Vinux needs people to work with the script, but right now development is really unorganized. There is a sort of to-do list which has a lot of invalid points, and apparently a "tutorial" has to be written for people to read the scripts taht are there. I'd love to contribute to that, but it seems a bit of a pain since no one knows what actually needs to be done.
On 4/8/2011 5:23 AM, Homme, James wrote:
Hay Storm,I thought I read that the Blinux project needs shell programmers. Is that correct?Jim Jim Homme, Usability Services, Phone: 412-544-1810. Skype: jim.hommeHighmark recipients, Read my accessibility blog <http://mysites.highmark.com/personal/lidikki/Blog/default.aspx>. Discuss accessibility here <http://collaborate.highmark.com/COP/technical/accessibility/default.aspx>. Accessibility Wiki: Breaking news and accessibility advice <http://collaborate.highmark.com/COP/technical/accessibility/Accessibility%20Wiki/Forms/AllPages.aspx>*From:*programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Storm Dragon*Sent:* Thursday, April 07, 2011 3:30 PM *To:* programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx*Subject:* Re: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind programmersHi,If this gets going I would like to teach. Maybe entry level shell programming (Bash). sounds like a great idea.Thanks Storm --Vinux Publicity CoordinatorRegistered Linux user number 508465: http://counter.li.org/ My blog, Thoughts of a Dragon: http://www.stormdragon.us/ Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stormdragon2976 "Have you ever been alone at night, thought you heard footsteps behind, and turned around and no one's there? And as you quicken up your pace you'll find it hard to look again because you're sure that someone's there." Iron Maiden On Thu, 2011-04-07 at 12:02 -0400, Bill Cox wrote:This is still in the dumb-idea phase, and I don't have any fundinglined up to get this started. That said...I have not been able to find any on-line school for teaching blindpeople to become professional programmers. I feel the world needs such an organization. I am not able to start such a school myself, but I would be interested in assisting social entrepreneurs in starting such a venture. I it would best be implemented as a for-profit social entrepreneurial venture. You can read about social entrepreneurs here:http://www.ashoka.org/social_entrepreneur http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_entrepreneurship I'm thinking it could be a Low Profit Corporation (LPC) founded to runthe school for a profit. Everyone hired in teaching or management would be vision impaired or blind. Students would attend classes on-line, and could be anywhere in the world. Classes would not be free (maybe $1,000 per 1-semester course?). Students who are too poor to pay would be expected to do well in their courses and make up their fees by assisting teaching of those courses in later semesters. They might also be required to work for an associated consulting company to earn tuition. Students would be encouraged to help mentor each other in any case.Associated with the school could be a software consulting servicescompany. The company would only hire vision impaired programmers, and students wanting to work for the company could take classes designed to train them in the skills they'll need. The company might encourage it's employees to spend one day a week on FOSS projects of their interest, which hopefully would include improving accessibility.Rough numbers to back up the idea: There are around 15 million peoplewith "severe" vision impairments in the US. Roughly half of those people are too old. Half of the rest may have other impairments that would prevent them from becoming programmers. In the general population, there are 1 programmer out of every 500 people in the US. I would expect a ratio at least that high among the blind, or about 7,500 professional programmers in the US alone. If we took 20 years to train that many, it'd be 375 new students per year, and assuming a two year program, we'd have 750 students. If only half paid the class fees, but took three classes at a time (a full load), that'd be $3,000*750*2 = $4.5 million per year. My kids go to a school which happens to have about 750 students and a budget of just over $4 million per year, and that includes paying for a school. So, that math seems to work out, but we're not talking about anyone making a billion dollars in this effort. This is not a VC-fundable idea, but it might attract funding from groups that invest in socially beneficial startups.I know a couple of good candidates to start this school, and one mightbe interested in actually doing it. Are there any good blind or vision impaired people you guys could recommend for me to talk to? I think the key would be finding the right couple of guys.Thanks,Bill __________ View the list's information and change your settings at//www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind This e-mail and any attachments to it are confidential and are intended solely for use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and then delete it. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not keep, use, disclose, copy or distribute this e-mail without the author's prior permission. The views expressed in this e-mail message do not necessarily represent the views of Highmark Inc., its subsidiaries, or affiliates.
-- Thanks, Ty
