An OLPC Development Model

[Mikus Grinbergs]

> It also needs to be decided how the available activities are
> displayed.  Initially we'd planned on simply launching Browse and
> pointing to a predetermined URL (an "easy" way out, but requires
> setting up the server side).  That requires including Browse as part
> of the base image.  Another option is to use an extension of Bert's
> script to fetch (potentially from a number of locations, if
> necessary), a list of activities and format a list with nice icons,
> titles, and short descriptions presented as a modal dialog

 From the viewpoint of a G1G1 user who likes to "keep up with the 
Joneses", I am perfectly happy to fetch individual activities with 
'wget' and to install them with 'sugar-install-bundle'.  My biggest 
problem is simply *knowing* that updated Activities are available.

I believe TWO sets of Activities need to be made available to users 
who are not schoolkids linked to a school server.  One set I'll call 
'stable Activities' - they are packaged in "Activity Packs" such as 
the ones for Peru or for G1G1.  Users need a documented way to 
install these.  If the build they have put on their OLPC does not 
provide Browse, they need a way to access an "Activity Pack".

I will use 'development Activities' to describe the second set -- 
they represent the most recent versions built by their authors. 
Currently these are scattered on mock.laptop.org and dev.laptop.org 
and wiki.laptop.org (and others).  I would prefer there to be a 
SINGLE repository containing the very latest level of each Activity 
-- barring that, there should exist an "official" list which gives 
the location from where the latest version of each individual 
Activity can be fetched.

[The existing http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities webpage lists a 
number of not-the-latest-version bundles.  It is not suitable for a 
catalog of what I'm calling 'development Activities', unless more 
care is given to updating it as authors come up with new versions.]

mikus