[sugar] USB Based Community Access - What could work technically?

Thu Oct 30 20:05:12 EDT 2008

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 6:03 PM, Caroline Meeks
<caroline at solutiongrove.com>wrote:

>
>
> On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 6:42 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org>wrote:
>
>> *Clinic next door to a School* - A health clinic located right next door
>> Sasha's school has a close partnership with the school. Many students are
>> scene there so they decided to add a donated computer to their waiting room
>> just for kids to use Sugar. This computer still has its hard-drive, but its
>> dedicated for Sugar. Some of the basic sugar files are located on the hard
>> drive and it is set up to allow students to log out rather then shutting
>> down and restarting between each student.
>>
>> This is an very interesting idea. A hybrid harddrive usb solutions.  From
>> a technology perspective it would not be that hard to implement.  When the
>> computer boots from the hard drive it waits at a login prompt for the user
>> to either login or insert a USB with the users /home directory.  The current
>> generation of linux distribution has excellent support for DBUS to
>> communicate the status of hot swapped devices such as USBs.
>>
>> A big advantage of this method would be to take advantage of the
>> hard-drives speed while storing user data on the USB.  Furthermore, the
>> users login criteria would be stored on the USB.  This would allow
>> passwordless login.
>>
>> The main concern that I have heard about storing user data on a USB is
>> that kids will lose them.  Kids can be trusted not to lose their textbooks
>> and folders.  Why not reverse the trend of shrinking USBs and make textbook
>> sized USBs for kids:)  We make big pencils and big crayon for younger
>> students. Why not big USBs?
>
>
> Yes I think loss will be an issue.
>
> Big is definitely an interesting idea. I also like the braclet USBs -
> http://www.ipromo.com/?fuseaction=product.&productsid=106
> Mostly we have to make it cheap enough, and making replacing them easy
> enough that its not that big a deal if they are lost.
>

Yes, the ability to recreate a lost USB is important.  Modifying the
existing server backup mechanism to allow teachers to reflash a USB should
be relatively straight forward.

>
>
>> *
>> **The Zoo*: ....
>>
>> This seems very similar to the clinic.
>
>
> Interestingly when I discussed this with Marco the Zoo is hard use case.
> Everywhere else we can assume the kids are all attending the same school
> district, thus we can assume they are all running the same version of
> Sugar.  For the Zoo we might have kids from different towns all coming with
> Sugar USBs but different versions.  This might be harder to support.
> However, this is a problem I would love to have!  Not very close to our
> current reality, so we don't need to focus on it. So basically, for right
> now its similar to the clinic.
>
>>
>> *
>> **YMCA*: After school and on snow days and vacations Sasha goes to the
>> local YMCA. There is a bank of 10 computers for kids to use. They are thin
>> clients run from one server. There is a USB port, and the user experience is
>> just like booting on a stand alone computer, except because it doesn't
>> really have to fully boot for each student switching users is much faster.
>>
>> The difficulty here seems to be defining what is a thin client.  One
>> interesting approach is the one taken in the Extremadura<http://www.hotcosta.com/Extremadura.Spain>
>> * *region in spain.  Several years ago they start putting computers on
>> the desks of all of the students in the region. Now, as the computers are
>> becoming outdated (the students have faster computers at home) they are
>> adding high powered servers to schools.  By configuring the existing laptops
>> and desktops as clients for the new servers, they are able to extend usefull
>> life of the existing equipment by several years.
>>
>> For this to become possiable with Sugar we will need to engage the LTSP
>> developers.**
>
>
> Yes, I emailed Eric Harrison and he believed it was possible.  But yes, we
> need someone very familiar with LTSP to do this.
>
>> *
>>
>>
>> At School*: Due to the E-Rate program Sasha's school and all the schools
>> in town are well connected so the schools system decided to take advantage
>> of the economies of scale and hosts a large server centrally. In each
>> classroom there are thin clients and a USB port. The user experience is
>> exactly the same as at the YMCA, but in this case the server is located
>> several miles away.
>>
>> A current preference for US schools seems to be using E-Rate to finance a
>> client server system where student can log into their virtual desktop from
>> anywhere that has Internet access.
>>
>> This thinking seems to stem from the belief within the current generation
>> of school sysadmins that only they can be trusted with a student's data.  A
>> second reason is that schools tend to integrate students systems to closely
>> with teachers administrative systems.  As a result many districts are
>> putting a tremendous emphasis on backing up students data.
>>
>> Client Server systems allow sysadmins to backup a student's data to school
>> or district level SAN.  It has been awhile since I have gone to school, but
>> I can't remember anyone photo copying my notebooks so that I would have a
>> 'backup' if I lost my original.  On the contrary, I remember losing point
>> for losing my homework. It was called learning responsibility.
>>
>> This belief also seems to stem from the quirk of human nature that if we
>> pay a consultant to install an expensive system, we tend to be happier then
>> if we install an inexpensive system our selves:(
>>
>
> Yeah, I know how you feel. But its not our job to tell the IT departments
> how to spend their money, its our job to make sure their students can use
> Sugar, at as many locations as possible both inside and outside of schools,
> regardless of what decisions the school IT departments make. Pesonally, I'm
> hoping that this trend is just this year's fad and it will go away.
>

Sorry I did not mean to imply that we should tell customers how they should
spend their money:)   As you say, I hope this tendency is just a fad.

>
> But I'm all for computers backing up user's data!!!
>

I also support backing up. But the idea of taking a snapshot of a students
home directory every 5 minutes and storing it on a dual SANs seems a bit
much.  That is just what some of the in vogue consultants are recommending.

david

>
>
>>
>>  On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 11:54 AM, Caroline Meeks <
>> caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  Hi,
>>>
>>> This is a request for technical assistance for "Sugar on a Stick".
>>>
>>> It looks like we have a pilot school for our USB boot project, and a
>>> grant proposal in so I am trying to think through various use cases around
>>> creating ubiquitous access with a USB storage device.  I've written up some
>>> use cases here:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org/go/DeploymentTeam/School_Key#Vision_of_different_ways_the_USB_might_work_in_the_students_environment
>>>
>>> I'd love thoughts on what is feasible, how hard, and how much benefit
>>> would each scenario actually provide.
>>>
>>> I've done tests to show that "Home" and "Grandma's" are feasible.  I'm
>>> curious as to whether putting some of the boot files on the hard drive (Zoo)
>>> could reduce boot time or have any other advanatages as most of our donated
>>> computers will likely have working disk drives.  I wonder if combining with
>>> a LTSP or other virtualization scheme is possible (YMCA/School).
>>>
>>> Note all scenarios are fictional.
>>>
>>> Write your ideas here or on the Wiki page as you see fit.
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>> Caroline
>>>
>>> --
>>> Caroline Meeks
>>> Solution Grove
>>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>>
>>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Sugar mailing list
>>> Sugar at lists.laptop.org
>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>
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