Slashdot Mirror
Testing Technology on a Veritable Army of Children?
"The idea is to bring together children ages 10 to 15 years old from around the world at 8 or 9 centers scattered about all continents except Antarctica. The children will congregate at these centers for two days in 2005 to participate in creative technology workshops both virtually between centers and hands-on at their particular center. There will be a heavy emphasis on community building and shared information, in many ways similar to Slashdot. The entire event and all the projects it entails are designed to live on after the kids go home when the two days are up. How this will be done is as of yet uncertain, but will most definitely involve net connectivity to some extent (whether through the village kiosk's 28.8kbaud line in Cambodia or the living room broadband line in NYC). Naturally, issues such as language barriers will have to be addressed. In the particular case of the language barrier, there is talk of designing a custom written language (again, think mediaglyphs from 'Diamond Age') for children to use, build upon, and shape. What other projects are worth considering?"
Crap. They're going to teach all those children to come together under the banner of l337sp34k.
The future is doomed.
Sharkey
It should be cultural based so that children around the world can learn about each other.
...have them all log into .NET at the same time :-)
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
Or does it seem as though a 2-day conference full of children speaking different languages is an awfully short timeframe to train them to reshape the world? In the case of Crystal Age (neal stephenson,) this was only possible because the technology was so powerful as to be able to train the user how to use it without any interaction... are you guys able to do that?
BEN
It would be interesting, I think, to be that young and share in the world culture. It's a powerful idea that things like laughter are so universal, despite cultural and linguistic barriers.
This is the perfect chance for a meaningful experiment into what different people think about the same thing. Over the course of the experiment, beam a happening news story to all the participants. Then, give them options on what they think about what they read, which is automatically tabulated and broken down according to culture. For example, in another terrorist act, you'll be able to see what they think about it from different sections of the world, who supports what happened, who decries it, etc.
I do notice the anti-antarctica bias however...
Time how long it will take a global game of Starcraft/Quake/Doom/RocW to develop.
Time how long it will take for a pr0n server to develop.
Time how long it takes one of them to own you monitoring machine.
Time how long it takes your developed language to be deformed into shorthand.
I fear this is likely to end in fire and uselessness... So why not garner information gained from the chaos caused by teens?
tech is already frustrating enough when the instructions are in english! "mediaglyphs"? that's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard.
as for sharing information, what information? will these pda's be nothing more than a web forum? without some content creation tools, i see little use for sharing of information. and what kind of content is really worth creating on a hand held pda (within the grasp of a 10-15 year old)?
i'm sorry, but i'm highly skeptical of these schemes involving handing out useless tech to kids. if you want to change the world, give these kids scholarships, not pieces of plastic and metal.
"Ask me about Loom"
I wonder how a bunch of young children would respond to a type of universal translater.
You base it on pictures. say "Apple" and a picture appears. say "Run" and a picture of someone running appear. See if they can communicate. Try to make it more efficient.
Or I patent the idea myself.
Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
Old idea, new opportunity. Use the links to teach kids about the things that they can do to improve their community. Use the international interconnectivity to have the children learn about the different changes that are needed all around the world.
A NYC kid will be totally surprised when a kid from India is trying to better toilet facilities in his neighborhood. A kid in Djibouti will be surprised that the kid in London doesn't know everyone on his block.
The international network, and the knowledge that someone is watching their projects will both make it easier for the kids to persist and to get aid in their endeavors.
Want to see every step I took to start my company? http://www.rowdylabs.com/blogs/pitchtothegods
What about having the children design the layout and architecture of a virtual city? It would be fascinating to see how a group of children from many different cultural backgrounds would want to shape the city.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I don't see how this is anything more than a few companies (who are mysteriously remaining nameless) to get together and try to cultivate some public interest by "making 3000 children to join hands and sing for world peace". Give me a break.
I'm sorry, but I don't see why this is deserving of the millions of dollars you're putting into it. I'd much rather see that money go towards feeding the hundreds of millions of people starving all around the world, and not to some corporate PR department trying to spin this as world-changing.
Or maybe it's just me.
I love this idea, but it's hard to comment on without a little more guidance. What's the primary goal? Is it to foster technology prowess, or to build virtual communities, or education?
I'd be most interested in novel ways to have networked PDA's share info, like a peer-to-peer system. Maybe some sort of problem solving, where each person answers part of a complex question, and the correct result emerges from all the contributions?
I remember a story (by Bruce Sterling?) about a similar type of setup, where person X would advertise "I need something" and person Y would advertise "I have something", and their PDA's would notice the match and alert X and Y. There's a lot of good potential in such a system, and we haven't seen a lot of it in the real world yet.
