[BlindMath] help with website name

[Cassie Kilroy Thompson]

Lukas, if I understand you correctly, you are talking about creating a
virtual desktop environment configured with the things that others need to
access.  Is that correct?  While I am not a blind user, it sounds like a
terrific idea.

As to the name, monad means different things in different jargon worlds.
It can refer to chromosomes, to philosophy, to interactions, and to
category theory, among others.  So monad might be too ambiguous.

~~Cassie
Cassie Kilroy Thompson
Advising & Accessibility Specialist, Office of Student Disability Services
*email*: mthomps2 at umbc.edu

*Office Phone*: 410-455-3248
sds.umbc.edu

*Mailing address*:
1000 Hilltop Circle
SDS, 2nd floor Math/Psych Building
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Baltimore, Maryland  21250
********************************


On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 11:05 AM, Łukasz Grabowski via BlindMath <
blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> BlindMath mailing list
> BlindMath at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> BlindMath:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/mthomps2%40umbc.edu
> BlindMath Gems can be found at <http://www.blindscience.org/
> blindmath-gems-home>
>