GCompris, an official GNU Project providing educational software for children aged 2-10 years, announced the release of version 8.4 today. Changes include upgrading to the GPLv3, as well as major structural changes. And lead developer, Bruno Coudoin, says the project could use some help.

One of the major changes to GCompris includes separating the voices to a different SVN module, as well as recording voices in a lower bitrate to reduce th size of tarballs. Support for Africaans has been added. Additionally, several bugs were fixed. In a comment to Blue GNU, Coudoin lamented that no new activities had been added, saying that "unless we get contributions, this won't change for the upcoming 8.5 release."

GCompris, according to Coudoin, is a bit like a game engine, which he and another developer maintain. Most of the activities are contributed by other developers, who then move on to other projects, leaving the maintenance of their modules to the two GCompris developers. Yet, more activities are needed to benefit children generally, but also those who will receive the One Laptop Per Child computers.

Improving the overall program and making it suitable to the needs of the One Laptop Per Child project is, in and of itself, a huge undertaking. Thus, the project relies on external contributors to provide the individual activities. Developers with a well-rounded education, and perhaps a gaming background, who are looking for a challenge might find it fun to generate multiple activities to help children learn the Three R's and beyond.