[LUAU] Schools and the OPM Addiction

[Jim Thompson]

Can't someone put the Sugar interface on top of non OLPC boxes, and  
make a distro out of it?   That would get allow HOSEF to pitch  
Hawaii's schools on a OLPC-like setting (the sizzle) on desktops  
without having to sell the steak (FLOSS).

Or perhaps Bishop Estate / Cambell Estate / Kaneohe Ranch could be  
persuaded to buy OLPCs for youth in Hawaii Homelands housing, or HOSEF  
could find the grants to purchase and administrate OLPC programs to  
reach Hawaii's disadvantaged youth.   Maybe Kamehameha school students  
could BOGO, with the "GO" going to a disadvantaged Hawaiian youth.

Yes, its OPM.

Play the game from the inside, not the outside.

Maybe we could revive Kuokoa then.

Jim

On Dec 1, 2007, at 12:07 PM, R. Scott Belford wrote:

> I fear that far too often good-willed and well-intending education  
> advocates fail to fully understand the extent of OPM addiction in  
> the American education system.  More successful advocates have  
> learned to enable the use of OPM within the schools.  They fund this  
> addiction with enticing technology trinkets and strong-armed  
> contractual agreements.
>
> OPM, Other People's Money, is a delight to use.  It feels so good,  
> and it spends so well.  It is not to be confused with what most of  
> us are left with, Money.  It is hard to come by, painful to spend,  
> and there never seems to be enough of it.  When using OPM you'll  
> take two of whatever, and make it a deluxe.  When using M, you clip  
> coupons.
>
> If you would like to succeed in helping most schools and education  
> systems, experience shows that they need you to facilitate their OPM  
> use.  You must appreciate their appetite is voracious, and that if  
> they do not use their entire hoard of OPM each year, they don't get  
> more next year, as promised.  Successful vendors succeed by  
> supplying schools with OPM on a consistent and reliable basis.
>
> This is where the conspiracy lies, so take it for what it is worth.  
> Some vendors offer luscious, enticing hardware that everyone wants.  
> Though they use some fruit as their name, they still succeed in  
> getting schools to eagerly adorn themselves in their regal iJewelry.  
> Understanding how important it is for the children to see their  
> schools wearing only the best, the public eagerly supplies  
> sufficient OPM without question.  Some is sold off to Vendors who in  
> turn build more eye iJewlery.  It could be, and it does get, worse.
>
> Sometimes the OPM trade is a bit more ugly.  For those with  
> squeamish stomachs, please put down your bialy.  Some Vendors have  
> managed to enslave our schools in barbed chains of sophisticated  
> contractual agreements.  In order to get the DEHLENIB hardware  
> necessary to adorn themselves, they must commit to consecutive years  
> wearing the same undergarments.  In the past they could at least  
> change these undergarments or add new hardware trinkets.  Now they  
> are contractually forbidden to make such hygiene changes.  This  
> becomes smelly.
>
> It is true that there are some schools that are trying to Free  
> themselves from this OPM addiction.  All the OPM abuse has given  
> them very bad teeth, and now they need FLOSS.  They are looking for  
> the kind-hearted souls out there willing to help them stay OPM Free  
> and well FLOSSed. This is where many of the more benevolent among us  
> have invested our passions.  However, we must appreciate that these  
> recovering schools are usually the least capable of stopping the  
> abuse of OPM in their districts, regardless of how noble and  
> economical their story.
>
> So to you I say learn to use OPM, but find a way to ween our blinded  
> and addicted schools.  Forgive them for they know not what they do.  
> Instead, show them how FLOSSing can actually help them to spend  
> their OPM on other things, like more counselors and educators.   
> While they too may be OPM users, perhaps they won't be.  If properly  
> educated, our youth don't have to be OPM users.
>
> By reaching out to our youth and our college students in non- 
> academic environments(1), they can see the benefits of FLOSSing  
> instead of using OPM.  They will eventually be hired by those  
> schools you have taken to lunch, intoxicated with OPM, and adorned  
> with your own FLOSS filled Trinkets.  You never know when they may  
> want to open them up for a little cleaning.
>
> --scott
>
> (1)http://www.youtube.com/sctinc
>
> -- 
> R. Scott Belford
> Founder/Executive Director
> The Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation
> P.O. Box 2644
> Ewa Beach, HI 96706
> 808.689.6518 phone/fax
> scott at hosef.org
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