One Laptop Per Child News on Content

Should Violent Games like DOOM be on the OLPC Wiki?

Posted on January 17, 2008 by Wayan Vota in Content: Games, Software: Third Party

While I love me some DOOM on the XO, it is a violent game and might not be right for One Laptop Per Child's target audience: children.

Bryan Berry doesn't think DOOM should even be on the OLPC Wiki

Free DOOM on my XO laptop

I feel very strongly that violent games should not be associated with OLPC. Albert Cahalan points out that games like Doom can teach geometry and other skills. There are ways to teach those skills w/out involving violence.

I work in Nepal, a country recovering from an 11-year civil war. Exposure to more violence, real or virtual, is the last thing most Nepali communities want…

We can debate forever whether violent games cause violence. The fact is many those people (esp. outside the US) whose support we need for OLPC, think that violent games are damaging to kids. We need to respect that sentiment.

He brings up a valid point, but his actions in response to his opinion, removing DOOM from the Wiki, brought about a lively discussion. Let's have Noah Kantrowitz explain the basic rebuttal:

I understand your point, however this is the case, the government in Nepal should simply decide not to include the offending material on their software image.

OLPC is not in the business of censorship or content classification, and you have no right to try and remove thing from the wiki just because you dislike them. If you are worried children will find distasteful things on the internet, perhaps you shouldn't give them a laptop.

A little less radical is the compromise struck to keep a wiki edit war from happening: Jameson "Chema" Quinn made a subpage called Activities/unendorsed to host DOOM outside of the OLPC Activities page.

Do you think its enough?

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OLPC Karaoke for Fun Language Learning

Posted on January 15, 2008 by Guest Writer in Content: Games, Content: Localization

I was fortunate to get involved this October with a computer project at a farm school in rural South Africa. This school had 12 computers for 185 students. None of them were XO laptops. Leaving out the R (reception or pre-school class) this left more than 100 students to share 12 systems.

A better usage model

Some immediate observations.

First, the native language of these children is Xhosa. They are at best EFL learners of English. With 12 computers, the children were limited to one hour per week of computer use.

The usage was dependent on English-speaking volunteers mostly from Europe. The volunteers mind-set was that the children's use should be productive (i.e. each child works on the task du jour) A typical session lasted a half-hour and finished when the child completed the task.

The computer labs rules explicitly prohibited playing of games. However, the computers had Mavis Bacon which included some typing games. This was the most popular activity for the children. The stated goal was for the children to become computer literate (meaning they know how to use Microsoft Office) as a byproduct of educational tasks (primarily topics on environment).

OLPC has several things right.

First, the computer is available to the child 24/7. Second, the child is expected to explore the machine, not complete tasks. Third, the screen has simple, colorful graphics. Fourth, the OLPC laptop supports languages other than English (although not as completely as it should given that almost all of the contributors are native English speakers).

I believe activities which support learning English must be a high priority. Second, activities which support reading and writing in the child's native language is critical. For example, I am trying to think how one could develop tutorials on ' how the computer works' which would communicate with minimal text (video, slideshow, simple localization of the necessary text, etc.) Third, to support these requirements we need text-to-speech capabilities in the native languages (a really tough one).

XO laptop karaoke already?

OLPC Karaoke

In many Asian countries (e.g. Philippines), karaoke is immensely popular. I would like to see a reader on OLPC which shows the text - with audio (recorded reader or text-to-speech) synchronized with text highlighting.

This would be an effective tool to teach young readers in their native language as well as English. I have not had a chance to try TamTam, but I would also like to see tools which allow the child to make her own karaoke song - e.g recording a native folksong (or original creation) with an optional vocal track. The tool should allow the song to be shared with the original vocal or a sing-along.

Anyway, I'm hooked. I hope OLPC can meet it's goal of placing 12,000,000 machines a year.

Tony Anderson has his G1G1 order in, but doesn't expect it before mid-January. In the meantime he's trying to use the sugar-jhbuild with Ubuntu.

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XO Laptop Help: How To Get DOOM on Your XO

Posted on December 31, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Content: Games

Do you kick your video games old skool like I do? Did first-person shooters peak at the original DOOM and then get all too complicated after that? And did you start to shake with excitement when you saw the DOOM on XO video?

