[UbuntuWomen] Introduction

[Elizabeth Krumbach]

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 4:16 AM, Bill Day <williamson.day at gmail.com> wrote:
> I joined this list after reading Jared Spurbecks' article about efforts to
> promote the involvement of women in Free Software.  http://yhoo.it/fgOc5H
> Since the list encourages introductions,  I am offering one.  My particular
> interest stems from the fact that I am not only an Ubuntu user (although not
> a programmer) but also the father of two little girls, 5 and 7, who are very
> interested in their computers.  Unfortunately, their early interest in
> Ubuntu has cooled a bit since they have discovered a) proprietary software
> offers more games, and b) many web-based sites for kids are heavily
> dependent on ActiveX, which is not available on Ubuntu.  So I am hoping to
> pick up some ideas on making Free Software more interesting to the girls, as
> well as giving back what I can.

This thread is a couple weeks old now, but I wanted to chime in and
say that it's always nice to hear from parents who have young girls
interested in computers who want to encourage them.

My best recommendation is simply to keep that spark alive and always
offer them options, keep finding new software for them to try on every
operating system at home. This is what a lot of girls lack growing up
and it's vitally important for them to know that they have options and
are empowered to decide what they like and want to use and what works
best for them.

I also worked on a project at work recently to discover lists of
"edutainment" software and came up with the following links:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Edubuntu/AppGuide
http://edu.kde.org/
http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/
http://www.foogazi.com/2008/03/25/educational-linux-software-for-children/
http://osrevolution.com/os-misc/5-free-linux-kids-games-1-extra-available-ubuntu-fedora-opensuse-etc
http://www.brighthub.com/computing/linux/articles/43224.aspx

Good luck!

-- 
Elizabeth Krumbach // Lyz // pleia2
http://www.princessleia.com