Changes

1. During yesterday's developer meeting on IRC we spontaeously declared that Aleksey Lim (alsroot) is Sugar Labs "Volunteer of the Month". Some quotes from Aleksey's peers: "Now that we have alsroot fixing bugs, maybe we don't need any other people"; "We passed a tipping point a few days back when alsroot was fixing faster than I was able to report them." Many kudos to Aleksey!!

1. During yesterday's developer meeting on IRC we spontaneously declared that Aleksey Lim (alsroot) is Sugar Labs "Volunteer of the Month". Some quotes from Aleksey's peers: "Now that we have alsroot fixing bugs, maybe we don't need any other people"; "We passed a tipping point a few days back when alsroot was fixing faster than I was able to report them." Many kudos to Aleksey!!

2. There has been a great deal of negative press about One Laptop per Child of late--much of it based on misinformation and poor fact-checking. I decided to respond to one [http://www.undispatch.com/node/8859 blog], a particularly disheartening one by Alanna Shaikh on a UN Foundation-sponsored site:

2. There has been a great deal of negative press about One Laptop per Child of late--much of it based on misinformation and poor fact-checking. I decided to respond to one [http://www.undispatch.com/node/8859 blog], a particularly disheartening one by Alanna Shaikh on a UN Foundation-sponsored site:

:I am writing in response to Alanna Shaikh's 9/9/09 article, "One

:I am writing in response to Alanna Shaikh's 9/9/09 article, "One Laptop Per Child - The Dream is Over".

Laptop Per Child - The Dream is Over".

:Not only is the dream not over, the OLPC project has created an

:Not only is the dream not over, the OLPC project has created an opportunity for the pursuit of more dreams by many more people.

opportunity for the pursuit of more dreams by many more people.

:I was Nicholas Negroponte's partner in founding One Laptop per Child.

:I was Nicholas Negroponte's partner in founding One Laptop per Child. As Nicholas has elegantly stated in his response to Ms. Shaikh's blog, we spawned the netbook market, which is bringing the price of computing within reach of millions more people. In addition, we launch a free software initiative, Sugar Labs, that is putting educational software into the hands of children.

As Nicholas has elegantly stated in his response to Ms. Shaikh's blog,

we spawned the netbook market, which is bringing the price of

computing within reach of millions more people. In addition, we launch

a free software initiative, Sugar Labs, that is putting educational

software into the hands of children.

:Sugar Labs (www.sugarlabs.org) is an independent outgrowth of OLPC.

:Sugar Labs (www.sugarlabs.org) is an independent outgrowth of OLPC. We are a global community of volunteers—teachers and software developers—whose mission is to bring the advantages of the Sugar learning platform to children everywhere, on any computer. Sugar was designed specially for children and offers a better alternative for young learners than traditional “office-desktop” software. Indeed, nothing in our children's future has anything to do with office work from 30 years ago.

We are a global community of volunteers—teachers and software

developers—whose mission is to bring the advantages of the Sugar

learning platform to children everywhere, on any computer. Sugar was

designed specially for children and offers a better alternative for

young learners than traditional “office-desktop” software. Indeed,

nothing in our children's future has anything to do with office work

from 30 years ago.

:Ms. Shaikh is mistaken in her assertion that OLPC has abandoned  “the

:Ms. Shaikh is mistaken in her assertion that OLPC has abandoned  “the special child-friendly OS.” More than 99% of the OLPC laptops in the hands of children run Sugar. Governments prefer Sugar because of its superior quality, openness, built-in collaboration, easy internationalization and localization to indigenous languages, and unbeatable price (free).

special child-friendly OS.” More than 99% of the OLPC laptops in the

hands of children run Sugar. Governments prefer Sugar because of its

superior quality, openness, built-in collaboration, easy

internationalization and localization to indigenous languages, and

unbeatable price (free).

:Sugar on a Stick, our latest initiative, allows children fortunate

:Sugar on a Stick, our latest initiative, allows children fortunate enough to have access to a computer at school, in the community, at home (or only the occasional access to a computer in an Internet café) to benefit from Sugar with a simple USB stick, which costs less than US $5. Sugar on a Stick runs on netbooks, but it also runs on hand-me-down computers, typical of those found in schools, that can only limp along running Windows.

enough to have access to a computer at school, in the community, at

home (or only the occasional access to a computer in an Internet café)

to benefit from Sugar with a simple USB stick, which costs less than

US $5. Sugar on a Stick runs on netbooks, but it also runs on

hand-me-down computers, typical of those found in schools, that can

only limp along running Windows.

 

every day in countries around the world.

3. We will be holding the Oversight Board election this month. Details to follow soon.

3. We will be holding the Oversight Board election this month. Details to follow soon.

=== Help wanted ===

=== Help wanted ===