[game_edu] UK/EU Playpower People (part 2: how much?)

[Mike Reddy]

My estimate of cost per unit is about £20 to us in bulk to the UK,  
including shipping and customs charges, which means needing £2000 in  
donations. A small additional cost for P&P, say £10 but could be less,  
for getting individual orders out to people, means we could provide  
"at cost" seed machines for developers for £30 or less; if my estimate  
is high and customs and shipping are lower, the reduced cost will be  
passed on to purchasers or the difference donated to playpower, which  
is why we would only be expecting a pledge of £20 initially. If you  
compare this with VTec kids toy computers that do far less for £60,  
it's clear that in the long term there is a market even in Europe for  
affordable "real" computers! Anyone interested in Serious or  
Educational Games, or wanting to encourage Creative IT skills in young  
people should be getting involved. Schools and computer clubs with  
limited resources would benefit, and old TVs would have reuse  
potential! Universities that teach Game Programming and Electronic  
Engineering could ultimately use these as an affordable platform for  
low-level programming and hardware hacking; hey, isn't Retro the new  
Black?

It's early days, but with IT professionals involved the playpower  
dream of capable and affordable computers for everyone is possible. If  
you are interested in donating/sponsoring or pledging to purchase a TV  
Computer please contact me.
--
Dr. Mike Reddy, Future Technology, Games Development and A.I.,  
Division of Computing, Newport Business School, University of Wales,  
Newport, Allt-yr-yn Campus, PO Box 180 Newport South Wales NP20 5XR
Tel: +44 (0) 1633 432452 Fax: +44 (0)1633 432307 Mob: +44 (0)7971 170 199 
   Email: mike.reddy @ newport.ac.uk (remove spaces)

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