Sugar Labs - User contributions [en]

User:Sverma

2017-09-15T17:28:48Z

Sverma: Changed refs

== Background ==

I am a professor in the Information Systems department at San Francisco State University<ref>San Francisco State University, Sameer Verma, Ph.D., 2017, https://faculty.sfsu.edu/~sverma/</ref>. My Ph.D. dissertation was based on how technology adoption works with individuals and in communities<ref>Sameer Verma, Diffusion and Adoption of Multicasting: Role of Implicit versus Explicit Communication Initiation Methods, 1999, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255572948_DIFFUSION_AND_ADOPTION_OF_MULTICASTING_ROLE_OF_IMPLICIT_VERSUS_EXPLICIT_COMMUNICATION_INITIATION_METHODS</ref>. My work involves teaching and research in Management Information Systems (MIS). I teach courses on “Managing Open Source”<ref>San Francisco State University, Managing Open Source, 2005, http://is.sfsu.edu/node/145</ref> and “Media and the Web”<ref>San Francisco State University, Multimedia Business Applications Development , 2015, http://courses.sfsu.edu/courses/29446</ref>. My research revolves around the development and use of Free and Open Source Software. Some of my research has stemmed from collaborative work with the Open Source Initiative<ref>Open Source Initiative, Report of License Proliferation Committee, 2006, https://opensource.org/proliferation-report</ref>, and Ubuntu<ref>Alberto Onetti, Marco Talaia, Vincenza Odorici, Manuela Presutti, Sameer Verma, The role of serial entrepreneurs in the internationalization of global start-ups. A business case, , http://www.senatehall.com/strategic-management?article=368</ref>. I also serve on the Board of Directors of the Drupal Association<ref>Drupal Association, Board of Directors, Drupal Association, 2017, https://assoc.drupal.org/about/board</ref>, which gives me tremendous insights into how large FOSS projects work both in the community and the enterprise.

== Experience ==

My experience with OLPC and Sugar projects are based on a three-pronged approach:

:''Education''

:Understanding constructivist, constructionist, instructional and ad-hoc learning models. I look for accommodating for the gap between what may be prescribed, and what can actually be implemented in the field.

:''Technology''

:Hardware, software, and network combinations that make these projects work in the “middle of nowhere” communities. My professional training comes in handy when working on these technology bits.

:''Social Context''

:Understanding social context is the most important of the three approaches. Providing powerful life-changing educational tools to communities is not enough unless we also understand their cultural and social underpinnings.

== Projects==

I have worked with OLPC and Sugar since June 2007. I started off as a volunteer with a OLPC XO-1 from OLPC Headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Next, I put together OLPC San Francisco in January 2008<ref>Sameer Verma, Welcome!, 2008, http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-sf/2008-January/000000.html</ref>. Since then, we meet every month at San Francisco State University's campus. We have also hosted the annual OLPC San Francisco Community Summit from 2009 to 2015<ref>OLPC San Francisco, OLPC SF Community Summit Archive, 2009, http://www.olpcsf.org/archive</ref>.

I started and currently help manage four school projects with OLPC/Sugar in Jamaica<ref>Center of Excellence, UWI Mona, OLPC Jamaica, 2008, http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/</ref>. These are managed by the Center of Excellence, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica, where I am a founding academic partner<ref>Center of Excellence, UWI Mona, OLPC Jamaica, 2008, http://coe-msb.org/about</ref>.

I also started and currently manage a OLPC/Sugar project in Bhagmalpur<ref>Sameer Verma, Anish Mangal, OLPC Bhagmalpur, 2008, https://bhagmalpur.wordpress.com/</ref>, a small village in north India (my mother's village), where we use a model of “One Laptop per Household”. The youngest child of school-going age becomes the owner. In this project, we bypass the local school completely. There is no traditional teacher. The children have their own ad-hoc learning support structure. They actively learn from each other.