Good luck!
Looking for a Rails developer in Chapel Hill?
"The idea is to bring together children ages 10 to 15 years old from around the world at 8 or 9 centers scattered about all continents except Antarctica.
As a 12 year old from Antarctica why am I denied access to this experiment. Bah! It wouldn't have involved PDA's with Penguins anyway.
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
You have the chance to implant mind-control units, instantly creating thousands of slave-warriors all over the globe, and you even paused for thought? Geez, what kind of evil genius are you?
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
Why not? Better yet, search for intelligent life at home :)
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
How about building a system that would allow these kids to create their own 'media glyph' language to talk with each other.
Maybe you'd network a bunch machines with tablet input devices and let them go to town. Have a cooperative method for deciding on symbols and deciphering the messages...
Seems like the communication aspect of this project is the most interesting avenue for exploration... at first glance anyway...
Guvegrra?
Is it me, or does a point to this gathering of 3000 children escape anyone else? I read over the blurb twice, and noticed the reference to Stephenson, PDAs, and something about a million dollars, but, I didn't read anything about what it is leading up to, or what it is all for.
Anyone have any hints for me?
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
I've been interested in designing a programming language specifically for children involving drag and drop icons representing program flow and actions.
I think this can be done very simply and provide an early and invaluable introduction to the programming thought processes. Not to mention empower these children as they will watch the computer do what they tell it to.
I always thought if it was available the children could download new program icons akin to new VB controls and make more and more elaborate programming.
Perhaps an open source experiment of this sort would be cool. Liek the stories where each group writes a sentence and passes it on. There could be a series of programs passed from group to group, where each group would add their spin by dragging and dropping.
What do you think?
As the playwright said, "Do unto others as they would do unto you is dangerous. Their tastes might not be the same".
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
This should be addressed to children in the target age range today, not the slashdot folks who have (presumably) grown up since they were that age group. What would seem neat or interesting to us based on how we remembered that time period is not necessarily the same as what would be neat or interesting to children living in the current time (or 2005) rather than the times of a decade ago.
It sounds like the whole point of the experiment may be to see what the children will do with the technology, not that what people now would have wished they could have done when they were children -- that is, it sounds like building to a set of preconceptions could be counter productive to the goals of the experiment.
Now, if the goal is to develop a new class of technologies *first*, then expose the children to see if they develop mutant powers -- er, develop interesting new uses of technology, then that is a slightly different matter. Something like, oh, combining Instant Messenging with a neural network system -- give every child a PDA that is also a node on the neural network. Set it up so the children could set up rules/weights for automatically processing messages (i.e. if both Amy and Joey send me a message about the new movie, pop it up on my screen, otherwise I'm not interested in movies that Amy and Joey don't like. If Amy, Joey, and Bob like it, it must be really cool -- forward the message to Kelly, too!) Turn the nodes into a combination advanced instant messaging/USENET node. Sort of Google crossed with Instant Messenging. Every node contributes as a filter/forward/weighter of messages to the neighbor -- ideally, the entire system would start to more intelligently route messages around internally only to the people who are interested in them (i.e. don't alert me about that new article from CNN unless it also shows up on Slashdot and at least two of my friends think it is interesting). The major issue would be having a easy to use user interface that would let people easily set up the filtering/forwarding/weighting system.
"Under carefully controlled circumstances of light, temperature, pressure, and humidity, the organism will do what it damn well pleases."
It is merely designed to spend money, make a lot of media hype, and try to get other people to invest even more money in a larger project of similar nature. The projects themselves are irrelevant as to wether or not they accomplish anything, such as the betterment or eduction or the children.
First meet the practical needs of these people before you try to sell them advanced solutions to digital age problems that they don't even have.
perhaps they could figure out something that will make it easier for little geek boys to talk to talk to little girls! Now THAT would be ADVANCEMENT!
Seriously, I can't think of anything "earth-shaking" about the PDA's that hasn't already been done.
The new wireless games / instant messages that are on phones now are much cooler than anything I've seen on a PDA! Perhaps they could do something like the previously commented wireless P2P for operation in a crowd. Or perhaps something like the "tamagachi" pets for singles!
How 'bout some type of "universal translator" unit, kinda a cross between IRC chat and babblefish? That could bring people together (or maybe not....I'm not sure how the fish would w how to translate "workin' it & doggin' it").
Whatever the app, the way to change the future is social not necessarily technical.
For most of the children in the world, a PDA is just about the least useful thing you could imagine. However well-intentioned your motives, it will most likely be looked upon as elitist Western arrogance attempting cultural imperialism.
