[Health] [Grassroots-l] Health Jam 2008
Bryan Berry
bryan.berry at gmail.com
Wed Apr 30 00:16:09 EDT 2008
the key though is to start out w/ a target user and find out their
requirements. I may be able to con my roommate into being such a target
user as she has worked in rural public health w/in Nepal for the last 15
years. Will have to ask her though.
On Tue, 2008-04-29 at 23:29 -0400, Chris Leonard wrote:
> Bryan,
>
> There is absolutely no reason for you to accept my assurances about
> copyright, I certainly wouldn't take just anybody's word on it, no
> offense taken or intended. I think this is a general challenge to the
> OLPC Library content collection and re-publishing effort, because not
> everyone puts as much thought into copyright and tagging content with
> licenses as open source/content advocates. The need to think deeply
> and clearly about copyright is a potentially substantial barrier-to
> entry for subject matter experts (health, science, education, etc.)
> that needs to be addressed thoughtfully.
>
> As luck would have it, this page is pretty explicit that "All of these
> materials are in the public domain and may be reproduced without
> permission."
> http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/PubsOrderForm/default.asp
>
> For many materials produced by the US Government, I have reasonably
> high level of confidence that copyright review will show that they are
> dedicated to the public domain, but someone (OLPC?) should get a real
> lawyer to render an opinion, I just play one on the Internet and in my
> firm's Intellectual Property Committee meetings.
>
> This happens to be under the grand-daddy of all US "open-source"
> licenses, written right into the law itself. Most (but not all)
> content that is categorized as a US Govt. work under the meaning of
> Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 101.
>
> "A "work of the United States Government" is a work prepared by an
> officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that
> person's official duties."
> http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#101
>
> is therefore dedicated to the public domain under Title 17, Chapter 1,
> Section 105.
>
> "Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work
> of the United States Government, but the United States Government is
> not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it
> by assignment, bequest, or otherwise."
> http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105
>
> A U.S. based intellectual property lawyer will generally know all
> about "US Govt works", they had to know it to pass the bar exam. It
> is actually a really important issue for OLPC's purposes, because some
> of the most distribution-ready and usable stuff that will be found in
> health content is going to be on US Govt sites, but that is a
> discussion that should probably branch onto the Library list at some
> point.
>
> As an aside, I'm going to decline to cross-post it right now, but by
> hitting the send button I think I'm licensing this message by OLPC's
> preferred terms, which I think is CC-BY 2.5, but that is for the wiki
> and neither the Lists page (http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/) nor the
> "welcome to the list" message are explicit about that, may be
> something OLPC should look into, copyright stuff is really a
> bear. . .
>
> Back to the real issue at hand, I thought the link I had sent was
> maybe a little advanced in vocabulary. For something targeted at a
> younger audience, see the UNESCO homepage link (which fortunately is
> also explicit about being free of copyright) on this wiki-page.
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Children%27s_Health_Books
>
> I found these materials on UNESCO's site and Mel Chua (and I think she
> said her aunt) is apparently interested in taking on the paper-layout
> to electronic-layout conversion, these print as fold-over booklets.
> The language is for a much younger audience and UNESCO happily
> includes materials to aid in their classroom use by teachers.
>
> The whole question of getting content (as opposed to code) translated
> is something I wish I understood better.
>
> cjl
>
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 9:12 PM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> This is quite nice, w/ one concern - is it under an
> open-source license?
> The English reading level is far too high for even most of our
> teachers
>
> If we could translate it to Nepali it would be quite perfect
> for our
> needs here in Nepal.
>
> thanks Chris
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, 2008-04-29 at 17:55 -0400, Chris Leonard wrote:
> > I am very interested in participating in the discussion
> although I'm
> > still collecting my thoughts (I share many of Bryan's
> views).
> >
> > However, in the spirit of "working code first" and as a
> > possible answer to one of his specific requests.
> >
> > How does this look?
> >
> > Understanding Microbes in Sickness and Health
> >
> http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/healthscience/healthtopics/microbes/PDF/microbesbook.pdf
> >
> >
> > Pros:
> >
> > 1) On topic
> >
> > 2) Authoritative (product of NIH, National Institute of
> Allergy and
> > Infectious Diseases)
> >
> > 3) Public domain as US Govt. Work (specifically NIH
> Publication No.
> > 06-4914)
> >
> > Cons:
> >
> > 1) Maybe a little high end in the vocubulary, target for US
> govt. pubs
> > is often 10th-grade reading level.
> >
> > 2) Currently only in English (maybe Spanish with some luck,
> but
> > definitely not Nepali)
> >
> > Bryan, can you show this to someone in Nepal to see if it
> looks close
> > to what they would like to see? Feedback would assist the
> search
> > for something suitable.
