[Marketing] [Sugar-devel] netbook as terminology

[Walter Bender]

I need to get more sleep (^through^threw ^come^came).

The unnamed person was Yves Behar (ir someone on his team).

-walter

On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 2:03 AM, Bill Kerr <billkerr at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 12:06 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> When we began the project, I lobbied to call it a Children's Machine (CM)
>> in reference both to Seymour Papert's book and as a reference to the CM
>> series of "connection machines" that Danny Hillis created at Thinking
>> Machines, another effort where they through away the rules to make a
>> solution to fit a class of problems rather than make the problem fit the
>> solution.
>>
>> Of course, XO is a brilliant name, that come from our design team as I
>> recall, and I don't doubt that it was the correct decision for OLPC at the
>> time.
>
>
> I agree that xo is a brilliant name. Congratulalions to the un-named person
> who thought it up. Some of these names convey functionality and purpose far
> better than the others. I have broken them into three categories based on
> how it feels to me.
>
> PURPOSE:
> Childrens Machine
> xo
>
> FUNCTION:
> Connection Machine
> Dynabook
> smartbook
>
> TECHNO CENTRIC:
> netbook
> MID
> thin-and-light
> low cost small notebook PC
> low cost ultra-portable notebook computers (Microsoft mouthful<http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/microsoft-wants-new-term-for-netbooks-unhappy-with-other-5-ch/>
> )
> ultra-portable
> mini notebooks
>
> I don't know that we should decide to push a name change on the market. The
>> point I will make at the Desktop Summit is that the marketing of netbooks
>> with 3G set an expectation that they are part of the "cloud" and that the
>> push for bigger, fatter, faster netbooks has eroded the opportunity to think
>> about new approaches to computing that smaller and lighter afford. But there
>> remain opportunities to redefine the desktop, keeping it relevant, in many
>> areas, ours being K-6. Even in the "developed" world, the Internet is not
>> everywhere, e.g., most classrooms, and as much as it has been good for the
>> service providers to pitch it as true, the cloud is not right solution to
>> every problem.
>
>
> Would a good description of the sugar desktop be "community user interface"
> stressing F1 and F2 over the more traditional F3? That was my interpretation
> from reading the OLPC Human interface guidelines:
> Most developers are familiar with the desktop metaphor<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_metaphor>that dominates the modern-day computer experience. This metaphor has evolved
> over the past 30 years, giving rise to distinct classes of interface
> elements that we expect to find in every OS: desktop, icons, files, folders,
> windows, etc. While this metaphor makes sense at the office—and perhaps even
> at home—it does not translate well into a collaborative environment such as
> the one that the OLPC laptops will embody. Therefore, we have adopted a new
> set of metaphors that emphasize community. While there are some correlations
> between the Sugar UI and those of traditional desktops, there are also clear
> distinctions. It is these distinctions that are the subject of the remainder
> of this section. We highlight the reasoning behind our shift in perspective
> and detail functionality with respect to the overall laptop experience
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines/The_Laptop_Experience/Introduction
>
> This article more or less persuaded me that cloud computing was an
> inevitable (long term) trend
>
> http://asc-parc.blogspot.com/2009/01/cloud-computing-science20-and-social.html
>
> The main value proposition is further "abstraction" that reduces management
> costs. For example, backup storage is abstracted into the cloud, so you
> don't have to worry about your hard disk failing. Computation is abstracted
> into the cloud, so you don't have to worry about not having enough
> computational nodes for your data analysis job. It is an inevitable trend in
> computing, because of the need to reduce complexity and
> data-management/computation-management costs. It's clear that, in the near
> future, the backup storage and computation will continue to evolve into
> collaborative workspaces that you never have to administer, nor would you
> have to worry about backing up your work
>
> Meanwhile back in the real world a huge problem in schools is filtering of
> the internet which ends up making many useful sites not accessible to most
> in school time (and in practice slows things down) - some students now by
> pass the filter using smart phones, smart phones as modems, 3G USB devices
> etc. - expensive for them but good to see the internet routing around this
> damage
>
> Education Departments don't seem capable of providing fast untrammelled
> internet access in my experience
>
>
>
>>
>>
>> -walter
>
>
>


-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org
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