[Fsf-friends] educational software for children--townplanning

[Kush]

Hi all,

Nowadays a lot of kids of middle class, upper middle class and rich 
sections of society play video/computer games which have a lot of 
violence etc in them. These games are generally expensive and very 
addictive plus they make children self centered and unable to think of 
working in a team or group. (sense of getting inputs from the community 
is not there as collaboration is not a part of the game)

Lincity (or similar games) could be  a way to motivate a child to the 
profession of town planning which is a very specialised job right now 
and in the hands of an elite few leading to a lot of lost inputs from 
the general populace. The mess in urban areas is a result of too few 
fossilised thinkers at the top who have a lot of power but paucity of ideas.

Once children are introduced to such games which call for inputs from 
others (maybe at a later stage) and once such games become commonplace, 
more and more people will start participating in town and country 
planning processes far more easily than at present.

I hope ngos and software developers can both think of such better ways 
to educate the newer generation and take away the dread of a specialised 
occupation by building even better games and user interfaces. Such games 
taken at a young stage could easily launch a child into a career and 
give them a headstart. Parents would also like to see children doing 
something constructive even while playing computer games.

Besides several offshoots of such games can take place such as easily 
designing a place of residence etc (profession of architect, civil 
engineer, structural engineer, interior designer, landscape artist, GIS 
planners etc etc) There is a lot of scope in this idea for people in the 
game/educational software business.

Kush

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[Fsf-friends] city planning--application software
Date: 	Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:34:14 -0400
From: 	Kush <be_a_sport at rogers.com>
Reply-To: 	Principal Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends at mm.gnu.org.in>
To: 	Principal Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends at mm.gnu.org.in>
CC: 	Anil Laul <anillaul at vsnl.com>, karmayog <karmayog at yahoogroups.com>



Hi all,

Is there any site which rates open source application softwares in 
various categories? e.g. I was trying to find applications under town 
planning etc and I found only one working application software which has 
not been improved after 2004 or so.(looks like the development has stopped)

The application is known as http://lincity.sourceforge.net/ and after 
playing it in ubuntu one can see it is entry level and not like the 
commercial simcity game. Still town planning is a very specialised 
occupation and it will become increasingly relevant as more and more 
parts of India get urbanised.

Allowing such FREE tools in the hands of youngsters and the youth will 
only lead to better plans, debates, creativity and decision making as 
town planning impacts so many areas for a better quality of life. Its 
time we start thinking strategically on key applications such as these 
to make India and the world a better place.

Maybe then such imaginative scenarios can be added to real gis maps etc. 
http://www.freemap.in/ is an effort in that direction (for the city of 
mumbai) but it leaves much to be desired as the data used is faulty or 
outdated.

Kush



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