Sugar Labs/Current Events

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This page is updated each week (usually on Monday morning) with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list and blogged at walterbender.org.) If you would like to contribute, please send email to walter at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit planet.sugarlabs.org.)

Sugar Digest

1. Greg Morris from Nexcopy, the company that donated one of their USB Duplicator to Sugar Labs, has been busy with another generous effort. Check out http://recycleusb.com, a website "dedicated on turning used flash drives into portable learning devices for children, schools and education institutions." They are featuring "Sugar On A Stick" and offer to load Sugar onto recycled USB flash drives and sending them to Sugar Labs for global deployment.

So, don't throw away those old flash drives: donate them!

2. It was great to hear from Bill Kerr, who has some of his students trialling Sugar on a Stick. Check out Bill's blog (which also appears in our Planet) and read up on his students impressions of Sugar, which are linked from the sidebar.

3. I forget how exhausting teaching can be, even part time. I've been teaching five Sugar classes per week this summer: two for second graders, one for third graders, and one for middle-school youth. The reports from the Gardner School describe much of what I have been doing. The demands of the children being what they are, I keep biting off more and more as the summer has progressed. (One of the dangers of putting developers and teachers in the same room.) Lately, I have been exploring how the children might use Turtle Art to create some geography games similar to Conozco Uruguay. Without too much effort, I managed to create a simple framework that I used to sketch out a few games (See Continent Game and State Game.) This morning, I made a game specific to the Gardner School, leveraging the work they had been doing with maps and pictures of their neighborhood. We played all the games as a group--the kids were animated and engaged. Then I shared the Gardner Game with their Sugar neighborhood and asked them to launch it.

Here is where the trouble began. First of all, the version of Turtle Art I used to build the game is newer than the version they had installed on their machines. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, but I had used a block that they didn't have, so the sharing halted part way through. The good news is that Sebastian Dziallias pushed a change for Sugar on a Stick to contain all activities packaged as XO files, meaning that all activities can update. (Presently, it is non-trivial to update activities that had been distributed as RPM.) The bad news is, Turtle Art, being part of Fructose, had been distributed as RPM on the Gardner School sticks. So I will have to update them by hand.

But had sharing worked, I still would have run into some problems, since once, shared, always shared. I discussed the problem with Ben Schwartz in IRC:

<walterbender> bemasc: here is my use scenario: the current sharing mechanism with its automatic resume doesn't work...

<walterbender> I designed a game template for the kids to use in Turtle Art.

<walterbender> I then shared my construction with them.

<walterbender> So far so good.

<walterbender> (of course, I had a version mismatch that caused the sharing to fail part way through, which I have subsequently fixed.)

<walterbender> but the problem is, once shared, always shared.

<walterbender> I want the kids to each modify the template their own way, not as a group.

<walterbender> and then share their individual results with the group at check points. So the feature is that sharing is punctuated. But also involves explicit forking. the merge is perhaps the least important.

<walterbender> but the current model is always merging all the time...

<walterbender> (I suppose I could make TA share in only one direction, using the current model).

<walterbender> but then how would a kid share her cool innovation?

<bemasc> walterbender: hmm. Why not use object transfer?

<bemasc> walterbender: as I've suggested with my mockups, we could have a system in which every time a user launches a previously shared activity, they have the option to work privately.

<bemasc> I haven't implemented this, mostly because I'm not much a GUI programmer, but it's a possibility.

<walterbender> bemasc: Does object transfer work for objects other than text?

<bemasc> walterbender: I mean the Journal-based object transfer. You can send any journal item to anyone in 0.84.

<bemasc> The problem in 0.84 is that this is "push only", so you have to click N times to send it to N people.

<walterbender> bemasc: I hadn't tried it lately, but I wasn't able to get to work for TA objects.

<bemasc> Also, I think you have to make them all "friends" first.

<bemasc> walterbender: well, that's certainly mysterious.

<walterbender> bemasc: I'll try again.

<walterbender> bemasc: but I still like the idea of doing this through the collaboration model so that they results and be shared/merged more directly...

