Ideas

Could you explain some more practical situations? Why and when should I use this?

Sounds nice, I'm not sure if this has been done already... I tought I've heard something like this... I'll take a look for you.

Someone once told me that Microsoft Windows wasn't built with security in mind simply because security wasn't an issue until people started finding their way to the Internet. Slapping on a couple firewall and av patches certainly helps secure a system, but any Linux fanatic will tell you that it simply doesn't compare to a system built on security from the ground up.

But security is only one part of the "multi-user puzzle" that is the Internet. In a similar vein we've slapped on a couple instant messaging and file sharing patches, but we've yet to approach the Internet as a community "from the ground up." Even though redeveloping Windows is out of the question, redesigning your Internet connection is not.

To answer your question, Goosie: Your practical situation begins when you connect to the Internet. Instead of clicking on some generic list of connections, you are presented with communities of real people who are signed on in your local area. This is a big leap forward in how we view the virtual world -- one that we should strive to understand better before teaching it to our OLPC children.

I love the idea of a Shared Desktop Community in the Cube Hell I call Work. We connect with one another and share our experiences when we pass each other by in the halls, but disappear behind a padded gray wall for the majority of the day without any interaction.

To extend this human connection to the impersonal, blind sided box that I call my PC would be a God send to a world which is slipping further into virtualization. We KNOW we're doing something wrong by simply looking at our relationships with others. The SDC is an excellent solution!

I feel intuitively that there's something interesting about this, but I agree Goosie's implicit point that there's just something opaque about it. Maybe it just needs more explanation or something, or more examples like Goosie suggests. You're language doesn't seem THAT technical, but nevertheless I feel like I don't 'get it', but do feel like you know what you're talking about.

I actually just saw something on techcrunch.com the other day that seems like it might be relevant. check out the part about wixi.com on this post: http://tinyurl.com/3aa35v

What helped bring the idea together for me was MMO Communities (Massively Multiplayer Online Communities).

The process was invariably the same:

I began by clicking on an desktop icon and selected the server on which to play. Once I was connected to the MMO server I would select my character and magically appear in the "virtual universe."

I see the same model being much more useful for a SDC. The process would begin BEFORE connecting to the Internet, allowing me to select from a list of available networks, and see how many people are connected through the hub.

Once I've selected an available network, my current desktop would be replaced with a shared desktop. (For Linux/Gnome users: Imagine the desktop selection feature.) This would give me access to the shared files and applications of those currently connected to the SDC.

If you're unsure of how a multi-user interface would work, I would start by blaming Microsoft and their Crusade for Digital Rights. To learn more about multi-user environments, I would recommend looking further into the ideology behind the One Laptop Per Child Interface. Here's a demo:

http://www.ivr-usabi...y.com/olpc/olpc.html

I am still missing the why and who?

I fail to see the reason for SDC to replace or augment anything.

Online file storage services already exist, Microsoft (eek) already provides the remote desktop client and server applications to support multiple users on a single host simultaneously, and finally there are many collaboration software packages that support desktop sharing, whiteboards, etc.

So, what differentiates this product?

The challenge of this idea is understanding exactly why the One Laptop Per Child project would choose to develop their own operating system as opposed to simply removing components of the Edubuntu UI.

What I believe is missing the logic that makes sense of the "Massively Multi-User Environment." While there are many tools which allow us to communicate, none offer a "new world to explore" as much as they do a narrow perspective of one particular facet of the Internet.

Without having much experience with the OLPC UI, most of what I envision comes from my experiences with MMOs such as Second Life and the World of Warcraft. When I log in I am transported to another world -- not simply reading instant messages from my friends.

I want the same experience when I log into the Internet. I want to be transported to a global experience and see the people who are logged in to a local server so that I can meet a random stranger and work with my peers, sharing all the files and applications that I see fit.

Being that many of these tools exist in one form or another, then the objective should be to construct an "Internet Connectivity App" similar to the OLPC UI which gathers all the components and puts them together into concise application. Just makes this idea that much easier to accomplish!

[BREAKING NEWS] The world is changing and online applications are becoming more and more popular, whether for e-mail or word processing. The developers behind Bigboard and Gnome's "online desktop" initiative think it's time our desktops started catching up.

http://fedoraproject...erviews/ColinWalters