<div dir="ltr">I was thinking about the type of phones as well. If by "smartphone," Tim means a phone that can do wifi, that should be easy enough to fit into our existing ecosystem. Maybe have browser detection and serve mobile optimized stuff, say redirect to <a href="http://m.schoolserver">http://m.schoolserver</a> on those devices.<br>
<br>If the phone does not do wifi, we'd need a different infrastructure setup. Like Tim said, some sort of cellular gateway. And then what sort of interaction would there be? I'm not familiar enough with non-smart phones (besides texting and making voice calls) to know.<br>
<br>We've got a "regular" cellphone, a prepaid LG500G Tracfone, we use as a spare (got it on sale for $10). There's no microSD card in it and the only way to talk to it locally is through bluetooth (bit of a hassle to set up). It's a decent enough phone, I can take pictures and videos, create audio recordings, and write notes (there's a nice qwerty keyboard). Then, via a bluetooth dongle on my desktop, I can access the files I created. Or, from my desktop, put pictures, videos, podcasts (or any other mp3 file), or text files on it. I haven't tried to send/receive those files over the cellular network because I don't want to waste a bunch of minutes playing around with that. Would airtime would be a factor with integrating "regular" cellphones? And if so, how best to communicate with the handset?<br>
<br>Carol Ruth Silver might be a good resource on the logistics since she's involved with a project in Afghanistan using "regular" (non-smart) phones to teach literacy.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 1:39 PM, Tim Moody <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tim@timmoody.com" target="_blank">tim@timmoody.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
This idea occurred to me as well. I think we need to be sure about the kinds of phones that are available. What I read indicates mostly not smart phones. I believe the highly successful apps, such as mpesa and ushahidi use sms, not even wap. You then need a cellular gateway.<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
Message: 1<br>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 09:21:47 +0530<br>
From: Anish Mangal <<a href="mailto:anish@activitycentral.com" target="_blank">anish@activitycentral.com</a>><br>
To: server-devel <<a href="mailto:server-devel@lists.laptop.org" target="_blank">server-devel@lists.laptop.org</a><u></u>>, T Gillett<br>
<<a href="mailto:tgillett@gmail.com" target="_blank">tgillett@gmail.com</a>><br>
Subject: [Server-devel] [crazy idea] Supporting basic mobile phones |<br>
Searching for possible standards<br>
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<br>
Hi,<br>
<br>
Disclaimer: Please do not construe this as a direction that XSCE should be<br>
taking, but more of a crazy idea I am exploring on the side.<br>
<br>
In developing nations, the most common communication device is the mobile<br>
phone. It is atleast a magnitude more common any other electronic<br>
communication device. If one were to look at building technology solutions<br>
for education in less developed nations of this world, a cellphone would<br>
seem like the perfect thing to piggyback upon.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, this would seem like saying lets shut down sugar and<br>
move to android, because it's everywhere, something I'm not sure is the<br>
best thing to do. (So I am conflicted about it).<br>
<br>
Cutting to the chase:<br>
1. Is there any overlap between the xsce vision *as you see it* and<br>
supporting mobile phones.<br>
2a. If the answer to that is a yes, are there standards or software that<br>
might help make XSCE content and services available on basic mobile phones.<br>
We will probably forego 80% of the value XSCE provides, but that 20% might<br>
be valuable.<br>
2b. What kind of service standards would be most suitable to build upon?<br>
WAP, SMS, Voice (navigation)? Most basic mobile phones today have a WAP<br>
browser.<br>
<br>
The more I think, the more it "feels" that this may not be the right thing<br>
for the XSCE project, but still would like to have an understanding of the<br>
challenges involved.<br>
<br>
Thoughts?<br>
<br>
--<br>
Anish<br>
<br>
P.S. this email is a result of talking to a few people over the past few<br>
weeks and hearing from them again and again the sheer availability of<br>
mobile phones. At the same time, I'm sure many people would have already<br>
tried to figure out this space (maybe I'm trying to do just that).<br>
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