[sugar] [Server-devel] 9.1 Proposal: Printing support

[Yamandu Ploskonka]

Luke Faraone wrote:
> Not to mention, sugar should also target more developed nations, and 
> one of the questions I _always_ get from teachers at talks I give is 
> "Can I print?".
>
> -lf

There's a whole world of culture and ideology behind what you said, Luke.

Yes, there is a need to consider alternative "needs", different for 
"haves" and "have nots". 

So, when you talk with those teachers, you might talk with them about 
what they think they _need_ to print.  That might help them see how 
their teaching kids about living with an environmental consciousness 
also has to do with classroom work.

Print homework?  No need, that can be seen digitally. 
Yes, we do need to work on making this process more user friendly 
especially for the teacher (this is in another thread somewhere). 

Texts?  likewise, being able to get back to your page at some later date 
should fix this need.  (a while back I was reading a book to my wife 
every night, off the XO, it was rather uncomfortable after a while to 
have to seek our page every time)

Report cards?  OK, this is a good one, for now (eventually parents could 
just get the report card on the XO).  My fix is to have this done at the 
server level.

It is not about lowering our standards to the "have nots" on a communist 
spirit or something like that. 
It is to be aware at some level that some "needs" actually are not such, 
and maybe chose, on purpose, to have certain elements be "missing".

We make a BIG deal on how the XO is energy efficient, 
resource-efficient, "green".  

Why go on a paper printing rampage if we actually do not really _need_ 
to?  Relying on printing would kill any proposal that is honest about 
TCO and ROI.  OK, I agree, in the "haves" nations, that is a non-issue.

Using the XO, moreover, _depending_ on the XO as _the_ tool requires a 
change of mentality, a _deep_ change(1). 
It is not happening yet.  My current mantra is that many teachers do not 
take anything as real unless it's on paper, and we need to help to see 
the change. 
It has been reported that currently many kids find a major use for their 
XO to listen to music while they do their homework, by hand, on paper. 
We need to work on that.

All in all, I am no Ludite.  The more good stuff and features the XO can 
offer, the better, because it will simply be a better machine, so let's 
get printer support on, sure, but,

_please_

let's prioritize that the XO and the OLPC project and Sugar and the 
activities be optimized to _require_ as little as possible beyond what 
are the least expensive solutions.

Yama

(1)As is public record, I myself am quite far from some of the 
constructivist fiats of our religion, but kicking and screaming I am 
getting to see their ways are at least useful for some cases.