I have worked on several other OLPC/Sugar projects in varying capacities in Madagascar<ref>June Kleider, Isabella Kleider, OLPC Deployment Maroantsetra, Madagascar, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N10T_RRFWG0</ref>, Tuva<ref>Sameer Verma, Stacey Borsody, OLPC Tuva, 2011, https://olpctuva.wordpress.com/</ref>, Pakistan<ref>Giulia D'Amico, A successful Contributors Program project: Rehnuma School in Karachi, 2011, http://blog.laptop.org/2011/12/21/a-very-successful-contributors-program-project-rehnuma-school-in-karachi/</ref>, India<ref>Salil Konkar, XS Learning with Sameer Verma, 2013, https://monsoongrey.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/xs-learning-with-sameer-verma/</ref> among others.

My newest project is an effort that began in Jamaica, where we analyzed Sugar Journal data for useful information<ref>Sameer Verma, Peering into Journal data, 2013, http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/blog/peering-journal-data</ref>. We relied on the model from ParaguayEduca<ref>Raúl Gutiérrez Segalés, get-journal-stats, 2010, http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2010-May/010847.html</ref>, and then went on to build our own. I created the architecture for what eventually became XOVis, a visualization system for Sugar Journal data across a classroom, school, or a education district or Ministry<ref>Sameer Verma, XOVis - Analytics and Visualization for Sugar and OLPC, 2014, http://www.slideshare.net/sverma/xovis-analyticsvisualizationsugarolpc-36184541</ref>. The application was developed by Martin Dluhos<ref>Martin Dluhos, GitHub account for martasd, 2014, https://github.com/martasd</ref> and is currently being extended by Andreas Gros<ref>Andreas Gros, GitHub account for Andreas Gros, 2014, https://github.com/andi-g</ref>.

== Expected Contribution ==

Sugar is a technology-heavy project, with deep and lasting implications for its users. I strongly believe that the core purpose of education is to learn to solve problems, and by extension, this applies to Sugar as well. Let's keep our focus on the technology medium, but not lose the education message. I hope to bring my skills and expertise to contribute to the strategic direction of Sugar the project, and its implementations, be it on original XO-1, or on any device anywhere.

== References ==

<references />

Oversight Board/2017-2019-candidates

2017-09-15T17:24:47Z

Sverma: /* Sameer Verma's candidacy for SLOB 2017-2019 */

==Election==

There are to be four (4) [[Oversight Board]] slots to be elected for the 2017-2019 period, currently held by Walter, Adam, Lionel and Sameer.

==Calendar==

{| class="wikitable"
|Stage I
|August 15
|Announcement of election date and first call for candidates.
|-
|Stage II
|August 30
|Reminder of election date and second call for candidates.
|-
|Stage III
|September 15
|[[#Candidates|Candidates' Wiki submissions]] deadline.
|-
|Stage IV
|October 1-15
|Election.
|}

==Candidates==

Candidates should create a Wiki entry at [[#Candidates|Candidates' Wiki submissions]], one entry per candidate, 1500 characters maximum length, sharing their vision and motivation.

Candidates should read and understand the terms of the [[Sugar_Labs/SFC_Fiscal_Agreement|Software Freedom Conservancy Fiscal Agreement]], because such terms bind our behavior as Sugar Labs Oversight Board and all our internal policies and procedures as a Project and as an organization.

Among other terms, please note the Project Management, Communications and Activities terms in the agreement provide that:

2.1. The Oversight Board Will Manage the Project.

2.2. The Project Will Be Free Software.

6. Representation of the Project in Conservancy: The Representative will have the authority to instruct Conservancy on the Project’s behalf on all matters.

The terms contemplate that the Oversight Board elects a single individual to communicate with Conservancy (the “Representative”) and shall notify Conservancy promptly following the election of a new Representative.

By publishing your candidacy below, you imply that in case you are elected a Sugar Labs Oversight board member you will honor the agreement terms.

=Devin Ulibarri=
Devin Ulibarri is a musician and an educator who became interested in free/libre software in 2014 during research for the Center for Music-in-Education (Boston). Devin pursued research into the implications for "software libre in education" which led him to believe that free/libre software is best for teaching and learning. He was soon introduced to SugarLabs, which both empowers teachers/learners with software freedom as well as offers tools to exercise those freedoms in a community setting.