I Heart Sorting Networks
8 or 9 centers scattered about all continents except Antarctica
So is that 8 or 9 centers total, or for each continent... even if 8-9 per continent, that is alot of area/kids to cover. 3000 kids seems like a very small group. How many kids 10-15 are there in the world? Your affecting such a incredibly small percentage of kids, how are they going to spread the knowledge that they gained at a 2 day seminar...
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
Well, you could get these kids together and teach them to sing in perfect harmony. Then you could buy them a Coke, and keep them company... *sway*
This is not likely to produce anything meaningful or even useful. It is more likely to be a giant feel-good soirie, where we ask the "future generations" how they think the world could be made a better place.
Bah.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
For heaven's sake, don't pit them against each other across cultural/national dividing lines. If you must divide them into teams, make the teams cross-cultural. Even better would be to make them all one team.
Then come up with a dramatic demonstration of what they can accomplish as a human swarm if they ignore cultural boundaries and all cooperate. Concentrate on drama. Give them an experience that will imprint on their minds the power of letting go of nationality and attacking problems instead of each other.
"Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
too bad on the third day when the 3000 child-geeks get back to school their 9000 bully couterparts are not only going to steal their lunch money, they'll get a free PDA.
:)
I had a penpal in Montreal when I was in 6th grade. I got the cheeziest letters outta him because his teachers screened everything and were constantly looking over his shoulder (I assume - mine was doing the same thing to me)
I think something creative would be better - I honestly don't think words are the best medium of communication, it's too easy for words to slip into cliche. Conversations of the 'how are you? I am fine. I just got a new bike. It is blue" variety are...empty.
Let the kids draw. Paint. CREATE something - give 'em a webpad with a good freehand program and a simple interface (NO CLIPART - no 'place sun with streaming rays here' button) Let 'em express themselves. It's easier for kids to become involved if words are only minimally involved. Or, do both - couple/link it with a livejournal-type diary interface. Diaries are more about the person than about who they're 'talking' too.
Jsut the perspective of an artist/musician. Take it for what you will.
Triv
I know I'm a dork for replying to my own comment, but ...
This sounds like the ideal way to conduct some sort of Turing Test. Have 1000 AI Bots thrown in the mix and randomly connect kids and bots together to chat.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
...the Mouse Army.
Don't mod me down cuz you don't get it, of course if you are not amused mod away.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
some venture capitalist had alot of money left over and there are no more .COMs left to get rid of it with, so he decided to design and manufacture 3000 PDAs and give them to children.
.COMs had
I will grant it this though, it is a better business model than many of the
I Heart Sorting Networks
Start testing today, impiment tommorow. 2x4s with post-it notes for all yoru glyphs hand drawn and the like so your human factors experts can test need to be done now, and you need these foreign children in early. Don't impliment much (you can design your communications infrastructure, but beware that technology will march while you do other things) now, but don't waste your time one software or custom hardware until you have a design worth working with.
OTOH, make sure that the human factors guys give you enough time to work with, and you give the testers enough time to work with. The time line needs to be well done.
In order to make the time line possibal, first the a good hardware design that you can work with. Then once that is finialized (but not nessicarly bug free), work on software, but have the human factors people prioritiese, don't start all projects at once or this won't work, better to have half your features working then all the features, but none work.
And if your project managers didn't respond "I already knew all that and am doing it", quit now so your name isn't on a baddly run project that will fail.
Does this remind anybody else of the "1 million child recorder concert" episode of South Park?
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
I'm surprised the typical Slashdot cyncism hasn't been shown yet. How do we know this guy is for real? How often is someone assigned a project years in the future, with a multi-million dollar grant, to spend on basically "something technological" and he asks SLASHDOT for opinions?
I've always had this idea of building a scooter like device with just two wheels. I've always thought that might change the world.
I think with todays technology you could almost make it drive itself. And with 2-3000 child laborers handy you might make a buck or two. You may also want to patent the idea so no one steals it...
No matter how many poor people you feed, they'll still be poor -- and when you're done feeding them, they'll still be starving. Simply injecting food doesn't provide education, marketable skills, encourage growth of local businesses, &c.
A project that helps to educate, on the other hand, leaves a much more lasting presence. If this results in children who grow up to have a better understanding of the global market, who are more likely to posess entrepreneurial spirit, or who simply have higher hopes for their communities than those around them, this project will have done worlds of good -- more than simply providing food could ever do.
Hmmm, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say this is another Dean Kamen thing... Way to go man!
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
Its a shame with so many starving children and families around the world, that this is a topic of discussion and worse yet a matter of business!
What a bleak future we have, if these are the solutions we have to change the world.
A shame
Mark
So, does this mean you dress them up in fatigues and get them to march around in town with M16s?