> >
> > cjl
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 11:47 AM, Bryan Berry
> > <bryan.berry at gmail.com> wrote:
> > absolutely,
> >
> > Start w/ some simple goals for Health
> >
> > 1 activity for first aid
> > 1 activity on nutrition
> > 1 activity on the causes of disease
> >
> > 1 good pdf on the causes of disease
> >
> > Then do some work on them to get started.
> After you
> > have some prototypes
> > __then__ go look for help. The argument is
> "Here are
> > our goals, here is
> > what we have so far, please help us improve
> what we
> > have. However, if
> > you are think you could create better
> content yourself
> > by starting from
> > scratch, please do so."
> >
> > If you ask the larger community for help
> w/out having
> > any existing
> > prototypes or precise goals, everyone goes
> off in
> > different directions.
> >
> > Martin Langhoff's e-mail motto sums it up
> quite well
> >
> > "don't get distracted with shiny stuff -
> working code
> > first"
> >
> > Since you have an all-volunteer team on OLPC
> Health,
> > you need projects
> > where folks can contribute a few hours a
> week. I
> > recommend avoiding
> > architecturally complex or esoteric
> technical
> > projects, it will be hard
> > for folks to put in the necessary time and
> for others
> > not so acquainted
> > w/ that obscure platform to contribute. We
> are running
> > into this problem
> > w/ EPaati since it is coded in Squeak.
> >
> > If you could get some of Greg Smith's time,
> he could
> > help you put
> > together a project plan. He has been very
> helpful to
> > me. He is also
> > resident in Boston
> >
> > hope this helps
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 00:01 +0530, Arjun
> Sarwal wrote:
> > > > Why didn't the Health Jam focus on
> getting folks
> > to help w/ the
> > > > development of these activities that
> you
> > described?
> > > >
> > > > Too many OLPC content projects are
> characterized
> > by
> > > > 1) Lots of great ideas
> > > > 2) Lack of focus
> > > > 3) Lots of excitement, wiki pages, and
> e-mails
> > > > 4) Not much output in terms of finished
> > activities or activity bundles.
> > > >
> > > > Sorry to be blunt but we need to change
> this.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Ideas on getting started with this
> change ?
> > >
> > > (just trying to push the conversation
> forward in
> > this direction as I
> > > agree with your point to some extent)
> > >
> > > best
> > > Arjun
> > >
> > >
> > > From: Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com>
> > > Subject: Re: [Grassroots-l] Health Jam
> 2008
> > > To: Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com>
> > > Cc: olpc-open <olpc-open at laptop.org>,
> Games for
> > the OLPC
> > > <games at lists.laptop.org>,
> > grassroots at lists.laptop.org
> > > Message-ID:
> >
> <1209493566.7102.84.camel at dell.linuxdev.us.dell.com>
> > > Content-Type: text/plain
> > >
> > > >There's no contradiction between
> activities that
> > are fun, or with
> > > >complex ideas behind them, and those that
> teach the
> > most basic health
> > > >and survival skills to children.
> > >
> > > Teaching basic health and survival skills
> to kids is
> > actually quite
> > > complex.
> > >
> > > EKG's w/ the XO or the VistA healthcare
> suite are
> > neat apps but not what
> > > is needed by most deployments.
> > >
> > > When I refer to "complex" I more precisely
> mean
> > problems that are
> > > technically interesting but not directly
> not related
> > to education for
> > > kids ages 6-12, OLPC's primary focus.
> > >
> > > Why didn't the Health Jam focus on getting
> folks to
> > help w/ the
> > > development of these activities that you
> described?
> > >
> > > Too many OLPC content projects are
> characterized by
> > > 1) Lots of great ideas
> > > 2) Lack of focus
> > > 3) Lots of excitement, wiki pages, and
> e-mails
> > > 4) Not much output in terms of finished
> activities
> > or activity bundles.
> > >
> > > Sorry to be blunt but we need to change
> this.
> > >
> > >
> > > On Tue, 2008-04-29 at 13:47 -0400, Samuel
> Klein
> > wrote:
> > > > There's no contradiction between
> activities that
> > are fun, or with
> > > > complex ideas behind them, and those
> that teach
> > the most basic health
> > > > and survival skills to children.
> > > >
> > > > There are three health-related games
> being
> > proposed and worked on at
> > > > the moment that are good examples; all
> of which
> > could use further
> > > > specific input. Food Force is closest
> to having
> > something playable...
> > > > pehaps Muriel and Deepank can say a bit
> more about
> > its recent status.
> > > >
> > > > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Water_Wonders
> > > > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Malnutrition
> > > > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Food_Force
> > > >
> > > > SJ
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Health mailing list
> > Health at lists.laptop.org
> > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/health
> >
> >
>
>
>
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