[Edu-sig] Tracing the Dynabook: A Dissertation

[Bert Freudenberg]

Am Jan 19, 2007 um 14:10  schrieb Arthur:

> And with it I could plug into what the academics and scientists had  
> been
> doing, because that is a culture more about the sharing of ideas  
> and the
> competition of ideas than about the selling of ideas.
>
> While Kay is a product, very much, of the corporate world - Apple,
> Disney, HP.  It shows in everything he is about.

Now *that* is bordering on FUD.

The research of Kay's group always was pretty much independend of  
their sponsors. Which product of Apple, Disney, or HP is based on  
Squeak? Uses Etoys? Etc.? The Squeak license was carefully crafted  
when they were leaving Apple to ensure openness of the base system  
*even* when your employer is, of all, Disney. Disney as a corporation  
surely abhors the idea of giving kids a creative tool. Nevertheless,  
this is precisely what they were working on (actually at Disney  
Imagineering, which is to Disney Corp. pretty much as Microsoft  
Research is to Microsoft).

Implying that Kay's work as a scientist is somehow against sharing  
and competition of ideas is an insult. It's not a grass-roots  
movement like Linux, this is true. But that alone is not enough to  
put him into the "bad corporate marionette" corner either. You picked  
the wrong foe.

- Bert -