It's for children accross the world to experience firsthand the unity and cross-cultural understanding made possible by unnamedcorporation(tm)'s new handheld friendmaker. . .
.made possible by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
. .
Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.
Handing out technology is pretty much the mindset that has prevailed in the schools up to now, and it doesn't work. Teachers don't have the time or resources to effectively use the Macs/PCs they have, and most schools have no competent SysAdmin--they usually draft a teacher and they grudgingly do it for a year.
Talk to your local elem. school teachers, esp. ones with diverse classrooms, and get a feel for their challenges. Then tailor a technology approach that meets their needs; if you can find ways to improve the effectiveness of teaching, you will help more kids.
I think that the ideal device would be a PDA that is so ubiquitous and inexpensive that it is not worth stealing, and no great loss if damaged or misplaced. Now, design a classroom around that device-- the child carriers the PDA home or to school, but at either place it can be plugged into the desktop and become part of a more capable, flexible learning system, with a keyboard, mouse, or other input device depending on the child's need.
The main initial benefit of the EDA (let's call it) is to provide local storage of homework assignments, calandar, contact, basic reference information, and statistics on use. This ensures that kids can't forget their textbook, or homework assignment, or spelling list, or worksheet, because the teacher can synch every EDA in the class at the end of the day.
Unplugged, the EDA stores key imformation for homework, reading, and studies-- much like a handspring or palmpilot. Plugged into class net or a home PC, it is the front-end of a more powerful networked information device.
More ambitiously, use the EDA and the wired classroom to give teachers instantaneous feedback on student interaction, learning, participation. The Teacher's workstation would enable them to scan the entire class during a writing or reading assignment, enable or disable instant messaging or polling, and even measure the time use and interaction on a class assignment, realtime, or record statistics that can be analyzed later. This would also make standardized testing much more consistent across school.
Stop with the "Apples for the Students" already. It is having little positive impact on learning, burdens teachers that are already overloaded, and amounts to little more than a toy that teachers use to distract students while the provide individual attention on handle admin duties.
---
I have to agree that just giving people technology doesn't make them smarter. Just like so many things, previously acquired training/knowledge is essential.
:)
Kind of reminds me of the Onion article: "Kalahari Bushman puts new modem to good use"... it's about how this guy loves his new 56.6K sportster modem -- it's sharp edges are great for scraping animal skins, pounding grains into flour, collecting water...
Perhaps if these companies want to change the world they could give these kids what more children in the world need besides PDA's:
FOOD
ok, this project is really kewl ;-)
;-) i was thinking illiteracy would be a problem, but not really: can you think of a better motivator for a rural poor kid to get reading or what? good luck! look forward to reading about how it is all received on slashdot in 2005 ;-)
i read a while ago about a guy who was building wind-up flashlights, for everywhere, and things like wind-up radios and televisions for places like rural africa. no batteries! (except internal lithium rechargeable? can a capacitor handle the charge storage? i dunno.) the radio just needs a few cranks every now and then and it will pipe out broadcasts for a few hours before needing a new crank. here's a link i found.
so we have all these failed (business-wise) iridium satellites flying around and other satellite networks with a few extra bandwidths here and there that might be persuaded to have something alloted from them for this project.
so make a pda that has a handcrank, uplinks to a satellite, and is basically nothing but a glorified Instant Messenging App with some sort of Babelfish (the fish!) built in that translates whatever native language is involved into a neutral heuristic. then that xml heuristic is uplinked via satellite, downloaded to a recipient, and retranslated into whatever language the recipient is using on their pda.
i'm certain that would be kewl enough for these kids to take home with them after a few days, get hooked on, and use as long as the handcrank still works, the supposed lithium batteries don't bleed away, the ruggedized case survives kid-friendly drops and crunches and unfriendly monsoons and drops in streams and drainage ditches, and the satellites stay in orbit and their bandwidth backers stay interested in the program.
i think that your biggest challenge, whatever tech you implement, will be keeping them interested. it would be a shame to blow all that dough on something that stops working after a few days or the kids just plain lose interest in because of complexity or lack of compelling features.
ok, kind of ambitious, but it sounds like you have some money to burn
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
OK.
:) ...
:)
For those that haven't read diamond age.
One of the underlying themes was that of a "young lady's illustrated primer".
Think of a PDA with a terabyte of data, voice recognition, and advanced AI. It pays attention to a childs growth and continually challenges them.
Any question that the child asks will be immediately answered.
The PDA also used "mediaglyphs" which are sort of a Esperanto based on symbols. Instead of building a device which says "eject" you just have a mediaglyph which animates when you put your finger near it of a VCR ejecting a tape.
