[IAEP] [SLOBS] Sugar Labs 2010 Goals Review

[Christoph Derndorfer]

Am 13.07.2010 21:05, schrieb Bernie Innocenti:
> (I hope my next statement won't result in a flame-war on hardware)
> 
> My sense is that iPad-like devices with no physical keyboard may be good
> for reading books and watching videos, not so good for creating content.
> Hence, they may not support well the learn-by-doing philosophy that
> Sugar promotes.
> 
> Perhaps advancements in touch screen technology, virtual keyboard design
> and hand-writing recognition will change my mind one day. Presently, the
> iPad is designed as an accessory for a real computer, and tablets
> capable of fully replacing a computer are in fact regular laptops with a
> display that can be rotated 360 degrees, like the XO-1.

While I tend to agree with your point of view I'm not sure it matters
here. OLPC for one seems very much focused on making the XO-3 tablet
form-factor an important aspect of their future portfolio even though Ed
McNierney is quoted as saying that they want both the notebook-XOs and
tablet-XOs to coexist for a long time
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/ciencia_tecnologia/2010/07/100701_0955_laptop_tableta_olpc_mcnierney_entrevista_dc.shtml).
In light of this development and assuming that one would want Sugar to
run on these XO-3s we should start thinking about how to best utilize
this form-factor for the things we want to achieve with Sugar.

> BTW: who's using the XO-1 in tablet mode? Believe it or not, in 3 years
> I have *never* seen anyone (adult or child) using it this way. Maybe a
> touch screen would change everything? The Classmate 3 has a touchscreen.
> Is it being used in tablet mode?

I use the XO in tablet mode quite regularly, especially when reading
long articles on Web sites or studying off university slides. But
admittedly I've never seen children use it that way though I guess
that's mostly due to the fact that the interaction possibilities in
tablet mode are severely limited.

I'd definitely love to see progress in this area (and would try to
contribute where I can) to make the tablet mode more usable, especially
seeing that some work here has already been done, e.g. during the Summer
of Usability 2008 program (http://season.openusability.org/?p=65).

> If the educators will not come to Sugar Labs, perhaps Sugar Labs could
> go where the educators already are.

+1, though I would argue that we've seen some progress in this area
thanks to the efforts of people like yourself, Daniel, Caroline, Walter,
Simon, the SoaS team, etc.

Cheers,
Christoph

-- 
Christoph Derndorfer
co-editor, www.olpcnews.com
e-mail: christoph at olpcnews.com