If so, let me tell you that its super-easy to get Doom on your XO too. Or FreeDoom to be exact. As Heng explains on the OLPC News Forum:

Open terminal
Type su
Type yum install prboom
Accept all file downloads
Type exit
Type prboom -geom 1200x900
Play DOOM!!!

You will need a decent WiFi connection to download the files - it’s a few Megs - but its well worth the wait.

If you want to spread Starbucks envy too, be sure to keep your eye on the XO Laptop Games Forum for future game programs. We're looking to bring back Oregon Trail and upgrade to Quake 1 - sign up if you can help!

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Brazilian OLPC Game Jam Results: Pong Still Rules

Posted on November 20, 2007 by Alexandre Van de Sande in Software: Applications, Countries: Brazil, Content: Games

Brazilian OLPC Game Jam

From 10 to 11th November, Sao Carlos, a city in Sao Paulo, hosted the first Brazilian OLPC Game Jam. Six groups of students spent 48 hours, some without sleep, developing new games from scratch to the Sugar platform. Sunday kids from local schools were called in to the daunting task of playing all the games and choosing a winner, which took home a brand new green machine to continue developing. The main goal of course was to seed developing of games, no one was expected to have a full complete game without errors, but a playable version that can be further developed. The winner was a game of Pong with a twist: they used the XO tablet mode to build a game for two players each one sitting opposite to each other.

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Where in the OLPC World is SJ Klein?

Posted on September 03, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Software: Applications, Content: Games, People: Leadership

SJ Klein on the go!

Did you miss the OLPC Game Jam this June in Boston? Might it because you couldn't find SJ Klein, Director of Content for One Laptop Per Child?

If you feel left out, but still want to feel like you participated, may I suggest you run with an idea that Todd Kesley dreamed up?

So SJ, content director for OLPC, is hard to find sometimes. Because either he hasn't been sleeping enough, and he's wandered off to have a conversation with a guru or luminary or hallucinated partner of some kind, or because he's gone across town to obtain a Starbucks.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a little game on the laptop, a little Easter egg, patterned after Where's Waldo? Where's SJ?

unny enough, with all my worldly travels, I too have also been the subject of a "Where's Waldo?" quest by friends and family.

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Don't Forget What OLPC is Really About: Education

Posted on June 26, 2007 by Christoph Derndorfer in Software: Applications, Use Cases: Education, Content: Games

OLPC is about children

I've recently come to realize that the One Laptop Per Child project has many different meanings for different people. For a few it's a technology and laptop project. For many it's an educational project. For even more it's a development project for poor countries.

But for most people it's something entirely different: It's a project that they think can be used to address a large number of issues including (but not being limited to): the digital divide in developed nations; modernize educational systems in developed nations by replacing teacher-centered learning with alternative approaches; help poor people get access to the modern IT infrastructure and the benefits it can offer them, help spread open-source software as to counter proprietary solutions; etc., etc., ... All you basically have to do is ask 20 persons what they would do with a bunch of X0s and you're very likely to get many different answers.

Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe that the XOs, the technological platform developed for and around it (e.g. Potenco YoYo Power Generator) and the knowledge and experience gained in the process can be successfully applied in a large variety of environments and scenarios. However per definition OLPC and the X0 (as the first result from these efforts) are very much focused on education. Education of children. Education of children in developing nations.

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Learning Squeak from Scratch

Posted on May 28, 2007 by David in Software: Applications, Content: Games, Software: Third Party

Another week, another piece of software aiming to turn kids into programming maestros before the distractions or puberty. After four years research, a subset of MIT's seemingly limitless supply of boffin filled cubicles, the rather wonderfully named "Life Long Kindergarten" unleashed "Scratch" upon the world. In a BBC news article that coincided with last Tuesday's official release, their reporter, Jonathan Fildes, closed his article with a reference to a version being developed for the OLPC XO.

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One Laptop Per Child Game Jam

Posted on May 25, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Software: Applications, Content: Games, Software: Third Party

Now I really wish I could code in Pygame or Python. Weak out graphics and animate movement, so I could be joe-cool enough to participate in the much anticipated OLPC Game Jam on June 8-10 in Needham, MA.