The first child that grew up with the "primer" was significantly advanced from other children.
I am in the process of building a "primer" for my niece (she is one). It won't be as advanced as the one in the Diamond Age but it will have a dictionary, encyclopedia, art, pictures, etc.
... it might be a good idea to build an "Illustrated Primer" open source project that could build Open Source content for children with geeky relatives
... buy the diamond age and read it now!
Kevin
Translated:
Well, to start off with the idea of some small bit of technology distributed to ~3,000 kids for two days will change the world is flat out stupid.
If you or your backers were really interested in something substantive then you'd be looking at plugging into some established organization and seeing that the money or tools or whatever resources you have to offer can realisticly do with real-world issues (and yes, lots of those folks can blue-sky dream too, just they've got an idea of how 3000 kids lives could be made better in a substantive way.)
But no, you want a big pile of sponsored egoboo with some web-site left afterwards as a testament to your vision and caring. Bleh.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Spare the lab monkeys, bunnies and rats! Use children!
If you want to be world-changing via a handheld (a la the diamond age) I would suggest a peer-to-peer wireless PDA that the kids get to keep, and that will be available (via open design or just sold) to other children after the event. If the kids have the ability to network with eachother, without the need for a service provider or centralized infrastructure-- their exchange of information will be as unrestricted as possible.
If the data was encrypted, kids in places where access to some information is forbidden by the government could relay data through eachother to other places without being eavesdropped on.
You could also add repositories of information to the network-- big servers full of literature, technical books, encyclopedias, artwork, class texts, etc... that kids anywhere could access via the free p2p relay network that they comprise.
The initial batches of handhelds will need more range than something like the Cybiko (www.cybiko.com)-- maybe a couple of miles (FRS goes this far, so this should be possible) since the devices will be sparsely scattered initially. The ability to use a cable and one of the devices to make an internet bridge (again, like the cybiko) would extend the connectivity of remote areas, too.
Add some built-in teaching software. Basic math, vocab, reading, whatever you can fit so that the network is not always necessary, too.
I would love to see an empowering Primer a la the diamond age-- I hope you succeed, however you do it!
This sounds like a big conference put on by the MIT Media Lab a few years back:
www.jrsummit.net
To be perfectly honest, I think that while kids playing with technology is cool, it truly suspends disbelief to argue that it will result in tremendous advances or new ideas. Frankly, taking that same money and educating poor children around the world will pay back far greater returns than a two-day conference.
I think I have a solution for your language barrier problem, Golem. You should take a hint from the most basic way that people that don't speak the same language communicate to each other: gestures. In other words, I think you should make their communication avatar-based, and let them put in commands to make the characters move. The kids may not understand the words for "yes" and "no" in each other's languages, but just about everyone will understand that a character nodding their head is "yes" and a character shaking their head is "no". You could even make it more complex by having them express anger by scowling and stamping their foot, happiness by smiling, greeting each other by waving, and staying together in the virtual world by pointing in a direction to indicate where something is or walking somewhere and making a "c'mere" gesture with their hand to get someone to follow them.
It wouldn't be absolutely perfect, because it can't express complex ideas like global politics or history, but it would make a very good communications medium for children.
PDAs are not spontanious enough for children in a multi-lingual environment. Too long to type your messages in, never mind translation issues.
:-) to fund future efforts!
However, I think that digital cameras, the - cheap ones mind you - could be ideal, particularly if you give the older children video cameras in addition (say 1/10 of the group gets video cameras, or you have a "camera crew" per two dozen participants).
You want to say "HI" to Wong Meng in Taipei? Turn the cam around, smile, take a picture of yourself and send it. Much easier than text entry, translation etc.
Have base station PCs, use the cameras as webcams some of the time, and still cams the rest of the time, and have the kids take them home at the end of the gig: and *continue*to*publish*pictures* as time passes - kinda like the penpal idea.
Think of it as "children's eye window on the world" - longditudinal images from the conference participants over time, plus it's going to put less load on your translation services.
And a picture is worth a thousand words.
If you do still want to build custom hardware, think like a "Compact Flash" format wireless transponder to basically squirt pictures to base-station PCs as they're taken, so the kids don't have to mess with file upload/download: point, click, put images online.
Hell, you might even end up with a commercial product at the end of it
Hexayurt - open source refugee shelter,
As someone who's been working with at-risk kids in Brazil for the last eight years, I'd like to suggest some things that I think you wouldn't want to do:
- Don't assume that everyone everywhere speaks or even understands English - or even has a basic grasp of literacy!
