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(a)rogers.com> Reply-To: Principal Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in> To: Principal Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in> CC: Anil Laul <anillaul(a)vsnl.com>om>, karmayog <karmayog(a)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 _______________________________________________ Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends