[OLPC library] Licensing for One Laptop Per Child

[Edward Cherlin]

Copied to OLPC mailing lists and Librarian Chick, cataloguer of free textbooks.

On Feb 5, 2008 7:36 AM, Joshua Waitzkin <joshwaitzkin.web at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Edward, Many thanks for following up. Jack Hidary told me about this
> program over dinner a couple weeks ago. I think it is just wonderful and I
> will be thrilled to help. Question--would you prefer to have an audio or
> text version of my book? We'll make it happen either way.

Both, in fact. See
http://www.olpcnews.com/content/ebooks/effective_adult_literacy_program.html
for one major reason.

> Also, how much memory is on the computers?

256 MB RAM, 1G flash storage

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware

> I can try to have Ubisoft donate versions of
> Chessmaster so the children can play chess as well.

Outstanding.

> I greatly look forward
> to combining forces. Yours, Josh
>
>
> On Feb 5, 2008 5:53 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > We spoke last week when you were on Forum with Michael Krasny. I asked
> > about licensing The Art of Learning for use on the One Laptop Per
> > Child XO computer in developing countries. We would want to work out a
> > license for free distribution to poor students in developing
> > countries, without disturbing your copyright and sales in richer
> > countries. We would also want permission for people in developing
> > countries to create their own translations, in the same way the XO
> > laptop software is localized, and other content translated. See, for
> > example,
> >
> > http://dev.laptop.org/translate/ for software
> > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Translators for books and other content
> >
> > The educational philosophy of the Laptop project, called
> > Constructionism, emphasizes learning by doing and collaborative
> > discovery. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Constructionism The XO software
> > supports multiple users writing in the same document (with separate
> > cursor for each), drawing together, playing music together, playing
> > games, and so on.
> >
> > The countries where XO laptops are currently being deployed are
> > Uruguay, Peru, Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, and
> > Mongolia. Birmingham, Alabama has ordered 15,000 XOs for its public
> > schools. Languages needed in addition to English thus include Spanish,
> > French, Haitian Creole French, Kinyarwanda, Amharic, Tigrinya, Khmer,
> > Dari, Pashto, Hazaragi, and Mongolian. See http://www.ethnologue.org/
> > if you want to know more about any of them.
> >
> > Please let me know what you think of these ideas, and how we can start
> > the process.

-- 
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