stevef@bug.UUCP (Steven R Fordyce) (02/12/91)
I am interested in education and in seeing the Amiga be a big success. In these matters I have the following perceptions: 1. Commodore would like to sell to the education market. 2. There is not much educational software for the Amiga and what there is is not very good (actually, none of the educational software I've seen for any computer is very good, with the exception of the "Where in X is Carmen Sandiego" series from Broderbund). 2.5 The lack of educational software holds back Amiga sales in this market. 3. The Amiga is uniquely suited to education. 4. The Amiga has attracted an exceptionally large and talented group of programmers who produce public domain software. 5. A lot of their effort is not well focused and is spent on re-inventing the wheel and writing demos. 6. Contests are very good way to get a lot of people to work on a problem cheaply. With all of this in mind, I think there is a way to bring the Amiga's strenths to bear on this weakness: Commodore should hold a contest for the best new public domain educational software. This would be good publicity for Commodore, who could claim to be doing it for "our children", and it wouldn't have to cost them much as they could give Amiga's for prizes. The educational potential of computers has barely been touched. At the same time, schools don't have a lot of money to spend on software, so there has not been a lot of commercial development. Using a contest to develop software gets around this problem, and holds the potential of really helping education (lord knows it needs all the help it can get). I've wanted to write Commodore with this idea for some time, but I didn't know who to write, so I thought I'd post it to the NET to see what you all think about it. -- uunet!sequent!ether!bug!stevef I am the NRA Steven R. Fordyce
peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (02/14/91)
This sounds like an excellent idea, and a hell of a lot more useful for the average user. Remember that the Amiga students are most likely to have is sold with only 512K, so separate awards for 512K and 1M Amigas would be a good idea. Same with single and double floppy machines. That's about how the BKDC works, anyway... -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.
u3364521@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au (Lou Cavallo) (02/14/91)
G'day, In article <494@bug.UUCP>, stevef@bug.UUCP (Steven R Fordyce) writes: > [...] > With all of this in mind, I think there is a way to bring the Amiga's strenths > to bear on this weakness: Commodore should hold a contest for the best new > public domain educational software. This would be good publicity for > Commodore, who could claim to be doing it for "our children", and it wouldn't > have to cost them much as they could give Amiga's for prizes. > [...] Stephen, I _really_ like this idea of yours and if my own vocal support can in anyway help some CBM staffers that read followups (I hope there will be) to your note to feel there's support for your idea, then I'm offering it now. I also wanted to mention that CBM Australia (I hope I have this correct) in the last year took part in sponsoring a competition for the best (original) software program developed in Australia. So, I believe there has been 1 (at least) precedent for this sort of thing. I feel however that this idea is much better! Perhaps the scope could be enlarged to allow various types of entry, a) individual entries (classified by age and schooling level, e.g. elementary, high school, university) b) team (school based/supported) entries (e.g. for classroom type projects, this could stimulate Amiga sales for competition use and perhaps more importantly, schools may feel that CBM really does try to support them where it counts, with good software) c) commercial s/w company entries (some companies may really want the title of "Winner of Best Commercial Education Software Award") `CBM', how does Steven's idea appeal to you? yours truly, Lou Cavallo. PS: What a novel concept, using the .advocacy newsgroup for thoughtful reasoned proposals that relate to the enhancement/advancement of Amiga futures. Well done Steven.
Classic_-_Concepts@cup.portal.com (02/17/91)
Re: encouraging Commodore to sponsor an educational software contest
They just did. The deadline for their AmigaVision script contest was in
mid January. Apparently they were flooded with entries. This would
indicate:
- There are people developing educational apps
- There is interest in educational apps
- Commodore IS interested in encouraging educational apps
So, from a diplomatic point of view--rather than suggest this as a *new*
idea, perhaps Commodore could be encouraged to repeat the contest, maybe
on an annual basis? The reason I am in favor of annual contests is that
there are many activities competing for our time: AmigaWorld Animation
Contest; AVVideo Amiga graphic contest; AmigaVision Contest, Italian
Animation Contest, Compute!'s programming contest. Programming and
animating take LOTS of time. Knowing WELL in advance helps you to choose
which ones to put your effort towards and gives you time to plan/execute
your entries.
So, if you plan to talk to Commodore, then express appreciation for them
having sponsored the contest which ended in January. Encourage them to
work through users groups to help plan deadline dates (Christmas really is
NOT a good time, Commodore and AV Video ...) and to publish dates, etc. in
Users' group newsletters. Encourage them to work WITH the other groups
sponsoring contests so we don't get conflicts or too many too close together.
And finally, indicate to them that there's enough interest that they should
probably do it again. After all, judging the current entries is probably a
big learning experience which could be carried over into future planning.
Julie Petersen
PS. Hmm, perhaps we need a list of current contests and their dates ...
This is purely from memory, but how's this for a start ...
AmigaWorld Expo Art and Video Contest March 1st?
Badge Killer Demo Contest ca. Oct.
AmigaWorld Animation Contest ca. Nov.
AV Video Amiga Graphics Contest ca. Dec.
Italian Animation Contest spring?
Compute's programming contest fall?
ACM Siggraph anyone know?
Commodore AmigaVision Contest mid-Jan.
Looks like there are perhaps too many clustered around Christmas. Perhaps th
organizers would like to think about this ...peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (02/17/91)
In article <39350@cup.portal.com> Classic_-_Concepts@cup.portal.com writes: > They just did. The deadline for their AmigaVision script contest was in > mid January. This doesn't count, since AmigaVision won't run even as a player in the low end Amigas, and I must admit to considerable doubt as to its viability in even a 1 meg machine. We'll see what sort of scripts come out of this, but any real educational software contest must include an under 512K category, and not be restricted to AmigaVision. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.