- Don't assume that a fifteen-year-old in the two-thirds world has the academic background or world-view as an American kid - remember that many of them won't have even finished primary (grade) school!
- Please don't assume that American kids have something important to teach these other kids - or that two-thirds world kids would necessarily even want to talk to Americans (other than to ask for money)
- please remember that poor in the two-thirds world often really means poor and that these kids mightn't be able to buy spare batteries, use phone lines or the Internet, or maybe have even pen and paper.
I really can't imagine any useful application of this technology. Some kids, I'm sure, will try to use the PDAs as GameBoys or trade them with someone for food or Nikes.
Anyway, I hope I don't come across as too much of a wet-blanket, it's just that I've met some fairly "out-there" ideas for helping Brazilian kids.
If i pretend to be young, can I get a free pda? Is this like when my parents made me say I was 10 to get in the circus free?
You could do worse than look at what Alan Kay is involved with. Kay is a true computer pioneer and has from the beginning focussed on children as users of computers. His goal is to empower them by giving them new kinds of tools that let them create, not locking them into predefined worlds.
His current project is Squeak, which is designed to let kids create dynamic documents, games and worlds and interact with them.
Teaching kids to use technology as creators rather than as passive consumers would be one of the most important lessons you could present.
sounds like a perfect project for twext texts, which parses a foreign text into chunks, then formats native language translations betwixt the lines.. integrated with lyrics and recordings, your kids can learn one another's languages, or at least English, singing one another's songs.. or something like that
All countries have procedures for licensing Amateur Radio stations. You might even get a worldwide contest scheduled where HAM radio operators get points for contacting as many "Kid Stations" as possible in a 48-hour period. There would be plenty of HAMS worldwide who would volunteer to help in a project of this sort. Amateur Radio fosters communication and cooperation. If international morse code shorthand is used, it can transcend language barriers as well.
"All my life I wanted to be someone; I guess I should have been more specific." -- Jane Wagner
I have too many questions to respond intelligently. What type of organization is it? Is it a tech company? Software, or hardware? Is it an educational foundation? Is it a charitable organization? What is their purpose for trying to blow approx. $1000 per child in two days?
But this topic really interests me. I lived three years in Africa (Chad) and four years in Asia (India) during the nineties, I am a teacher, and I'm almost finished with a Ed Tech Master's degree.
Some comments:
1) It's going to be really difficult to get kids involved who aren't already connected in some way. In Chad few villages have any phones or even regular mail service. The elementary school in the village where I lived had exactly two books for use by the teachers for over 100 students. The situation is better in India, but outside of major cities, most students aren't going to know about this opportunity.
2) Children tend to be given much less respect in both Asia and Africa than they are in the west. A ten-year-old who has been given a crash course in whizbang technology, is unlikely to be able to rally a community to take advantage of the benefits of technology.
3) Cities in many less-developed countries have a glut of technologically proficient youth. In India over the last five years internet-cafes have sprung up on every street corner. The challenge is to integrate technology, information and the benefit it can provide into the daily life of the community.
Golem1024, please give us more information on which to base recommendations.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I realize that all the centers won't be in third-world, poor countries - that all of the children won't be poor.
But at any rate, giving away advanced technology won't help - no matter what it is. If the infrastructure isn't in place to keep the tech going (power, supplies, repair, etc) - it will only last so long, then become another piece of "junk".
I would say the thing to give people, of any age, is education. If it has to be based on technology, then give the people enough education to know basic tech (ie, teach fundamental machines - you know, the wheel, inclined plane, lever, etc - then teach how they go together to form more advanced machinery, machinery that can help them advance).
I remember seeing a site detailing how this group help some people in a third-world country develop solar cooking techniques - by teaching them how to build a parabolic reflector from basic materials easily found in the village. The group taught the people how to form a parabola using simple techniques (that don't require complex math, just some string and nails, and straight lines), then make a template, to make a mold in the ground, to form a parabolic "mirror" using weaved mats, mud, concrete, and tinfoil or other metal.
Teaching such things is what will help. All kids should learn the basics of such applied science at an early age - whether they are from the first or third world. Show them how to construct things from available materials, cast off "junk", etc - to be self-sufficient and rely less on the "man's" expensive "new" stuff, and instead scrounge among the cast-off detritus left behind.
Move on further by teaching how to build simple steam engines and turbines (maybe simple water pumps and such first, to teach flap valves, pistons, etc). Remember, the first practicle steam engines were built in the 16th and 17th century, and other "toy" technology was developed by the Greeks much, much earlier than that! Show how to build wind generators from cast-off 55 gallon drums and car alternators (or squirrel cage motors) - think large scale anemometers, or build a Savonious Rotor - give power before tech.