Since his introduction to the SugarLabs community, Devin has participated heavily in the development of Music Blocks, a programming language for music. Within the SugarLabs community, Devin offers conceptual recommendations, design ideas, mockups, testing, minor patches, and community involvement on GitHub and Sugar's IRC. In his local community, Devin has represented Music Blocks software as a workshop lecturer (Constructionism Conference in Thailand, Canopy of Somerville) as well as a class instructor (YMCA Malden).

As an oversight board member, Devin would bring his insight as an experienced classroom teacher, an artist, and a free/libre software advocate. Devin has been described as "a very patient person", which he hopes would be a contribution to the oversight board if elected.

=Walter Bender=
After a decade of working on Sugar, I am reflecting on how we engage learners. We provide programming environments (e.g., Turtle and Music Blocks) and mechanism for debugging, collaboration, expression, and reflection. Our adherence to the principles of Free/Libre Software provides scaffolding for personal expression through programming and for surfacing personal responsibility, a sense of community, and unbounded expectations of Sugar users turned Sugar developers.

Where have we fallen short? Edtech is become big business: selling Apps and content is more lucrative and facile than the hard work of engaging teacher and learners in authentic problem-solving. There is a strong temptation to make things as simple as possible so as to reach the broadest possible audience. But some things are inherently complex. Apps might be fun, but the hard part of “hard fun” is in reaching towards complexity.

We are going where the learners are: Sugar as a Web app, on Android, or on iOS, (Sugarizer) and, tracking the growth of the Maker Movement, we now support Sugar on Raspbian.
“It is said that the best way to learn something is to teach it—and perhaps writing a teaching program is better still in its insistence on forcing one to consider all possible misunderstandings and mistakes.” — Seymour Papert

I have made mistakes, but as part of a learning community we will do better.

“Homework is boring. Looking for bugs is fun.” —Ezequiel Pereira

Let's continue to provide the basis for some fun.

=Sebastian Silva=

The mission of the Sugar Labs Oversight Board is to ensure the community has clarity of purpose and the means to attain its goals.

Sugar Labs needs to recognize that our community is '''diverse'''. Therefore, there are diverse purposes that may be clear and at the same time opposed.

We should provide a '''safe and neutral space''' for dialogue on the technology and education that underlies our projects. We need to approve and enforce a ''code of conduct''.

Finally, the reason for Sugar Labs to exist under the SFC is to '''facilitate the flow of resources''' to volunteers with valuable projects. We should strive to open and fund open calls with funds for development, infrastructure and end user products.

=== About Sebastian ===
Sebastian is father to two precious children that are being homeschooled in collaboration with his dear wife and co-creator Laura Vargas.

As a child, Sebastian learned to program with Logo and soon outgrew it to be charmed with Python and raise the flag of Free/Libre Software. He loves writing Sugar Activities; His latest is a collaborative [http://educa.juegos/#sugarlabs_platform_2017 Python IDE] that he hopes you'll love too.

Currently he lives with his family in a cabin in the Amazon rainforest and teaches Karate and videogame programming to the kids in the vicinity, sustaining a lifestyle seeking harmony with nature and providing services of software artisanship and systems gardening remotely.

=Lionel Laské=
Learn more about my background [[User:Llaske|here]].

Like lot of you I've joined SugarLabs at the beginning of the OLPC project. As cofounder of [http://olpc-france.org OLPC France grassroot], I've worked hard to deploy it on the field and contribute to expand it both in term of activities and in term of French content.
Because the OLPC project and the XO laptop was declining year after year, I've decided 5 years ago to launch the [http://sugarizer.org Sugarizer] initiative. My objective was to write a new page of Sugar history by expanding its compatibility to any device, specifically the favorite education device of today: tablets. I'm very proud that today, two deployments already start to use Sugarizer on Android tablets.

