[Sugar-devel] unique activities . . . for Oceania XO's, or other regions.

[Aleksey Lim]

On Thu, Feb 03, 2011 at 10:32:28PM +1300, Sean Linton wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> One of the things I would like to know is that even at the current level of
> deployment the OLPC project doesn't get attacked for eroding the indigenous
> cultures of places when with some careful planning and insight it could
> contribute to the opposite. The sort of thing I am thinking about is for
> example where you have the TamTam activities, which have a pretty good
> representation of instruments from around the world built in to the activity
> already, but at this stage are not tailored to different regional
> environments. I am thinking about the difference in using that program for a
> child whose local music culture is represented by the program, and a child
> whose musical instruments are not included in that program.
> 
> At one level the activity is useful for either child - the first can see
> that his or her culture is part of this world wide project and that is
> really neat, and the second child is at least given the opportunity to see
> what other instruments from around the world are like. So either way it is
> an education for who ever is using it, but with out that renewal of the
> traditional instruments and the unique backgrounds (culture) being brought
> into the light of this empowering technology I feel there is a danger that
> the result is a monoculture. To counter this one other thing that I can see
> being accomplished with the OLPC project is the ability to create audio
> content, and distribute it locally. In this situation although we don't have
> 'place specific instruments' loaded as a part of the music iconography of
> the OLPC, we at least have the ability to couple with community radio, or
> other audio frameworks to promote locally generated content.
> 
> One thing I have heard is that OLPC, in a way, creates this situation of the
> 'haves' and the 'have nots'. Maybe you have heard this too? I think as long
> as a focus of the project is making a contribution to building communities
> through learning and networking the technology itself is less like a piece
> of the pie and more like mixing dish.
> 
> 
> It would be great to see the Canadian
> 'drumbeats<http://www.olpccanada.com/content.php?id=12>'
> activity ported to all the places where the computers are, and that all of
> those places could create their own version of that interface, drawing on
> indigenous knowledge and experience of sound. However if for example
> 'drumbeats' is what makes OLPC in Canada unique, and that unique identity is
> being expressed through this activity then it makes less sense to try and do
> it in other places because that would be back to creating a sameness which
> is contrary to the aim of renewal of indigenous music. My feeling is that
> the identity created by 'drumbeats' is in the content and not in the fact
> that it is unique to Canadian machines, and for that reason think it would
> be great to see some more discussion on how to better equip this technology
> to provide insights into more specific / less generic backgrounds.

> It would be good to establish some more contacts who are on the same page
> with this, I have also heard similar thoughts expressed by someone in Nepal.

In case of TamTam and Nepal, people provided images and sounds of some
Nepalese instruments, and they are in TamTam :)
The only step is needed - creating request on
http://bugs.sugarlabs.org/newticket?component=TamTam

> 
> all the best,
> 
> Sean

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-- 
Aleksey