Now what's a "OLPC game jam," you might ask? Ben Sawyer says:

Attendees bring their laptops and we install the game building SDK on it (Pygame/Python is the SDK but FLASH works too so if you're going to make Flash games come as well) and everyone sits around and builds games for the next 50+ hours (sleep optional).

The idea is that 50-100 people come and we have fun working solo or in teams to build 15-30 games. We will have XO Laptops to port games too once you get it working on your own system (Pygame works on PCs, Linux, Mac, Windows,etc.) and then at the end of the day we sit around and look at the collective work. There may even be some prizes...

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Build Master J5 - Tossing Open Source Activities At Ya!

Posted on May 24, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Software: Applications, Content: Games, People: Leadership, Software: Operating System

Think you have decent Open Source coding credibility, like eating Linux kernels for breakfast? Might others recognize your mad skills with a cool code name? Then maybe you are in John Palmieri's journeyman league with a nickname like his super-cool "J5". But even then, have you ever been called a "Build Master" in official title? J5 has and is the Build Master for OLPC.

But don't think he's a player, he backs up the flash with serious Open Source street cred, willing to thrown down applications toe-to-toe with anyone, including Microsoft. To quote him:

I personally am not in the business of forcing people to use my products but rather developing the product for specific needs and letting the customer choose. I’m in the business of building better systems, period.

And as the Build Master for OLPC, J5 is in the business of building better "activities" - applications in OLPC speak. Wondering what that means? Then watch J5 in the second Red Had video on One Laptop Per Child:

If you want to join J5 in building activities, then check out his PyGTK game tutorial. You'll learn how to create or port any number of applications to the Sugar UI using the OLPC game "Block Party."

Just be sure to give J5 respect, he has mine.

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United Nations Millennium Campaign Games on OLPC XO

Posted on March 19, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Content: Education, Content: Games, Software: Third Party

Did you know that the United Nations Millennium Campaign, the UN program based in the Millennium Development Goal to

"free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected"

has teamed up with One Laptop Per Child to produce Millennium Campaign games for the OLPC XO?

That's right, the UN wants to:

Educate young people on their human rights; safe environment, food, shelter, healthcare etc. promised to them in an agreement called the Millennium Development Goals
Relate the message that governments promised to do all these things for them
Empower young people to take tangible real world steps to ask their government to make their lives better

Via games on the "$100 laptop". Now don't those goals strike you as a little odd for a children's game? Like maybe a logic leap even for SimCity or Second Life on the OLPC? Lucky for us, Rikomatic has already thought out a few UN MDG 2015-centric games for the Children's Machine XO:

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SimCity on the OLPC XO!

Posted on March 08, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Content: Games, Software: Third Party

SJ Klein's call for games on the OLPC Children's Machine XO is starting reap crazy-good dividends. First Ninja Boy John won an OLPC XO in the Game Developer's Challenge for his game design (which I hope he shares with OLPC News readers).

And now we have SimCity on the OLPC!

According to Next Generation and Don Hopkins post on Slashdot, Electronic Arts and Will Wright are finalizing the legalities to make an open-source version of SimCity for the OLPC. While its not official or available yet, Don Hopkins is already crunching code:

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Free Music Project: Creativity on Children's Machine XO

Posted on March 05, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Software: Applications, Content: Games, Content: Music

We wanna sing & dance!

While we are all impressed by mini TamTam, the OLPC XO music generation software, not every child is a composer at heart. But every child can find joy, fun, creativity, and education in music.

That's the idea behind the Free Music Project, a library of the best free music the web has to offer from Freeculture.org:

This will be your music -- you are the curators and creators. We want everything: all genres, all time periods, all cultures -- as long as it is available under a license for sharing and collaboration.

And Free Music Project's first collaboration is with One Laptop Per Child. Selected songs uploaded to the library will be preloaded onto Children Machine XO's and will reflect the great variety of global music and musical traditions.

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Win an OLPC XO Laptop With a Game Design!