Deployed on more than 2 millions of devices and supported by millions of users, Sugar is the #1 learning platform in the world. But we need to convince this large community that a future exist out of the XO laptop. It's my ambition as candidate to the SugarLabs Oversight Board. As I've done in past month as SLOB member, I will support projects where the goal is to expand the community and give a vision to SugarLabs. Even if it could hurt sometime, I will also refuse to spend our limited resources on ways that not fit into its vision. We're all volunteers and our time is precious, let's continue to invest it where it will be the most useful: give to learners the better free libre education platform.

=Sameer Verma=
My background [[User:Sverma|here]].

== Introduction ==

I am a professor in the Information Systems department at San Francisco State University, in San Francisco, California USA. I also serve on the Board of Directors of the Drupal Association, which gives me significant insights into how large FOSS projects work both in the community and the enterprise. I am the founder of the OLPC San Francisco volunteer community, that continues to be active around OLPC's original mission and projects that have grown from that ecosystem, including Sugar, XS, XOVis and others.

== Experience ==

My experience with Sugar projects are based on a three-pronged approach:

:''Education''

:Understanding constructivist, constructionist, instructional and ad-hoc learning models. I look for accommodating for the gap between what may be prescribed, and what can actually be implemented in the field.

:''Technology''

:Hardware, software, and network combinations that make these projects work in the “middle of nowhere” communities. My professional training comes in handy when working on these technology bits.

:''Social Context''

:Understanding social context is the most important of the three approaches. Providing powerful life-changing educational tools to communities is not enough unless we also understand their cultural and social underpinnings.

== Expected Contribution ==

To maintain Sugar's technology focus as a medium of delivery, while maintaining the education message. I hope to bring my skills and expertise to contribute to the strategic direction of Sugar the project, and its implementations on any device, anywhere.

=[Candidate Name]=
Entry

...

==References==

This election is being run by the [[Sugar_Labs/Governance/Committees#Membership_and_Elections_Committee|Membership and Elections Committee]] which was [[Oversight_Board/Decisions#2017-01-06|appointed in January]], along with Dave Crossland
as an impartial election oversight party.

An update from the Membership and Elections Committee was [http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting/meetings/2017-08-04T19:01:24#i_2900181 received] during the Oversight Board meeting of August 4. Also listed were the [http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting/meetings/2017-08-04T19:01:24#i_2900205 expiring slots].

During [http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting/meetings/2017-09-01T19:10:08 September's meeting] the Board '''confirmed September 27, 2017 as the deadline for new memberships request to participate on 2017-2019 elections'''.

User:Sverma

2017-09-15T17:18:01Z

Sverma:

== Background ==

I am a professor in the Information Systems department at San Francisco State University<ref>San Francisco State University, Sameer Verma, Ph.D., 2015, https://faculty.sfsu.edu/~sverma/</ref>. My Ph.D. dissertation was based on how technology adoption works with individuals and in communities<ref>Sameer Verma, Diffusion and Adoption of Multicasting: Role of Implicit versus Explicit Communication Initiation Methods, 1999, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255572948_DIFFUSION_AND_ADOPTION_OF_MULTICASTING_ROLE_OF_IMPLICIT_VERSUS_EXPLICIT_COMMUNICATION_INITIATION_METHODS</ref>. My work involves teaching and research in Management Information Systems (MIS). I teach courses on “Managing Open Source”<ref>San Francisco State University, Managing Open Source, 2005, http://is.sfsu.edu/node/145</ref> and “Media and the Web”<ref>San Francisco State University, Multimedia Business Applications Development , 2015, http://courses.sfsu.edu/courses/29446</ref>. My research revolves around the development and use of Free and Open Source Software. Some of my research has stemmed from collaborative work with the Open Source Initiative<ref>Open Source Initiative, Report of License Proliferation Committee, 2006, https://opensource.org/proliferation-report</ref>, and Ubuntu<ref>Alberto Onetti, Marco Talaia, Vincenza Odorici, Manuela Presutti, Sameer Verma, The role of serial entrepreneurs in the internationalization of global start-ups. A business case, , http://www.senatehall.com/strategic-management?article=368</ref>. I also serve on the Board of Directors of the Drupal Association<ref>Drupal Association, Board of Directors, Drupal Association, 2015, https://assoc.drupal.org/about/board</ref>, which gives me tremendous insights into how large FOSS projects work both in the community and the enterprise.

