[BlindMath] help with website name

[John Gardner]

Hi, I may be just dense, but I don't get it. What will you offer that is not
available on this list? If an archive of directed information is needed, I
am happy to offer access2science.com as a web site to post hints and
instructions. There is already a lot there, though I must admit it has not
been updated enough since it was first put together. Anybody want to
volunteer to join the editorial staff?

John Gardner


-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lukasz
Grabowski via BlindMath
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2017 8:06 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Cc: Łukasz Grabowski <graboluk at gmail.com>
Subject: [BlindMath] help with website name

Hi all,

I will soon be starting a (paid) webservice for visually impaired STEM
students, whose initial aim will be providing interfaces to open-source
software which are specifically designed for visually impaired people (in
case you're interested what's the service about, I describe it briefly
below, but it's an early stage).

I spent way too much time thinking about a name :-). For now I chose Blind
Monad.  

All the guides I read about choosing the domain name suggest to check with
target demographics how they like it. So - do you like it? :-) It's somewhat
inspired by the name of this group. 

The word monad has many meanings but in the branch of maths called category
theory monad is something which in particular describes interactions.
Similarly in computer science monad is a concept which can be used for
description of user interfaces, etc. A friend told me it's a bad name
because noone will know what is a monad. I get the point but perhaps on the
other hand it invokes your curiosity? :-)



Here are some very early details about the service. I came up with this idea
after a recent private conversation with another group member Zach - it was
clear that the problem he had, producing a diagram of a biochemical
reaction, can be fairly easily solved by using open-source software. But the
problem is having access to linux, configuring orca or other linux screen
reader correctly, learning to interact with compilers, etc. 

So the idea is that perhaps at first one could use a web-based front-end,
and then if one thinks that it's a good idea, invest time and resources into
configuring their own computer. The kind of things I want to provide access
to are e.g. latex and latexml, python, octave (clone of matlab), DOT
language for graphs, etc. plus "tailor-made"
interfaces if you want to solve some specific problem quickly. When I say
"tailor-made" I really mean that the user would describe the way how they
would prefer to interact with the website to solve a concrete problem (e.g.
producing a diagram of a biochemical reaction), and then we work together to
come up with an efficient interface.

In other words if you're a technically savvy person there's probably not
much in the above which you couldn't do yourself.
Also the service will not be meant to "hook you", but rather introduce you
to a technology in a most efficient fashion and encourage to explore it on
your own (perhaps on your own computer). At a later stage I would perhaps
also like to offer 1-1 "tutoring" in usage of latex, octave, etc. but will
see where it goes.

Best,
Lukasz

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