[PataPata-discuss] Current status and plans related to PataPata

[Paul D. F. <pdf...@ku...>]

The last note prompts me to write this update on what I am currently up to 
and how PataPata fits into that.

Right now, I'm mainly working on another SourceForge project of mine, now 
called the Pointrel Social Semantic Desktop:
   http://sourceforge.net/projects/pointrel/
The code is only in SVN right now (not as a downloadable package, sorry):
   http://pointrel.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/pointrel/
This latest version support a desktop client in Jython/Java and a cgi server 
for coordination and sharing in Python. But it is still in its early stages, 
of course, with all the usual caveats. It is perhaps most easily thought of 
as a system for collaboratively constructing shared RDF files, like the 
bigger picture described here by someone else:
   http://www.semanticdesktop.org/

Also, that infrastructure in turn is intended to support work on the OSCOMAK 
  project (which stands for "Open Source Communities Organizing 
Manufacturing Knowledge", or perhaps "OSCOMAK Semantically-interlinked 
Communities Organizing Manufacturing-related Know-how").
   http://www.oscomak.net/

One such community I have been participating in is OpenVirgle (related to 
space habitation, and a spinoff from one of Google's April Fools jokes):
   http://www.openvirgle.net/

OSCOMAK currently has up a Halo Semantic MediaWiki, but I think I would 
rather have something more desktop-oriented and Java-oriented which includes 
tools for simulation, analysis, programming, version control, and content 
creation. I have submitted a Buckminster Fuller Challenge entry related to that:
   "OSCOMAK BFI Contest entry"
   http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/msg/c2bda71ba04a31a0

So, I still continue to hope to develop code that supports some of the 
ideals of PataPata (or Squeak and Self), perhaps with the PataPata project 
depending on the Pointrel project base, and then being used to develop 
things for OSCOMAK and OpenVirgle. But the things I thought about with 
PataPata, including focusing on Java and Jython, are in turn benefiting the 
Pointrel project and the others, so there is some interplay back and forth 
already, kind of like a Miriam Makeba song. :-) Or, today, I should put a 
sad face on that sentiment as in the previous message: :-(

So, I roughly have this stack of technologies in my mind as a dream for open 
manufacturing, where each level builds on the one below it:

OpenVirgle & Appropedia & LUF 2.0 & other Open Manufacturing communities
OSCOMAK tools
PataPata Environment
Pointrel Social Semantic Desktop (coordination over http)
Java and Jython

For homeschooling or the OLPC or even in progressive school classrooms, this 
would be another stack, differing at the top.

Educational Content & Learning Tools
PataPata Environment
Pointrel Social Semantic Desktop (coordination over http)
Java and Jython

That educational content and learning tools would be inspired and maybe draw 
content from Squeak & eToys, OLPC & Sugar, and Wikipedia, as well as other 
sources.

Anyway, that's just some general thinking out loud right now; we'll see how 
it works out.

--Paul Fernhout