== Experience ==

My experience with OLPC and Sugar projects are based on a three-pronged approach:

:''Education''

:Understanding constructivist, constructionist, instructional and ad-hoc learning models. I look for accommodating for the gap between what may be prescribed, and what can actually be implemented in the field.

:''Technology''

:Hardware, software, and network combinations that make these projects work in the “middle of nowhere” communities. My professional training comes in handy when working on these technology bits.

:''Social Context''

:Understanding social context is the most important of the three approaches. Providing powerful life-changing educational tools to communities is not enough unless we also understand their cultural and social underpinnings.

== Projects==

I have worked with OLPC and Sugar since June 2007. I started off as a volunteer with a OLPC XO-1 from OLPC Headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Next, I put together OLPC San Francisco in January 2008<ref>Sameer Verma, Welcome!, 2008, http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-sf/2008-January/000000.html</ref>. Since then, we meet every month at San Francisco State University's campus. We have also hosted the annual OLPC San Francisco Community Summit from 2009 to 2015<ref>OLPC San Francisco, OLPC SF Community Summit Archive, 2009, http://www.olpcsf.org/archive</ref>.

I started and currently help manage four school projects with OLPC/Sugar in Jamaica<ref>Center of Excellence, UWI Mona, OLPC Jamaica, 2008, http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/</ref>. These are managed by the Center of Excellence, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica, where I am a founding academic partner<ref>Center of Excellence, UWI Mona, OLPC Jamaica, 2008, http://coe-msb.org/about</ref>.

I also started and currently manage a OLPC/Sugar project in Bhagmalpur<ref>Sameer Verma, Anish Mangal, OLPC Bhagmalpur, 2008, https://bhagmalpur.wordpress.com/</ref>, a small village in north India (my mother's village), where we use a model of “One Laptop per Household”. The youngest child of school-going age becomes the owner. In this project, we bypass the local school completely. There is no traditional teacher. The children have their own ad-hoc learning support structure. They actively learn from each other.

I have worked on several other OLPC/Sugar projects in varying capacities in Madagascar<ref>June Kleider, Isabella Kleider, OLPC Deployment Maroantsetra, Madagascar, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N10T_RRFWG0</ref>, Tuva<ref>Sameer Verma, Stacey Borsody, OLPC Tuva, 2011, https://olpctuva.wordpress.com/</ref>, Pakistan<ref>Giulia D'Amico, A successful Contributors Program project: Rehnuma School in Karachi, 2011, http://blog.laptop.org/2011/12/21/a-very-successful-contributors-program-project-rehnuma-school-in-karachi/</ref>, India<ref>Salil Konkar, XS Learning with Sameer Verma, 2013, https://monsoongrey.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/xs-learning-with-sameer-verma/</ref> among others.

My newest project is an effort that began in Jamaica, where we analyzed Sugar Journal data for useful information<ref>Sameer Verma, Peering into Journal data, 2013, http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/blog/peering-journal-data</ref>. We relied on the model from ParaguayEduca<ref>Raúl Gutiérrez Segalés, get-journal-stats, 2010, http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2010-May/010847.html</ref>, and then went on to build our own. I created the architecture for what eventually became XOVis, a visualization system for Sugar Journal data across a classroom, school, or a education district or Ministry<ref>Sameer Verma, XOVis - Analytics and Visualization for Sugar and OLPC, 2014, http://www.slideshare.net/sverma/xovis-analyticsvisualizationsugarolpc-36184541</ref>. The application was developed by Martin Dluhos<ref>Martin Dluhos, GitHub account for martasd, 2014, https://github.com/martasd</ref> and is currently being extended by Andreas Gros<ref>Andreas Gros, GitHub account for Andreas Gros, 2014, https://github.com/andi-g</ref>.

