[OLPC-Chicago] Introduction

[Robert Myers]

Hello,

I've got no idea how many folks are on this list, or what their 
background is, other than that there seems to be an overlap with chipy, 
so I thought I'd introduce myself. I hope you don't mind if it's 
longish, but I figure that openness and background can help the 
community aspect here.

I guess I'll start with the end, why I joined, and what I hope to get 
out of it. I purchased a G1G1 XO, and am anxiously waiting for it. It 
seems from OLPC that initial individual adopters here are going to be 
left primarily to their own resources as to support -- sort of like the 
early personal computer days. So, seeing a Chicago area list, I figure 
that it's a good first point of contact.

Ok, myself and what got me interested in the XO. I'm an old techie. I 
felt that I was grown up, as far as computers went, the first time that 
I had a job where somebody else got paid to type my deck of cards. I was 
an early adopter in the personal computer scene, and still have my 
IMSAI in the basement. I've worked in the industry on projects ranging 
from embedded controllers to client server financial systems. I've 
worked in the telecommunications, financial, and medical systems industries.

I've been involved with some interesting technologies, not all of which 
have panned out. For example, back about twenty five years ago, I worked 
on an attempt at a video editor using the technology of the time. A 
S-100 bus computer with a touch screen interface gave the user a virtual 
Movieola. A custom card talked to 8051 microcontroller controlled tape 
decks which keyed up the video. You basically made a list of the cuts 
you wanted, and the tape decks would give you a virtual print. I look 
and something like iMovie, and am amazed. The idea that all the video 
could be stored digitally, and viewed real time, and that it comes as 
part of a $79 consumer product that runs on a consumer computer that 
costs about the same as the video card I was using, was inconceivable at 
the time.

I've also been interested in Constructivist education. I bought an early 
copy of Papert's Mindstorm's and had LOGO on several machines along the 
way.

So when I first heard of the OLPC project my interest was piqued. I 
thought -- "Ah, Negroponte is a neat guy. Nobody seems to seriously 
listen to him, but neat. This could be interesting." That's where it 
pretty much sat until G1G1 was announced. At that point I figured that I 
should check this out in more detail. I was really expecting a Linux 
Internet appliance and little more. When I started realizing that there 
was a whole new interface that was designed around the functionality 
they were aiming for, and that this was designed as a Constuctivist 
learning tool my interest was seriously piqued. What probably clinched 
it was the fact of having Smalltalk, LOGO, and Python all as accessible 
programming environments built into the machine. Anyone could develop 
for it, anyone could come up with their own solutions. Shades of the 
days that all personal computers shipped with BASIC. Heck, many were 
little more than BASIC appliances.

To me this all seems like a giant step back to the future. Where 
personal computers have increasingly gone to being a general office 
machine (MS Office), and a content delivery system (iTunes), this brings 
us back to when they were tools for individual creativity.

So this brings me to a final story to show where my frustration lies, 
and why I hope that Nicholas' vision might help free us all. I'm 
currently underemployed as a 'Library Secretary' for a school district. 
This means I get to do about anything around the school library, other 
than teach the kids, for about a third of what a teacher makes. One of 
the tasks I routinely deal with involves telnet. I have to do this on a 
Windows box, not a Mac (we've got both). Why? We have an aftermarket 
Windows telnet program. I can't run telnet on the Mac, because there 
aren't any aftermarket telnets for the Mac. Why? Because it's built into 
the OS, so nobody sees the point in reimplementing it. Why can't I use 
it? Because, teacher accounts don't allow you to get into Terminal, 
because that's too dangerous. I can get to the DOS prompt on the Windows 
boxes, which is just as dangerous, and less useful, and which by the way 
includes telnet. Why? Because the Macs are easier to manage (and 
restrict). So this also means that students, even if they were 
interested in programming, and exposed to it, can't get to Python -- 
which comes on every Mac.

Thanks for letting me bend your collective ear,

Bob Myers