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. <br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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. 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.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 7:36 AM, Sameer Verma <<a href="mailto:sverma@sfsu.edu">sverma@sfsu.edu</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">Greg Smith (gregmsmi) wrote:<br>
> Hi Martin et al,<br>
><br>
> Its great you will be on this full time, congratulations! Wad is a tough<br>
> act to follow but you have a super education background and technical<br>
> savvy in general.<br>
><br>
> I could use some direction on overall methodology of development and<br>
> support for the XS.<br>
><br>
> I can think of three models but you may have others in mind too:<br>
> A - An appliance type offering where the school systems buy an XS from<br>
> OLPC, boots it, does some basic configuration then they're done.<br>
><br>
> B - Schools buy a PC, install OS, XS image and maybe some other approved<br>
> modules (e.g. LAMP) then run a set of well defined and supported<br>
> applications.<br>
><br>
> C - Take the base XS image, add any applications they need and run a<br>
> more general purpose server.<br>
><br>
><br>
<br>
</div>Hi Greg,<br>
<br>
I've been thinking along the same lines, but at a slightly more abstract<br>
level. If you were to take two constraints (there are many more, but its<br>
easier to start with two): power and backhaul, then you can look at<br>
cases that combine these to some degree.<br>
<br>
For example:<br>
<br>
no grid + no backhaul = use case A<br>
unreliable grid + no backhaul = use case B<br>
reliable grid + limited backhaul = use case C<br>
reliable grid + good backhaul = use case D<br>
<br>
and so on.<br>
<br>
Then, there is another constraint, which is school size, so smaller<br>
schools may work with a single mesh, but larger ones may need APs. I<br>
haven't thought this through completely as yet, but I'm throwing it out<br>
there. If use cases can be defined first, based on these constraint<br>
combinations, then perhaps we can look at different server-side models<br>
such as small-footprint server on site (proxy) + larger server at colo<br>
(moodle+mediwiki, etc.), or all-in-one boxes on site<br>
(proxy+moodle+mediawiki+...), etc. that service one or more use cases.<br>
<br>
cheers,<br>
Sameer<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.<br>
Associate Professor of Information Systems<br>
San Francisco State University<br>
San Francisco CA 94132 USA<br>
<a href="http://verma.sfsu.edu/" target="_blank">http://verma.sfsu.edu/</a><br>
<a href="http://opensource.sfsu.edu/" target="_blank">http://opensource.sfsu.edu/</a><br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
<br>
> In all cases, what kind of support should deployments expect from OLPC<br>
> and the list in general? Which model should we design to?<br>
><br>
> The current question may help clarify why I'm asking:<br>
><br>
> - Uruguay wants to the kids and teachers to have tools for building web<br>
> sites. The current thinking on what they need is posted here:<br>
> <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Talk:Learning_activities/Journalism" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Talk:Learning_activities/Journalism</a><br>
><br>
> Should they look to the XS for the full solution (Moodle/MediaWiki may<br>
> solve their challenge...) or plan to install XS image then add some code<br>
> to it or plan to use XS and then add completely different servers<br>
> somewhere else in the network?<br>
><br>
> Another option is to not rely on the XS and do web site building on the<br>
> XO (e.g. browse directly out of the file system with no web server<br>
> needed) then post/copy the final version to Internet hosted sites.<br>
><br>
> Any tips on short term or long term strategy re: XS are appreciated.<br>
><br>
> Thanks,<br>
><br>
> Greg S<br>
><br>
> ------------------------------<br>
><br>
> Message: 3<br>
> Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:52:25 +1300<br>
> From: "Martin Langhoff" <<a href="mailto:martin.langhoff@gmail.com">martin.langhoff@gmail.com</a>><br>
> Subject: Re: [Server-devel] Drupal on OLPC?<br>
> To: "Sameer Verma" <<a href="mailto:sverma@sfsu.edu">sverma@sfsu.edu</a>><br>
> Cc: server-devel <<a href="mailto:server-devel@lists.laptop.org">server-devel@lists.laptop.org</a>><br>
> Message-ID:<br>
> <<a href="mailto:46a038f90803131252i12ac6b8cs3956ae6578db5025@mail.gmail.com">46a038f90803131252i12ac6b8cs3956ae6578db5025@mail.gmail.com</a>><br>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1<br>
><br>
> On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 5:57 AM, Sameer Verma <<a href="mailto:sverma@sfsu.edu">sverma@sfsu.edu</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
>> Moodle has blog functionality in the core install. It used to be<br>
>><br>
> called<br>
><br>
>> Journal way back, but its now replaced by blogs. I've used the<br>
>><br>
> "Journal"<br>
><br>
>> feature in my classes before, and it serves the blogging purpose<br>
>><br>
> well.<br>
><br>
>> Why have yet another CMS even if the stack is the same (LAMP)?<br>
>><br>
><br>
> that will be the main question. We have limited resources<br>
> (development-wise, and on the XS) and Moodle and Mediawiki will be on<br>
> the XS, and heavily customised to fit well in the workflow. Both have<br>
> strong content-management aspects. I am open to having a CMS there as<br>
> well, but it is hard to provide a clear added value with it.<br>
><br>
> Once the Moodle/Mediawiki combo is a bit more ship-shape, I would<br>
> invite Drupal/Mambo developers to have a look at what is in place, and<br>
> figure out if it is worth their effort to have a CMS install in there.<br>
> It won't be just a simple packaging issue -- UI changes,<br>
> preconfigured/pre-seeded databases, auth integration, etc.<br>
><br>
> cheers,<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> martin<br>
><br>
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><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>"Always do right," said Mark Twain. "This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."