== Expected Contribution ==

Sugar is a technology-heavy project, with deep and lasting implications for its users. I strongly believe that the core purpose of education is to learn to solve problems, and by extension, this applies to Sugar as well. Let's keep our focus on the technology medium, but not lose the education message. I hope to bring my skills and expertise to contribute to the strategic direction of Sugar the project, and its implementations, be it on original XO-1, or on any device anywhere.

== References ==

<references />

File:Sugarlabs Strategic Plan.pdf

2016-06-28T01:38:26Z

Sverma: Slides to accompany screencast at https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/File:Sugarlabs-strategy-overview.webm

Slides to accompany screencast at https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/File:Sugarlabs-strategy-overview.webm

File:Sugarlabs-strategy-overview.webm

2016-06-24T22:06:11Z

Sverma: Screencast by Sameer Verma of how the strategy process works, and how it may be used in the context of Sugar and Sugarlabs.

Screencast by Sameer Verma of how the strategy process works, and how it may be used in the context of Sugar and Sugarlabs.

Oversight Board/2015-2016-candidates

2015-12-28T19:58:40Z

Sverma: /* Candidates */

<noinclude>[[Category:Oversight board]]
[[Category:Governance]]
[[Category:Team]]
</noinclude>

==Election==
All seven (7) seats are open for election / re-election to the [[Oversight Board|Sugar Labs Oversight Board]] for 2016-2018.

==Candidates==
Here are the candidates
* Edward [[User:Mokurai | Mokurai]] Cherlin [[Open Educational Resources]] (New OER project in planning stage)
* Claudia Urrea (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Claudia_Urrea)
* Laura Victoria Vargas [http://pe.sugarlabs.org/ir/~kaametza Sugar Evolution]
* Adam Holt ([[User:Holt|platform]])
* Walter Bender ([[User:Walter|Sugar Stable/Sugar Future]])
* Sam Parkinson ([[User:SAMdroid#Platform_2015]])
* Jose Miguel Garcia (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Jmgarcia)
* Lionel Laské (https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Llaske)
* Sameer Verma (https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Sverma)
* '''Your name''' (''link to your platform'')

==References==
* [[Oversight_Board/2014-2015-candidates]]
* [[Oversight_Board/2013-2014-candidates]]
* [[Oversight_Board/2012-2013-candidates]]
* [[Oversight_Board/2011-2012-candidates]]
* [[Oversight_Board/2010-2011-candidates]]
* [[Oversight_Board/2009-2010-candidates]]
* [[Sugar Labs/Members]]

User:Sverma

2015-12-28T19:57:13Z

Sverma: Added statement for SLOB candidacy

= Candidacy for Sugar Labs Oversight Board (SLOB) =

== Background ==

I am a professor in the Information Systems department at San Francisco State University [1]. My Ph.D. dissertation was based on how technology adoption works with individuals and in communities [2]. My work involves teaching and research in Management Information Systems (MIS). I teach courses on “Managing Open Source” [3] and “Media and the Web” [4]. My research revolves around the development and use of Free and Open Source Software. Some of my research has stemmed from collaborative work with the Open Source Initiative [5], and Ubuntu [6]. I also serve on the Board of Directors of the Drupal Association [7], which gives me tremendous insights into how large FOSS projects work both in the community and the enterprise.

== Experience ==

My experience with OLPC and Sugar projects are based on a three-pronged approach:

:''Education''

:Understanding constructivist, constructionist, instructional and ad-hoc learning models. I look for accommodating for the gap between what may be prescribed, and what can actually be implemented in the field.

:''Technology''

:Hardware, software, and network combinations that make these projects work in the “middle of nowhere” communities. My professional training comes in handy when working on these technology bits.

:''Social Context''

:Understanding social context is the most important of the three approaches. Providing powerful life-changing educational tools to communities is not enough unless we also understand their cultural and social underpinnings.