Posted on February 14, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Content: Games, Software: Third Party, Prototypes: XO

Win a OLPC XO laptop at the 2007 Game Developers Conference - all you have to do is provide a 100 word description of your OLPC game design idea in the One Laptop Per Child Game Design Challenge.

Yes, you read that right, you don't even need to actually code the game, just write a general idea of one for the Children's Machine XO. Here's the official judging criteria that Samuel J. Klein, OLPC Director of Content, will use to score submissions:

Each entrant must supply a 100 word description of their game design idea which may be accompanied by an optional sketch or screenshot. The judges will be looking for game design ideas with particular attention given to games that make use of the laptop's special features -- its wireless mesh, human power, sunlight-readable display, and ebook or rotated-screen modes.

As you start to put pencil, pen, or stylus to work on how to bring new life for old games on the Children's Machine XO, do check the contest fine print: only registered conference attendees qualify to enter, and you must be present to win.

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New Life for Old Games on the Children's Machine XO

Posted on January 16, 2007 by in Content: Games, Software: Third Party

If the One Laptop Per Child project is to be a success, it has to look at previous computers that have gone down in history... For me, growing up in the 1980s in the UK, I see many parallels with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

It was the lowest cost colour home computer, it had a huge following among school-children, was tiny compared to most computers of the time, and had a rubbery keyboard.

Two things seemed to drive the popularity of these machines - they were easily programmable at home, and they had great games on them. The Children's Machine XO is easy to program (the source code for each activity is available for the user to modify), but as yet, OLPC activities are mostly of an educational nature.

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miniTamTam's SynthLab Demo: Rock Me OLPC!

Posted on January 16, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Software: Applications, Content: Games, Content: Music

Do you remember the cool synthesizer songs of the 1980's? Back when big hair and keyboard-only bands ruled the pop music scene? Did you want to be your own singer-songwriter too? Maybe Falco doing "Rock Me Amadeus"?

Now children worldwide will be able to make their own computer-based sound synthesizers, using MiniTamTam on the OLPC XO thanks to a team of designers, musicians and programmers at the Faculté de musique de l’Université de Montréal.

But not just using sounds that come with MiniTamTam. With the synthLab software, the Children's Machine XO will allow would-be musicians to build their own synthesizer from the base sound on up. SynthLab for MiniTamTam has five tools to work with:

a basic worktable
a bank of modules with sources, processors, controllers
a bank of presets - examples of circuits that work
a slider for sound duration and volue
and save/edit commands for the synth patches

If you'd like to see how they will do it, or just want to hear really odd computer sounds that would make 2001: A Space Odyssey proud, check out the very informative synthLab demonstration.

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An Early Christmas Present: Super Mario Brothers 3 on OLPC

Posted on December 23, 2006 by Wayan Vota in Content: Games, Software: Third Party

Merry Christmas old school gamers! We now have a second 1990's flashback game on the OLPC: Super Mario Brothers 3 from the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

It's only too bad that like the One Laptop Per Child developers who ported DOOM on the OLPC XO, Brad Morgan seems to have forgotten his gaming roots. While the game skill is not impressive, their technical skills are.

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DOOM on the OLPC XO!

Posted on November 28, 2006 by Wayan Vota in Content: Games, Software: Third Party

Now image you are the One Laptop Per Child software design team, and you've just received the very first order of Children's Machine XO's. Around a thousand pounds of laptops actually, and you wanna take one for a fun filled test drive.

You could play with all the software on them, like AbiWord or Sugar OS, or you could install new software you've developed just for this working model. Or you could do what Christopher Blizzard and friends did. You could install and play DOOM (the original) on the OLPC XO:

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OLPCities: A Second Life for Students?

Posted on October 03, 2006 by Wayan Vota in Content: Games, Software: Third Party

Looking through the OLPC Wiki recently, I noticed a new and evolving publicly edited section called OLPCities. What might this interesting little Brazilian software project be? Might that be Second Life for the One Laptop Per Child 2B1 Children's Machine?

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One Laptop Per Child News

Your independent source for news, information, commentary, and discussion of One Laptop Per Child's "$100 laptop" computer, the OLPC Children's Machine XO, developed by MIT Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte.