I'd just like to second Bryan's viewpoint here. Hewing to the open media line has been impossible for my small deployment, and my past experience supporting technology in a larger school context is consistent with this. Find a sensible middle ground to make it easy and seamless for those deploying the XS/XO combination in real schools to install ubiquitous free (as in beer) components, and work toward better licenses and open codecs as a background goal. There is just too much to do for the kids. In the specific case of Adobe flash, it would be excellent if someone friendly to the project could approach Adobe and ask that they allow the plugin to be packaged for distribution during school deployments.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 8:02 AM, Bryan Berry <<a href="mailto:bryan.berry@gmail.com">bryan.berry@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> Can these modules be recoded for Gnash? I don't see this as an either/or.<br>
<br>
</div>Frankly I don't have the time for this, preparing for a deployment is<br>
extremely time-consuming. If I were to recode them, I fear I would find<br>
a whole new set of flash-based materials that would need to be recoded.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
On Mon, 2008-03-24 at 00:58 -0700, Edward Cherlin wrote:<br>
> On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 7:41 PM, Bryan Berry <<a href="mailto:bryan.berry@gmail.com">bryan.berry@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> > Edward Cherlin Wrote:<br>
> > > That might be the quickest strategy, but I don't agree that it is the best.<br>
> > ><br>
> > > * Gnash needs funding and developers. Let's do it. Rob Savoye says, as<br>
> > > I understand it, that more codecs have been cracked but not coded for.<br>
> > > Rob, can we get the list? Is there a roadmap for implementation? I<br>
> > > didn't see it in any of the obvious places.<br>
> ><br>
> > Sugar needs more developers, the XS needs more developers and resources,<br>
> > this project as a whole needs a lot more resources.<br>
> ><br>
> > There are a lot of awesome flash-based modules for magnetism,<br>
> > electricity, math, and basic science. Flash is pervasive in educational<br>
> > courseware development. We shouldn't make kids wait until we come up<br>
> > with a completely free alternative to Flash.<br>
><br>
> Can these modules be recoded for Gnash? I don't see this as an either/or.<br>
><br>
> I am willing to discuss bundling Flash on the XO if Adobe will give us<br>
> a license. I am willing to work out an easy download process if not.<br>
> Regardless of that we need to finish Gnash, and get as many Flash<br>
> videos as possible recoded for Gnash. Different people can choose<br>
> which of those paths to work on, if they like.<br>
><br>
> > One aspect of this project is that kids can discover things on their<br>
> > own. If we have very limited flash support we are limiting what kids can<br>
> > discover to works that we have transcoded or Gnash fully supports.<br>
> ><br>
> > OLPC can't bundle flash into their images but they can make it<br>
> > significantly easier for deployment teams to add it as an .xo bundle<br>
> > just as we currently add custom activity bundles.<br>
> ><br>
> > I agree that the long-term strategy should be to support Gnash and/or<br>
> > get Adobe to open up their Flash player. But we have pilots running now<br>
> > and kids that want to learn science, mathematics, English, etc. Let's<br>
> > not make them wait.<br>
> ><br>
> > Bryan<br>
> > Kathmandu<br>
><br>
> We seem to agree on the principles, and we can recruit for each of the<br>
> alternatives.<br>
<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>"Always do right," said Mark Twain. "This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."