== Projects==

I have worked with OLPC and Sugar since June 2007. I started off as a volunteer with a OLPC XO-1 from OLPC Headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Next, I put together OLPC San Francisco in January 2008 [8]. Since then, we meet every month at San Francisco State University's campus. We have also hosted the annual OLPC San Francisco Community Summit from 2009 to 2015 [9].

I started and currently help manage four school projects with OLPC/Sugar in Jamaica [10]. These are managed by the Center of Excellence, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica, where I am a founding academic partner [11].

I also started and currently manage a OLPC/Sugar project in Bhagmalpur [12], a small village in north India (my mother's village), where we use a model of “One Laptop per Household”. The youngest child of school-going age becomes the owner. In this project, we bypass the local school completely. There is no traditional teacher. The children have their own ad-hoc learning support structure. They actively learn from each other.

I have worked on several other OLPC/Sugar projects in varying capacities in Madagascar [13], Tuva [14], Pakistan [15], India [16] among others.

My newest project is an effort that began in Jamaica, where we analyzed Sugar Journal data for useful information [17]. We relied on the model from ParaguayEduca [18], and then went on to build our own. I created the architecture for what eventually became XOVis, a visualization system for Sugar Journal data across a classroom, school, or a education district or Ministry [19]. The application was developed by Martin Dluhos [20] and is currently being extended by Andreas Gros [21].

== Expected Contribution ==

Sugar is a technology-heavy project, with deep and lasting implications for its users. I strongly believe that the core purpose of education is to learn to solve problems, and by extension, this applies to Sugar as well. Let's keep our focus on the technology medium, but not lose the education message. I hope to bring my skills and expertise to contribute to the strategic direction of Sugar the project, and its implementations, be it on original XO-1, or on any device anywhere.

== References ==

1: San Francisco State University, Sameer Verma, Ph.D., 2015, https://faculty.sfsu.edu/~sverma/

2: Sameer Verma, Diffusion and Adoption of Multicasting: Role of Implicit versus Explicit Communication Initiation Methods, 1999, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255572948_DIFFUSION_AND_ADOPTION_OF_MULTICASTING_ROLE_OF_IMPLICIT_VERSUS_EXPLICIT_COMMUNICATION_INITIATION_METHODS

3: San Francisco State University, Managing Open Source, 2005, http://is.sfsu.edu/node/145

4: San Francisco State University, Multimedia Business Applications Development , 2015, http://courses.sfsu.edu/courses/29446

5: Open Source Initiative, Report of License Proliferation Committee, 2006, https://opensource.org/proliferation-report

6: Alberto Onetti, Marco Talaia, Vincenza Odorici, Manuela Presutti, Sameer Verma, The role of serial entrepreneurs in the internationalization of global start-ups. A business case, , http://www.senatehall.com/strategic-management?article=368

7: Drupal Association, Board of Directors, Drupal Association, 2015, https://assoc.drupal.org/about/board

8: Sameer Verma, Welcome!, 2008, http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-sf/2008-January/000000.html

9: OLPC San Francisco, OLPC SF Community Summit Archive, 2009, http://www.olpcsf.org/archive

10: Center of Excellence, UWI Mona, OLPC Jamaica, 2008, http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/

11: Center of Excellence, UWI Mona, OLPC Jamaica, 2008, http://coe-msb.org/about

12: Sameer Verma, Anish Mangal, OLPC Bhagmalpur, 2008, https://bhagmalpur.wordpress.com/

13: June Kleider, Isabella Kleider, OLPC Deployment Maroantsetra, Madagascar, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N10T_RRFWG0

14: Sameer Verma, Stacey Borsody, OLPC Tuva, 2011, https://olpctuva.wordpress.com/

15: Giulia D'Amico, A successful Contributors Program project: Rehnuma School in Karachi, 2011, http://blog.laptop.org/2011/12/21/a-very-successful-contributors-program-project-rehnuma-school-in-karachi/

