ScalableC

Description

ScalableC (www.scalablec.com) is an an on-line platform to share ideas, develop project blueprints and designs, and organize information and content through videos, audios, images and blogs for individuals, civil societies, governments and organizations. Our aim is to develop trust and collaboration among cooperation based organizations and civic societies to help do things at a larger scale by providing a platform for building up a collaborative learning eco-system. There are two kinds of accounts – organizational and individual accounts. Individual accounts are currently available on invitation only. For an organizational account, a member needs to be registered at ScalableC, and should be an affiliate of that organization to create its account. The member, who creates the organizational account for ScalableC, will be its on-line moderator and the point source of contact for the I.T. team of ScalableC for all matters. He/she can invite other members of the organization at ScalableC, and give them privileges to upload content at the organization’s page. You can upload, watch and share videos, images, audios; create blogs; develop project blueprints and designs; send and receive e-mail; and start an on-line group/community all at one platform as an individual or as an organization.

What do we deliver?

There are two kinds of accounts – organizational and individual accounts. Individual accounts are currently available on invitation only. For an organizational account, a member needs to be registered at ScalableC, and should be an affiliate of that organization to create its account. The member, who creates the organizational account for ScalableC, will be its on-line moderator and the point source of contact for the I.T. team of ScalableC for all matters. He/she can invite other members of the organization at ScalableC, and give them privileges to upload content at the organization’s page. You can upload, watch and share videos, images, audios; create blogs; develop project blueprints and designs; send and receive e-mail; and start an on-line group/community all at one platform as an individual or as an organization.

Whom we deliver?

Two of the projects currently using or associated with ScalableC are directly related to children education, and involve the XO laptop developed by OLPC (One Laptop Per Child). Digital Literacy Project is a non-profit Harvard students organization whose aim is to promote the integration of the XO laptop into classrooms. It seeks to do this by developing training material and curricula. Among their current projects is a pilot at the Nicaragua Deaf Association, in which they seek to improve accessibility to hearing-impaired children by developing course materials aimed at them. The members of this group are using ScalableC to develop and test videos in sign language through collaborative efforts. Another current use of the ScaableC platform which has seen contributions and efforts across international borders is a collaborative effort at developing and improving an educational software product. SocialCalc on Sugar is a spreadsheet activity developed for functioning in the Sugar environment, on which the XO laptops are based. The SocialCalc on Sugar community too is using ScalableC currently. A group has been started on ScalableC about SocialCalc on Sugar for educators, content engineers, translators and other professionals to develop case studies on using this software in schools, and also to collaborate on ideas related to developing curricula. Videos on using the charting tool have been uploaded on the ScalableC site. The importance of context is highlighted by this project, as some of the contributors do not have English as their first language. This underlines the importance of laying stress on videos. Educational efforts do not need to be dry and uninteresting. The Global Game Jam 2010, India, is a collaborative game development event. The theme for this year event in India is the development of games that are focused towards social good. This event is using ScalableC as an organizational forum for its collaborative game development efforts.

How is the project unique?

ScalableC has been started with the aim of building community around ideas. Many platforms exist for managing projects. ScalableC concentrates more on collaboration over innovative ideas for developing learning. Social software and the connective nature of the Web can be harnessed to build community around issues of importance. Learners of all groups and not just students of a formal education system should be able to benefit from the platform as well, by collaborating on projects that are oriented towards these issues. Open-source software development was an inspiration, as it encourages groups of dedicated individuals to come together and collaborate on projects. However, ScalableC not merely looks at software projects. Rather it concentrates on using technology in learning. It tries to serve as a base on which ideas about this concept, still relatively under-utilized in developing countries, can be formed and taken up to the blueprint stage.

Roadmap

ScalableC tries to enhance the undertones of collaborative development subtly. We consider that concepts related to sharing and associating with the community and the user base should inherently be there in the systems created. In view of this, we try our best to incorporate these goals in the features provided by ScalableC platform. An example of the feature we intend integrate to ScalableC is the blog aggregator, which would give people a platform to communicate with other like-minded individuals and groups, and be updated with the developments in their social network. Another major capability and also one of the challenges is to develop cloud computing project blueprints feature. Sharing ideas, reporting bugs, asking questions and requesting features should not be bounded to text based communication methods only if we want a wide participation from the users. It is easier for collaborators from diverse communities to use media like audio and video for effective expression than using text based communication methods.

Contact

Software for Education, Entertainment and Training Activities
Manu Sheel Gupta
WZ-106/72 Rajouri Garden Extension New Delhi – 110027
URL/Website – www.scalablec.com