Re: Debian Jr. readying for release
On Sat, Mar 16, 2002 at 08:29:57PM +0100, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:
> [Ben Armstrong]
> > Thanks, I linked to both the Norwegian and English pages.
>
> Thanks.
>
> What is the selection criteria used by Debian Jr. when choosing
> packages?
User recommendation. Personal testimony, valuing comments like
"this works will with our children" above "I think this would
be good for children". I try to use each package that goes into
Debian Jr. with very few exceptions before deciding to put it in.
(I have five children ranging from age 5 months to 11 years.)
Of course, my own children are only a small sample of the entire
user base, so some additional packages go in that, after discussion
on the debian-jr list or #debian-jr irc channel, we feel would
benefit other users.
> How to you make sure the packages are of high quality and
> useful from an pedagogic point of view?
To answer the first question, we rely very much on the observations
of the users. That's what bugs.debian.org is for. I keep a watchful
eye on bug reports and periodically review subgroups (the junior-
meta packages) to see if each package is living up to our standards.
If bugs are going unattended for long periods of time, we try to
get them resolved. If we cannot, we drop the offending packages and
seek alternatives.
To answer the second, we don't specifically have an education focus.
The project is more about finding whatever packages "work" with children
and provide enjoyment for the them. I would like to caution that this
does not mean we're focused on games. Far from it, our offerings cover
a broad spectrum of interests, from writing and drawing to math, astronomy,
and exploration of the rich resources on the web. There are so many
ways a computer can be enjoyed with children.
I'd further caution that just because I say we don't have an education focus
doesn't mean I'm not interested in including material useful for furthering
specific pedagogic goals. We certainly are. But I would rather provide as
broad as possible a selection of these materials and let the users decide
which are "highest quality" (aside from simply counting bugs) or "most
useful" and then convey this information back to us, rather than have the
project itself try to make those judgements on behalf of the users.
Thus, we'll try to include everything our users are saying works well for
them. If we get complaints that some package is particularly unusable or
inappropriate, then we will consider removing it. It is this constant user
feedback and diligent developer attention to what the users are saying
that ensures that Debian Jr. (just as with Debian as a whole) contains
high quality, useful packages.
Ben
--
nSLUG http://www.nslug.ns.ca synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
Debian http://www.debian.org synrg@debian.org
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