16: Salil Konkar, XS Learning with Sameer Verma, 2013, https://monsoongrey.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/xs-learning-with-sameer-verma/

17: Sameer Verma, Peering into Journal data, 2013, http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/blog/peering-journal-data

18: Raúl Gutiérrez Segalés, get-journal-stats, 2010, http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2010-May/010847.html

19: Sameer Verma, XOVis - Analytics and Visualization for Sugar and OLPC, 2014, http://www.slideshare.net/sverma/xovis-analyticsvisualizationsugarolpc-36184541

20: Martin Dluhos, GitHub account for martasd, 2014, https://github.com/martasd

21: Andreas Gros, GitHub account for Andreas Gros, 2014, https://github.com/andi-g

Education Team/Quest for Data

2014-01-14T02:35:06Z

Sverma: Added OLPC Dashboard from OLPC Jamaica.

This page collects information from various stakeholders in the OLPC Sugar community to determine which statistical data are important to gather and how to analyze an visualize the data to in a meaningful way. These stakeholders are

* teachers
* parents and guardians
* principals and school administrators
* deployment organizations
* educational policymakers
* children

== Deployments ==

=== OLE Nepal ===

These are the basic questions answered in the first stage of [https://github.com/martasd/xo-stats xo-stats] project.

''Note: These will evolve over time as I receive more feedback from constituencies enumerated above.''

* How many times do installed activities get used? How does the activity use differ over time?
* Which activities are children using to create files? What kind of files are being created?
* Which activities are being launched in share-mode and how often?
* Which part of the day do children play with the activities?
* How does the set of activities used evolve as children age?

=== OLPC AU ===

The [[Harvest]] system is being used to gather some basic stats; A visualization tool will be developed to enable stakeholders (funders, administrators, and classroom teachers) to monitor these data.

=== OLPC Jamaica ===

The OLPC Dashboard project was developed at [http://www.uwimona.edu.jm The University of the West Indies, Jamaica]. It is an ongoing project. It consists of a two part system. The data collection script runs on the XS (or XSCE) school server. The script traverses the ''/library/users/'' directory on the XS school server and gathers the metadata from Sugar Journal backups. The collected metadata are then expressed as a comma-separated or CSV file. An alternative export method exports the data as json. The dashboard is where the analysis and reporting happen. The dashboard system is a selective visualization setup with a [https://couchdb.apache.org/ CouchDB] backend. The json is pushed into a CouchDB database on the XS. Then, selective data aggregates are produced via views in CouchDB and displayed using a JavaScript front end. This step happens on the local XS (views for teacher and principal). However, an aggregated view can happen centrally as well. The CouchDB on the XS can also be synchronized with a central CouchDB, where the visualization may be different, perhaps for personnel at the country's Ministry of Education. Code and test data can be found at [https://github.com/Leotis/olpc_journal_processor olpc_journal_processor] and [https://github.com/Leotis/olpc-datavisualization- olpc-datavisualization].

== References ==

* See this discussion list thread, [http://www.mail-archive.com/sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg35850.html The quest for data], begun on 02 January 2014.

Book Server

2013-05-18T01:48:59Z

Sverma: changed Pathagar location to the new github location

= Pathagar =

Pathagar is a simple book server made in Django. It serves [http://code.google.com/p/openpub/wiki/OPDS OPDS] feeds for using in the Get Books activity. One can add books via the HTML interface, as well as via the command line (using CSV or JSON files.

The current development is in this repository: https://github.com/PathagarBooks/pathagar

= TODO =

* Load more languages when the creating the database. Currently it only adds English and Spanish. There has to be a list of languages for Django, maybe a model, a portable app, or there may be inside Django itself.
** There is a list in ''books/langlist.py'' but is a very '''long list''', we should make a bigger list in the ''books/fixtures/initial_data.json''

* Add feed navigation. The OPDS spec considers two kind of feeds: 1. navigation feeds and 2. acquisition feeds. Currently Pathagar has acquisition feeds (the ones that have the books). This will enable the posibility to add navigation in the Get Books activity.