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1. Comment - EA Open-Sources SimCity With $100 Laptop

   (Nov 11, 2007 - 9:26 AM)

   I'd like to correct a couple of factual errors in this story, and comment on the condescending negative tone of the author.
   
   "But the gift is not a version simply ported for use on OLPC's Linux platform. Though a multi-player educational version for Linux/X11 was developed several years ago, EA's gift is the original 1989 Sim City, open source."
   
   No, that's wrong. The gift was the source code of the multi-player educational version of SimCity that I ported from the Mac to Unix about 15 years ago, and more recently adapted to the OLPC.
   
   The multi-player support is still in there, but it is hard for kids to use, because it requires entering an IP address and disabling X11 network security. It can be turned back on by a command line switch, which is disabled by default. We decided to disable it for the time being just to get the game through Quality Assurance and out the door. But since it's open source, you can turn back on if you like.
   
   The mission is to rewrite the multi-player mode in terms of the OLPC's advanced mesh networking libraries, using a much more modern and efficient architecture than the X11 protocol used by the old multi-player mode.
   
   "While it may not be the children in third world countries adopting Sim City's blueprint to develop their own games, perhaps this means that versions of the game will be tailor-made to better suit the needs of children in developing countries."
   
   Seymour Papert and Alan Kay, whose philosophy of "Constructionism Education" is the guiding light of the OLPC project, have spent their lives teaching kids to program computers. The OLPC project has every intention of teaching kids in developing countries to program computers and create their own games.
   
   To imply that kids in "third world countries" can't learn to program just as well as kids anywhere, or that the developing countries aren't the ones who know best what their own needs are, is bigoted and condescending, and reeks of cultural imperialism.
   
   The whole point of the OLPC program using Open Source Software is so the countries using it can customize the software to their own needs.
   
   The goal of Constructionist Education is to teach people in developing countries to solve their own problems, design and program their own software, so they're not dependent on other countries who don't understand their needs.