<bemasc> walterbender: If everyone is working independently on separate projects that will not be merged, then I have difficulty seeing in what sense they are working collaboratively, even if they all forked from a common template.

<bemasc> I think, as a rule, we should only show people "collaborating" in a single session in the Neighborhood if they are actually working together on a single "document".

<walterbender> bemasc: they plan to work in small teams

<walterbender> for example, each adding a question to a quiz show

<bemasc> walterbender: ok. So each team can get a session. That much makes sense; the question is how to seed the sessions.

<bemasc> If we had a copy function in the Journal, I would say "make a template, copy it once for each team, and share each copy"

<walterbender> bemasc: I think that makes the most sense in the short term. Thanks.

<walterbender> but I look forward to trying your framework.

<bemacs> walterbender: if you get object transfers working, you could transfer to a "team initiator" for each team, who would then share, and the others would join.

<bemacs> This should be workable in 0.84, with a smallish number of clicks, except for bugs.

I'll report back how things work out tomorrow with the third graders.

Help wanted

4. We are a still soliciting candidates for the Sugar Oversight Board. Luke Faraone has been looking into whether or not SPI might be able to run the election for us, which would guarantee some level of distance and transparency to the process. Meanwhile, we also have to get our membership list in order. I've asked the Membership Team to get moving, but we need your help as well. Please add yourself to the Membership List if you are not already listed. (We have a seemingly intimidating membership criteria, but remember that there are many ways to contribute and that asking even a single question represents a contribution.

In the community

5. Gonzalo Odiard reports that there will be a Sugar Day in Argentina on 8 August 2009 beginning at 13:30 on the first floor of the Radio FM La Tribu Lambaré 873 Buenos Aires, Almagro.

Sugar Labs

6. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see SOM).

Community News archive

An archive of this digest is available.

Planet

The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.

