intended "niche"
> were
> > the XOs must be deployed. I think the XO computers in Peru
> > will get better use in the WORST scenarios. A kid that lives in a town
> with a school that have
> > 5 standard PCs with dialup Internet is in better condition that a kid that
> lives in a
> > town with a school with no PCs and no Internet. Who need us more? The
> second one. Who will
> > benefit more? The second one.
> >
> > Yes, yes, yes. It is harder to put the XOs in the WORST scenario. And
> maybe 20% of the kids
> > that are now 6 years old will not reach the 12 years old in those
> "forgotten villages" in my
> > country (Peru). But... we must try.
> >
> > Better scenario (for developing best help with poorest children):
> > There is no need to travel to the high andes to find the kids that need us
> more.
> > There are schools in the surroundings of Lima with "no light", "no
> tables", "no desks", "no chairs".
> > Every kid is sit down in a brick. The teacher
> > uses the wall as board. I don't know how many of this schools exists in
> Lima.
> > But for sure that they exist, dozens? Yes, no doubt.
> >
> > Ah... the last earthquake gave us another opportunity: just 3 hours away
> from Lima, in the coast, no mountains,
> > 90% of the schools have been destroyed.  In this "Ica" region Children are
> studying (if they are studying) in any kind of
> > temporal "school" ... in the worst conditions.  There must be more than
> 200 schools (all sizes) destroyed there.
> > Those kids deserve the opportunity to get a XO that can improve their
> educational conditions? Yes. No doubt.
> >
> > I hope that upcoming XO deployments will get not the poor children but the
> POOREST children in Peru.
> >
> > Let's keep moving.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Javier Rodriguez
> > Lima, Peru
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Dafydd Harries wrote:
> > This is something which was not completely clear to me until I talked to
> Wad
> > about it the other day, and I think other people might find it useful. It
> > should probably go on the wiki (assuming it isn't already there
> somewhere). I'd
> > like some feedback about where it belongs. The closest thing I've found is
> this
> > page:
> >
> > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Scenario_taxonomy
> >
> > Any errors are my own.
> >
> > There are four networking scenarios:
> >
> > - simple mesh
> > - no access point
> > - no school server
> > - we are currently aiming to support up to 15 laptops in this case
> > - simple WiFi
> > - access points
> > - which tend not to handle multicast very well (1Mbit/s peak)
> > - no school server
> > - this is what G1G1 laptops will tend to encounter
> > - typically in the developed world
> > - school mesh
> > - no access point
> > - school server with Jabber server
> > - school WiFi
> > - access points
> > - school server with Jabber server
> > - only one server at a time
> > - this is what is deployed in Peru
> >
> > Our current priority in terms of collaboration is to improve supprt for
> the
> > fourth case, as this is the situation most of our existing laptops are
> > deployed in, and it's likely that upcoming deployments will be similar.
> Our
> > secondary priority is improving support for the second case, as this is
> what
> > will tend happen when laptops are taken home from school.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
>
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-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay