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== Sugar Digest ==

== Sugar Digest ==

It has been a long time since I last wrote a Sugar Labs community new blog. I got tied up with my day jobs: starting a new design college from scratch and launching a new research center at MIT. (And, frankly, I was a bit depressed following the deaths of Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert.) I have a breather on both fronts and given all of the Sugar activity of late, I am inspired to do some writing.

1. I just completed our application for Sugar Labs participation in Google Code-in (GCI) 2017. As most of you know, GCI is a programming contest for youth ages 13-17 hosted by Google. Sugar Labs has participated the past 5 years. It is a great opportunity to work with young programmers, many of whom continue to contribute to Sugar Labs long after the contest ends (in fact, my co-administrator this year, Ignacio Rodriguez, is a former GCI participant.) We should know by the end of the month if we are accepted into the program this year.

1. A footnote from Google Code-in 2015. Ezequiel Pereira, one of the grand-prize recipients from Sugar Labs was recently acknowledged by Google for discovering a security bug. He got some nice press, e.g., [https://thenextweb.com/google/2017/08/10/highschool-security-research-google-data/#.tnw_5BETRGWT][https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/10/schoolboy_google_bug_bounty_http_host/1]. In one article [http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/google-awards-uruguay-high-school-student-10k-finding/story?id=49249604], he was quoted as saying: "Homework is boring. Looking for bugs is fun.” Ezequiel is one of a generation of children in Uruguay who grew up with Sugar. It is nice to hear the occasional word about their accomplishments.

If we accepted, we will need to accumulate tasks for the contest, which can include bug fixes, activity and feature development, design, outreach, documentation, and research. Please contact either Ignacio or me if you have interest in being a GCI mentor or if you have ideas for GCI tasks. See [[Google_Code_In_2017]] for more details.

2. We just wrapped up Google Code-in and Outreachy 2017. We had 9 interns supported by Google and 1 Outreachy intern. You can read about their accomplishments in their [[Summer_of_Code|blogs]] and in the meeting logs [http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting/meetings] (every Monday from May through August). Highlights from the summer include a new, easy-to-maintain activity portal and a new www.sugarlabs.org, both going live soon. Also of note: a new Sugar image for Raspberry Pi, some new apps, GTK3 ports, a Sugarizer dashboard, and a major overhaul of Music Blocks.

2. James Cameron has announced the release of [[0.112|Sugar 0.112]]. This new stable release of Sugar is largely a maintenance release; it includes some bug fixes and new translations. Please see [[0.112|the release notes]] regarding the details. Thanks to James as well as Besnik Bleta, Chris Leonard, Eduard Sanou, Ezequiel Pereira, Gonzalo Odiard, György Balló, Hrishi Patel, Ignacio Rodríguez, Manash Raja, Sam Parkinson, Sanchit Kapoor, and Utkarsh Tiwari.

Tip of the hat to our mentors: Abhijit Patel, Cristina Del Puerto, Devin Ulibarri, Hrishi Patel, Ignacio Rodriguez, José Argüello, Lionel Laské, Matias Baez, Michaël Ohayon, Samson Goddy, Samuel Cantero, and Tony Anderson. Lionel help me administer the program again this year. It is nice to note that many of the mentors are former GCI participants.

3. In anticipation of Sugar 0.112, I managed to get wrappers around Turtle Blocks JS [https://github.com/sugarlabs/turtle-blocks-embedded-activity] and Music Blocks [https://github.com/sugarlabs/music-blocks-embedded-activity] so that they can be run inside Sugar itself.

Cristina, Michaël, and Samson will be representing Sugar Labs at the annual mentor summit at Google in October. (For those of you who have been following the saga of Samson's visa, I am happy to say that he was approved!)

4. Jatin Dhankhar and Sam Cantero are making headway on ASLOv3 [https://github.com/sugarlabs/aslo-v3], [https://aslo3-devel.sugarlabs.org], a new version of the Sugar Labs activity portal, which promises to be easier to use and maintain. Hopefully we'll have the new server running before GCI begins.

5. There are still a few more days left to vote in the Sugar Labs oversight board election. If you did not receive your ballot, please contact the members and election committee, e.g., Samson Goddy.

 

 

5. James Cameron is working towards the release of [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2017-September/054631.html Sugar 0.111], our first new release in nearly one year. It is mostly planned as a maintenance release.

 

6. There are only a few more days left (15 Sept.) to register as a candidate for the Sugar Labs oversight board. Please consider joining the board as we need some fresh voices and perspectives. See [[Oversight_Board/2017-2019-candidates]] for details. You also have until 27 Sept. to register as a member in order to be given a vote in the election. See [[Sugar_Labs/Members]] for details.

 

7. One of the first decisions the new board will be making is whether or not Sugar Labs should apply for GCI 2017. I am hopeful that the board will see the merits of the program and give a green light to apply again this year. If we do apply, I will be looking for mentors, project ideas, and a co-administrator. Please contact me if you are interested.

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