[Server-devel] Drupal on OLPC? (Martin Langhoff)
Sameer Verma
sverma at sfsu.edu
Mon Mar 17 12:18:43 EDT 2008
Carol Lerche wrote:
> I have looked on the wiki and find no mention of how moodle and
> mediawiki are to be used on the school server. Since my need is in
> providing an in-class "website" for young children, I find drupal much
> closer to providing what I think is needed than either moodle or
> mediawiki. Perhaps my inspection of the moodle website has not
> adequately found the optional modules or customization that would
> allow what I need. It appears far more suitable as a tool for older
> kids and teachers. But a wiki is certainly not what I need. My use
> cases map to a content management system such as Drupal much better.
> Specifically, I want to have an album made by the kids where they can
> upload their photos from "record". I have separately provided a
> library cataloging application and done a book drive to give my target
> school 800 or so books, which I have cataloged and want to display on
> their classroom website dynamically and with an interface tailored to
> emerging readers. I have various documents aimed at teachers and
> administrators which could presumably also work in moodle, but could
> be made more attractive in a system like Drupal I belive.
>
> Now, Martin may have a perfect counterexample to this
> (mis)understanding of mine, and if so, please point to it. Otherwise,
> it seems like some use case gathering is needed before making a
> decision that moodle and mediawiki cover all bases.
>
> As to Sameer's taxonomy, it probably covers the OLPC-sponsored
> territory, but to encompass small deployments not sponsored by OLPC,
> one needs to consider cases like mine, where no access to live
> antennae is available.
That's a great idea. A use case taxonomy for different environments,
including the non-OLPC centric ones as Carol pointed out. I have to run
off to a meeting...can someone start a wiki page for this? Starting at
the use case as opposed to software packages makes a lot more sense to
me. Use case establishes the specifics of the need, and that will then
lead to the selection of packages, Moodle or otherwise.
Sameer
> So in the school I will deploy in two weeks I am using a commercial
> access point, but the number of xos is small (4). Fast access to the
> net is possible in general but must be heavily restricted for the
> kids. I don't expect OLPC to tailor networking solutions to my
> situation (I'm calling it 4/20s laptops per child), but I do think my
> need for an easy to build local website is transferrable to the
> general case. Personally, I'd love a drupal expert to configure it as
> an rpm for the server, so that it could be cleanly and simply
> installed in the school server environment.
>
> On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 7:36 AM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu
> <mailto:sverma at sfsu.edu>> wrote:
>
> Greg Smith (gregmsmi) wrote:
> > Hi Martin et al,
> >
> > Its great you will be on this full time, congratulations! Wad is
> a tough
> > act to follow but you have a super education background and
> technical
> > savvy in general.
> >
> > I could use some direction on overall methodology of development and
> > support for the XS.
> >
> > I can think of three models but you may have others in mind too:
> > A - An appliance type offering where the school systems buy an
> XS from
> > OLPC, boots it, does some basic configuration then they're done.
> >
> > B - Schools buy a PC, install OS, XS image and maybe some other
> approvedGoogle search
> > modules (e.g. LAMP) then run a set of well defined and supported
> > applications.
> >
> > C - Take the base XS image, add any applications they need and run a
> > more general purpose server.
> >
> >
>
> Hi Greg,
>
> I've been thinking along the same lines, but at a slightly more
> abstract
> level. If you were to take two constraints (there are many more,
> but its
> easier to start with two): power and backhaul, then you can look at
> cases that combine these to some degree.
> Google search
> For example:
>
> no grid + no backhaul = use case A
> unreliable grid + no backhaul = use case B
> reliable grid + limited backhaul = use case C
> reliable grid + good backhaul = use case D
>
> and so on.
>
> Then, there is another constraint, which is school size, so smaller
> schools may work with a single mesh, but larger ones may need APs. I
> haven't thought this through completely as yet, but I'm throwing
> it out
> there. If use cases can be defined first, based on these constraint
> combinations, then perhaps we can look at different server-side models
> such as small-footprint server on site (proxy) + larger server at colo
> (moodle+mediwiki, etc.), or all-in-one boxes on site
> (proxy+moodle+mediawiki+...), etc. that service one or more use cases.
>
> cheers,
> Sameer
>
> --
> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Information Systems
> San Francisco State University
> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>
>
> > In all cases, what kind of support should deployments expect
> from OLPC
> > and the list in general? Which model should we design to?
> >
> > The current question may help clarify why I'm asking:
> >
> > - Uruguay wants to the kids and teachers to have tools for
> building web
> > sites. The current thinking on what they need is posted here:
> > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Talk:Learning_activities/Journalism
> >
> > Should they look to the XS for the full solution
> (Moodle/MediaWiki may
> > solve their challenge...) or plan to install XS image then add
> some code
> > to it or plan to use XS and then add completely different servers
> > somewhere else in the network?
> >
> > Another option is to not rely on the XS and do web site building
> on the
> > XO (e.g. browse directly out of the file system with no web server
> > needed) then post/copy the final version to Internet hosted sites.
> >
> > Any tips on short term or long term strategy re: XS are appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Greg S
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:52:25 +1300
> > From: "Martin Langhoff" <martin.langhoff at gmail.com
> <mailto:martin.langhoff at gmail.com>>
> > Subject: Re: [Server-devel] Drupal on OLPC?
> > To: "Sameer Verma" <sverma at sfsu.edu <mailto:sverma at sfsu.edu>>
> > Cc: server-devel <server-devel at lists.laptop.org
> <mailto:server-devel at lists.laptop.org>>
> > Message-ID:
> >
> <46a038f90803131252i12ac6b8cs3956ae6578db5025 at mail.gmail.com
> <mailto:46a038f90803131252i12ac6b8cs3956ae6578db5025 at mail.gmail.com>>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 5:57 AM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu
> <mailto:sverma at sfsu.edu>> wrote:
> >
> >> Moodle has blog functionality in the core install. It used to be
> >>
> > called
> >
> >> Journal way back, but its now replaced by blogs. I've used the
> >>
> > "Journal"
> >
> >> feature in my classes before, and it serves the blogging purpose
> >>
> > well.
> >
> >> Why have yet another CMS even if the stack is the same (LAMP)?
> >>
> >
> > that will be the main question. We have limited resources
> > (development-wise, and on the XS) and Moodle and Mediawiki will
> be on
> > the XS, and heavily customised to fit well in the workflow. Both
> have
> > strong content-management aspects. I am open to having a CMS
> there as
> > well, but it is hard to provide a clear added value with it.
> >
> > Once the Moodle/Mediawiki combo is a bit more ship-shape, I would
> > invite Drupal/Mambo developers to have a look at what is in
> place, and
> > figure out if it is worth their effort to have a CMS install in
> there.
> > It won't be just a simple packaging issue -- UI changes,
> > preconfigured/pre-seeded databases, auth integration, etc.
> >
> > cheers,
> >
> >
> >
> > martin
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
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>
> --
> "Always do right," said Mark Twain. "This will gratify some people and
> astonish the rest."
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