Archive/Current Events/2010-09-12

Sugar Digest
1. I wrote about a discussion with John Gilmore in April. When John asked how many patches have been contributed by Sugar end-users, I responded that community members have contributed patches but that I was unaware of any patches contributed by children. I went on to argue that it is not relevant whether or not patches are submitted or accepted. The learning happens in creating the patch and in submitting it or sharing it with a friend. Hopefully, Sugar has instilled in children and their teachers the sense that they can be expressive with computing.

That said, the children are being creative with Sugar in ways that I had not anticipated. For example, Bernie shared this image from Caacupé of a surprising and wonderful use of the nickname field in Sugar. It may not be a patch to the Python code, but it certainly is a user contribution that extends and enhances Sugar, a great first step for a sixth grader.

2. In the US, there is a mid-term election in November. At Sugar Labs, we will be holding our mid-term election in October in order to fill three oversight board positions. (You may recall that we agreed to stagger the two-year terms of the board so that 3 or 4 positions are up for reelection every year.)

We have several tasks associated with election:

(1) Updating our member list, which is used to generate ballots. If you are already a member of Sugar Labs, your name will appear on the list and you will receive a ballot by email in October. If you are not a member and would like to be, please contact Luke Faraone, our membership administrator, who will add you to the list. Recall that the requirement to be a member of Sugar Labs is to engage with the project and the community. This can be as simple as asking a question.

(2) Gathering together a list of nominees. If you are interested in joining the Sugar oversight board, please contact me and I will add your name to the ballot. Also, please prepare a position statement about your candidacy on your "User" page in the wiki. There are no restrictions in regard to whom can run, e.g., whether you were born in Kenya or the United States, you are eligible.

In the community
3. There will be an OLPC/Sugar/Realness summit October 21 – 24 in San Francisco. The summit is being hosted by the San Francisco Bay Area OLPC community. More details are available at.

Tech Talk
4. Last week, we entered Feature Freeze for Sugar Release 0.90. This week we entered UI Freeze. Next week is String Freeze. Hard code freeze starts on September 13. Simon Schampijer is once again pulling together contributions from the community; the new release is looking great.

Sugar Labs
Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list.

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