There are tons of other things that could be done - but it all boils down to education. Most importantly an education in self-sufficiency, and how to recognise those that want to enslave (either litterally or via economics, social programs, or otherwise) - and how to avoid it.
The problem is huge - I really don't know if there will ever be a real solution...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Someone please mod the above as the troll that it is. Every day someone comes up with a "new solution to change the world". Is this the solution? Is Doctors Without Borders the solution? Is the Red Cross the solution?
Individually, no; but the fact that enough people care to try something new to change the world for the better is a step in the right direction.
What's "bleak" is that there are people like you more willing to cry "shame" then give possible solutions a chance.
You just know in your gut that during this world-changing event some 15-year-old out there is going to figure out how to write "f1rst p0st" in mediaglyphs...
Mr. Ska
CISV has 50+ years of experience bringing children from 100+ countries together. Perhaps they could help to find solutions to some of the common issues you will no doubt address? As a participant, I have been to Egypt and Nigeria when I was 13 and 11. I'm sure I could arrange for someone to speak with you about how they might assist with your project. Check out CISV -Erastus
Well, duh.
This is an excellent opportunity to implement Professor Hodgson's KIDs experiment from Lain. ;)
o/~ Join us now and share the software
Question? What do most groups of kids do with computer mice?
Answer: Beat each other over the head with them.
DUH.
That or take out the mice's balls and roll it around.
(hmm, opt for optical mice mabye?)
Technology does NOT do anything for childern who are not inclined towards it.
Hell run a battery of tests, get all the worlds NERD childern together and in one room, and THEN you will have something going.
But you get a large group of jocks and Nerd childern together, all you end up with is a large school house with lots of fancy hi tech equipment.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Well, if we're going to try that, let's avoid Latin and start with Esperanto, or Lojban, or Klingon or something which at least starts out with fewer irregulars.
Esperanto? Ecch! Too Polish. I'd suggest something based on one of the Interlinguas (Interlingua de IALA or Latino sine flexione) as the Latin/Romance bases of those language both sound less harsh than Slavic and prepare the children for the language of science.
Heck, if you're going with a relatively regular language, you might as well use a regular alphabet, but note that regular alphabets may be more difficult for dyslexics to learn than Latin ASCII!
.cixelsyd eb yam uoy
Will I retire or break 10K?
Consider using a chording keyboard as one input method. I doubt many of these kids have been taught touch typing yet. Considering how good some kids get at "texting" each other with a telephone style keypad, I would imagine that many of them would pick up on using the chording keyboard very quickly once they figured out how much faster they can be than whatever the other input method(s) are for it. A chording keyboard consisting of half a dozen keys around the perimiter of the PDA would allow someone to hold it and input information 1 handed. It would seem to be a perfect match for a PDA... theoretically. But since most people already know how to type (not a problem with these children, as I said) and are afraid of learning a new system, no large PDA company has taken the chance on one. This might be a good opportunity to test them out and see just how hard or easy to use they really are. Even if they don't become popular with us adults who have become set in our ways, if it becomes popular with children's electronic devices then it will become popular with adults in 10+ years when those children have grown up.
It certainly also needs some kind of IR input/output like the Palm/Handsprings. A large stand alone IR transmitter/reciever so that a teacher or other such person could brodcast information to a whole class at once would be useful, too. For that matter, they'd be good at trade shows and presentations for palm/hanspring customers. "My business card, and accompanying notes for this presentation will be boadcast now, for those of you with compatible PDAs." Perhaps a jammer, to keep kids from using these to cheat on tests also. LOL
If you could make them so that it was easy to program your own applications for them using someting like BASIC (or even LOGO!, everyone remember that experiment.) or some other language that is designed to be easy for young people to learn so that even non-computer geek kids could write small applications for themselves, it would be interesting to see how many kids would do that.
Take the 3000 kids and implant them with a PDA. Just have a bunch of input and output wires strung all over their brains. 10 to 15 is too old, though; start them when they are babies (You'll have to be careful with the equipment as their body grows). As their brains are figuring out things like "oh, this connection moves my hand", it will also learn how to control the PDA, and interpret it's output (though some output, like a good strong shock, will be understood instinctively). Some of the kids PDA's could be linked together wirelessly so that the kids could "think" at each other. You would probably want to have several groups with different levels of interconnectedness and when this interconnectedness was turned on (you can't explain to a baby why someelse's thoughts are in their head, and since we don't know what this will do to them some groups should not have that feature turned on until they can understand the concept of other people), to see how much of a group mind they develop. This would be particularly interesting if at least one group was spread out geographically and/or culturally.
