[Discuss] Encouraging Children to Explore Open Source

[drew.vanzandt at gmail.com (Drew Van Zandt)]

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Drew Van Zandt
Cam # US2010035593 (M:Liam Hopkins R: Bastian Rotgeld)
Domain Coordinator, MA-003-D.  Masquerade aVST
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On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 9:25 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro+blu at gmail.com> wrote:

> Chris O'Connell wrote:
> > I have a couple of the Genesi smart boxes hanging around...
>
> So that's a small ARM-based computer? One of these?
> http://www.genesi-tech.com/products
>
>
> > I'm afraid he may be overwhelmed however.
>
> Perhaps. I'm not familiar with the Genesi product line and what
> community it has around it. With some hardware devices there is a big
> enough community that most of the hard stuff has been taken core of. You
> just pick an OS, download it to an SD card, and boot up. How complicated
> things get then depend on the OS (or distribution) you chose.
>
> A Raspberry Pi might be a better choice, due to the community factor:
> http://www.raspberrypi.org/
>
> (Looks like this board now has its own dedicated magazine,
> http://www.themagpi.com/. That'll give you an idea of the size of the
> community around it.)
>
>
> > ...why would someone so young like to play with a somewhat primitive
> > Gnome interface when they have an Android Tablet and a Windows laptop
> > at their disposal?
>
> I would guess much the same reasons as any other inquisitive hacker-type
> would: greater control and capability. The ability to tinker is more
> important than heaving a ready-to-use solution.
>
> For a kid accomplished enough to be modifying hardware without much
> adult assistance, I'd say they have the persistence to learn what they
> need to about Linux or whatever in order to accomplish what they want.
>
> Never underestimate what a kid can do if they are willing to spend the
> time on it. The author of this blog posting:
> http://eviltrout.com/2012/12/30/programming-since-i-was-seven.html
>
> started programming when he was 7, and impressed the adults around him,
> but in retrospect he see what he did as pretty straight forward and
> mostly a byproduct of being fortunate enough to have the equipment and
> the luxury to spend vast quantities of time playing around with it.
>
>
> > Can anyone recommend any ways/programs/resources to encourage interest in
> > Open Source to a kid of this age?
>
> How about a subscription to Make Magazine? (http://makezine.com/)
>
> They also have a catalog of kits you can browse by difficulty (this link
> shows the easiest): http://kits.makezine.com/complexity/1/
>
> where you'll find stuff like littleBits:
> http://kits.makezine.com/2011/11/14/littlebits-starter-kit/
>
> a modular electronics construction kit, though it sounds like he might
> be beyond that.
>
> I hear Lego has some new robotics kits that use open source:
>
> http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/06/lego-mindstorms-ev3-the-better-faster-stronger-generation-of-robotic-programming/
>
>   The system runs on Linux-based firmware and sports USB and SD ports.
>   Of course, as Lego gets more and more comfortable in the software
>   space, integration with iOS and Android is to be expected straight out
>   of the box, along with a 3D virtual instructional guide available on
>   the iPad.
>
> But they're expensive. $200+.
>
> These are all fairly hardware-centric suggestions, based on the
> background you described, but obviously there are an infinite choice of
> activities to get into open source software development that are purely
> software.
>
> How about learning how to create games for Android?
>
> https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/theTechTrek/entry/creating_a_simple_android_game_using_andengine1?lang=en
>
>  -Tom
>
> --
> Tom Metro
> Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
> "Enterprise solutions through open source."
> Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/
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