Qs on the kids doc for XO

[Anne Gentle]

Hi all,
I've been working on the doc team doing some kids documentation for
the XO. It is available on the wiki at
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Simplified_user_guide. I welcome you all to
contribute where and when you can. Future plans are to make an
image-based rather than text doc (such as those here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crimsonninjagirl/sets/72157600039184160/)
as well as continuing to write sections from the rough table of
contents posted here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pjAQh2AGJq8fEij0Kd-1oHw. The
primary audience is the student but teachers' and parents'
perspectives are also considered.

I have a few questions.

1) I see there is a way to get a laptop through the developer's
program. Does laptop.org have plans for a similar program for
educators? The reason I'm asking is because I'm considering starting
XO summer camps in Austin, TX, where kids could attend for a week, and
teachers could build and test curriculum for the kids in attendance,
then make that curriculum available as e-books on the XO. I'd need to
buy a dozen XOs I suppose. Does anyone have ideas for funding for this
type of idea? I have a draft business plan started. Also, please let
me know if this would duplicate any other similar efforts.

2) Where can I learn more about the e-book format used on the XO? I
found the page http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ebook_collections that states
that there are 4 supported eBook formats for the XO, namely DejaVU,
Acrobat, HTML or XML (OpenDocument qualifies here). I guess I just
read about each format individually and wait until my XO arrives and I
can try it out in person. Or, is there a way to launch a PDF using the
emulator? I can emulate Sugar on Windows. Any ideas would be welcome.

3) I'm still learning my way around the wiki itself (as SJ can attest
to upon seeing my talk page abilities!) :) Is there value in taking
already translated documents from a previous version of the end user
documentation and putting it into the Simplified_user_guide on
translation pages, or is that to be avoided because the translation
would be out of sync with the current English version?

Just fyi, I subscribe on digest so it might take me a day or two to
"digest" responses but please know I'm reading and pondering replies.

Thanks,
Anne
e: annegentle at gmail.com
b: www.justwriteclick.com