Re: [seul-edu] Cooperation on kid-oriented software

[Ben Armstrong <synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>]

On Sun, 20 Feb 2000, Doug Loss wrote:
> I didn't have this message on my computer at home and had to cut and paste
> from the email archives; please excuse.  Anyway, I think this is a good
> topic to pursue.  We should keep in close touch with Debian Jr., Mandrake
> (for this distro), KDE, GNOME, and Windowmaker to see if we can all agree
> on standard ways to approach usability issues for children.  As you can
> see, I'm still a little vague myself on how this should work.  Let's have
> some discussion of it.  My initial thought is that we should revisit an
> earlier discussion on expandable user interfaces.  Does anyone know of any
> easily available studies on computer interface use among children?  Please,
> speak up!

Hm.  Seems we have these bases covered for making Linux work for children:

1. games (kidsgames, linuxforkids)

2. education (SEUL/edu)

3. packaging Linux software for children and adding to distros (Debian-Jr,
   Mandrake, any other distros have an effort like this?)

As you point out, the user interfaces problem isn't covered, and isn't
specifically "owned" by any of these groups.  It was raised as a subgoal
of Debian-Jr, but Debian isn't in the business of user interface design,
nor is Debian-Jr.  It seems the only group above that might have it in
their mandate is SEUL/edu, so why don't you guys take the lead and we'll
see what we can do with your work (we, meaning Debian-Jr)?

Ben
-- 
    nSLUG       http://www.nslug.ns.ca      synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
    Debian      http://www.debian.org       synrg@debian.org
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