Perhaps some could be given baby toys that are remotely controled by the PDA, to see if that accellerates the speed with which their mind learns how to manipulate the PDA; I bet it would.
To me, what is inferred from the reference to Diamond Age is a technology that will change the children's lives, but _not_ in a conventional way. If I am correct in this, then suggestions like "send them to college" or "give them food" are entirely against the point.
The idea of the Primer in Diamond Age was simply to make little girls as "badass" as possible. One of the girls with the Primer joined a prominent illegal hacking network, for instance. The idea was to make the girls think for themselves, question authority, and in all ways get off the beaten path and transcend "society."
I don't think this is really the company's goal at all... and if it is, there's no way a PDA can accomplish this. To a child, a PDA's most interesting feature is the Snake game. It comes nowhere near an interactive, intelligent guide-to-life like the Primer.
I think that the better choice would be to give them an experience that they will not forget, that may shape some aspect of their lives. Two days is an incredibly short time for something like that, but here's an idea-- an extremely sophisticated version of laser tag on a gargantuan scale. Try thinking not of Diamond Age but of Ender's Game. See what kind of strategies 50 teams of 60 kids can come up with and make them battle each other. Maybe give them various materials/technological toys to work with, a variety of combat conditions, etc.... maybe one team would have to fight off two others from a superior defensive position. See what they try, and document it.
Each child would be working with 59 other children from various places around the world, so the cultural aspect is there. They would be learning-- not in the conventional way of "education," but in terms of critical thinking, cooperation, and problem solving. The technology is there with the laser tag system, and whatever other toys you can think of for them to use. Also, this would be damn fun.
Not sure if this is the kind of think you're looking for, but you could flesh it out if you wish.
actually, if the person using the symbolic language can't use it immediatly, they they have failed.
At the very least, the interface should allow anyone who can understand "See dick run" should be able to get out a basic sentence immediatly.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
hmmm... sounds good except I dont see how you could build a community in two days...
but it would be fun to work on the IT side of this project.
Let them experiment in first "training" an automated universal translation system, then evolve a consensual grammar, and use it to communicate.
Build in a cheap line scanner or camera for them to scan small pictures in, apply hand-written labels to them (initially just nouns, later adjectives, finally verbs), and transmit them to a database.
They also view a database of all entered pictures and apply labels to them - so a multi-language database of labels is created, and validated by multiple users.
They also view the database of pictures and link together ones they THINK might mean the same thing. With multiple inputs this begins to line the words written in different languages, allowing translation.
Let anyone enter a correction if they think someone has mislabelled a picture - first seeing if anyone else gave an alternative label and "voting" for that, or entering their own alternative label if not or if they disagree with all the other labels.
Hand writing recognition translates their writing to the closest matching picture(s) by matching to all labels and knowledge of which language they are writing in. That should allow them to write messages that get pictures added along with the best translation so far.
See how far they can get toward developing a universal translator and using it to converse and tell stories about themselves.
You might want to bootstrap it by initializing the database with lots of pictures and having two groups get a lot of words entered. That way when you go out to many languages, they won't have to spend as much time entering pictures, and focus on the labelling of pictures in their own language.
After labelling noun objects, they could do adjectives by labelling sets of objects shown together for contrast - different colored objects, different shaped objects, etc.
Same idea for verbs - label action pictures like "Boy throws ball", "girl chases chicken".
Obviously they'll need some sort of forum to "chat" in - perhaps a simplistic 2D "world" that they can fill with pictures (as part of the labelling process) and areas where they can chat are just special rooms where 2 to 4 kids can enter at a time, each with a few lines to display the text (or graphic when no translation is available). All screens would have a picture dictionary available.
After the experiment, roll the software out to anyone with a communicating computer or hand-held (open-source Java for most of it, so any company can translate it for their device), and let it continue to evolve.
Well, that's pretty crazy, but it might work. I wonder if the original poster will see it way down here?
whos talking about solutions for anyone...
CONSUMERS are what will save the future. Doncha know... look at the US - if you wanna be patriotic and show your support for the bombing of the rich kids in afghanistan from marin - then get out there and BUY BUY BUY.
as long as they are spending their money on products and not useless crap like food then the future is great.... for corps anyway.
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A zero sum game is a game that, by defination, someone is going to lose. Chess is a zero sum game. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ZESUGAM.html for more details.
/ ze rosum.html is a longer read with some more complex games. Well worth the time.
h tm
Non-zero sum games are something else altogether.
http://www.winwenger.com/part37.htm is a good read on this subject with an extremely simple zero sum game (on page 2)
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/eco/game
If you want some deeper insight, try http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~harsham/opre640A/partVI.
No Zen is good zen