Sugar in the news

23 Jul 2009	Everything USB – RecycleUSB.com - Donate your Flash Drives for a Good Cause
22 Jul 2009	OLPC France – Sugar : mauvaise presse et mise au point
13 Jul 2009	Spiegel Online – Das zuckersüße Leichtbau-Linux
07 Jul 2009	ComputerWorldUK – Gran Canaria Desktop Summit: a Study in Contrasts
06 Jul 2009	Windows Forest – USBメモリなどから“OLPC”用のOSを利用できる「Sugar on a Stick」が無償公開
02 Jul 2009	Howard County Library – Sugar on a Stick
27 Jun 2009	Deutschlandfunk – Süßes für die Kleinen: Sugar ist Linux speziell für Kinder (in Deutsch)
26 Jun 2009	EduTech – Sugar on a stick, and other delectables (praise for the lowly USB drive)
26 Jun 2009	Ars Technica – Sugar on a Stick brings sweet taste of Linux to classrooms
24 Jun 2009	BBC – OLPC software to power aging PCs
24 Jun 2009	Technology Review – $100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC
15 Jun 2009	TechSavvyKids – Episode 10 FOSSVT: Sugar on a Stick (audio)
10 Jun 2009	LWN.net – Sugar moves from the shadow of OLPC
27 May 2009	LWN.net – Activities and the move to context-oriented desktops (subscriber link)
27 May 2009	Business Wire – Dailymotion Launches Support for Open Video Formats and Video HTML Tag
01 May 2009	Guysoft – Nokia N810 Running OLPC Sugar
29 Apr 2009	El Mercurio – Así se vivió la fiesta del software libre
27 Apr 2009	ostatic – Sugar on a Stick: Good for Kids' Minds (and School Budgets)
25 Apr 2009	Free Software Magazine – The Bittersweet Facts about OLPC and Sugar
24 Apr 2009	Ars Technica – First taste: Sugar on a Stick learning platform
22 Apr 2009	Betanews – Beta of Live USB Sugar OS opens
27 Mar 2009	Mass High Tech – Google promotes summer open-source internships
18 Mar 2009	Metropolis – A Good Argument
16 Mar 2009	Laptop Magazine – Sugar Labs’ New Version of Sugar Learning Platform Is Netbook and PC Ready
16 Mar 2009	Market Watch – Sugar Labs Nonprofit Announces New Version of Sugar Learning Platform for Children, Runs on Netbooks and PCs
14 Feb 2009	OLPC Learning Club – DC – Learning Learning on a Stick
05 Feb 2009	xconomy – Sugar Beyond the XO Laptop: Walter Bender on OLPC, Sucrose 0.84, and “Sugar on a Stick”
26 Jan 2009	Linus Magazine – Sugar Defies OLPC Cutbacks
19 Jan 2009	Feeding the Penguins – The status of Sugar, post-OLPC
16 Jan 2009	OLPC News – Sugar on Acer Aspire One & Thin Client via LTSP
12 Jan 2009	Bill Kerr – thoughts about olpc cutbacks
07 Jan 2009	Ars Technica – OLPC downsizes half of its staff, cuts Sugar development
06 Jan 2009	OLPC News – An Inside Look at how Microsoft got XP on the XO
30 Dec 2008	OLPC News – Sugar Labs Status at Six Months
22 Dec 2008	The GNOME Project – Sugar Labs, the nonprofit behind the OLPC software, is joining the GNOME Foundation
16 Dec 2008	Feeding the Penguins – Sugar git repository change
14 Dec 2008	NPR – Laptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk (Part 2)
13 Dec 2008	NPR – Laptops May Change The Way Rural Peru Learns (Part 1)
09 Dec 2008	SFC – Sugar Labs joins Conservancy
31 Oct 2008	Linux Devices – An OLPC dilemma: Linux or Windows?
10 Oct 2008	Feeding the Penguin – Sugar on Ubuntu
21 Sep 2008	Groklaw – Interview with Walter Bender of Sugar Labs
17 Sep 2008	Bill Kerr – Sugar Labs
16 Sep 2008	Open Source – Sugar everywhere
28 Aug 2008	OLPC News – An answer to Walter Bender's question 22
20 Aug 2008	OLPC News – Sugarize it: Intel Classmate 2
08 Aug 2008	Investor's Business Daily – 'Learning' Vs. Laptop Was Issue
06 Aug 2008	OLPC News – Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education
18 Jul 2008	Bill Kerr – evaluating Sugar in the developed world
28 Jun 2008	OLPC News – A Cutting Edge Sugar User Interface Demo
18 Jun 2008	PC World – OLPC Spin-off Developing UI for Intel's Classmate PC
17 Jun 2008	Datamation – If Business Succeeds with GNU/Linux, Why Not OLPC?
11 Jun 2008	LinuxInsider – The Sweetness of Collaborative Learning
06 Jun 2008	Bill Kerr – untangling Free, Sugar, and Constructionism
06 Jun 2008	Open Education – Walter Bender Discusses Sugar Labs Foundation
06 Jun 2008	BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Educational Philosophy Controversy
05 Jun 2008	Code Culture – The Distraction Machine
05 Jun 2008	BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Open-Source Controversy
27 May 2008	The New York Times – Why Walter Bender Left One Laptop Per Child
26 May 2008	Ars Technica – OLPC software maker splits from X0 hardware, goes solo
22 May 2008	BetaNews – Linux start-up Sugar Labs in informal talks with four laptop makers
16 May 2008	OSTATIC – OLPC's Open Source Sugar Platform Aims for New Hardware
16 May 2008	PCWorld – Bender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI
16 May 2008	MHT – Bender jumps from OLPC, founds Sugar Labs
16 May 2008	News.com – Sugar Labs will make OLPC interface available for Eee PC, others
16 May 2008	Feeding the Peguins – The future of Sugar
16 May 2008	Sugar list – A few thoughts on SugarLabs
16 May 2008	xconomy – Bender Creates Sugar Labs—New Foundation to Adapt OLPC’s Laptop Interface for Other Machines
16 May 2008	BBC – '$100 laptop' platform moves on
15 May 2008	OLPC wiki – Dual-boot XO Claim: OLPC will not work to port Sugar to Windows.
16 May 2008	Softpedia – Bender Launches Sugar Labs for Better Development of OLPC's Sugar UI

Press releases

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