Sugar Labs/Announcing Sugar Labs

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SUGAR LABS (DRAFT 0.2)

New foundation focused on taking the Sugar user interface to the next level of usability and utility

Cambridge, Mass., May 14, 2008 – Sugar Labs is being established to further extend Sugar, the highly acclaimed open source “learn learning” software platform that was originally developed for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) XO laptop. Sugar is the core of the XO laptop's human-computer interface; it provides a fun, easy to use, social experience that promotes sharing and learning. Sugar Labs will focus on providing a software ecosystem that enhances learning on the XO laptop and laptops built and distributed by other laptop companies, such as the ASUS Eee PC. Independence from OLPC means it will be easier to work with other vendors and consequently reach more children.

Sugar Labs will take a proven learning concept to the next level of refinement, stability and cohesiveness. It will be a unifying catalyst for free and open source learning systems across multiple distribution and hardware platforms and will provide a support structure for a community of developers concerned with learning and support for the learners themselves. The Sugar platform has already been bundled with the most recent release of the Ubuntu and Fedora GNU/Linux distributions.

Walter Bender, former president of software and content at OLPC, is helping to launch Sugar Labs, working closely with the developers and community members from around the world who have played the lead roles in the development of the Sugar UI. Prior to OLPC, Bender was executive director and a founding member of the Media Lab at MIT. He has participated in much of the pioneering research in the field of electronic publishing and personalized, interactive multimedia.

In order to provide a rich learning experience to as many of the world’s children as possible, it is critical to not just provide computers to children, but to ensure that the software that runs on the computers maximizes the potential for engaging in activities that promote learning: exploration, expression, and collaboration. By being independent of any specific hardware platform and by remaining dedicated to the principles of free and open source software, Sugar Labs ensures that others can develop diverse interfaces and applications for governments and schools to choose from. An independent Sugar Labs ensures that the community can continue the development of a highly innovative interface that is already engaging children in learning in more than two-dozen countries worldwide.

“This is a very exciting time in the development of software for children’s education,” said Walter Bender. “In the first generation of the Sugar UI, the open source community has demonstrated an exceptional ability to create a platform that enables children to explore the world, share their discoveries and express themselves. As a separate foundation, we will be able to advance Sugar’s development even further and make it available on multiple distribution and hardware platforms.”

Many of the core Sugar developers are participating in the launch, including Marco Pesenti Gritti, Bert Freudenberg, Simon Schampijer, Bernardo Innocenti and Tomeu Vizoso.

Bert Freudenberg, lead developer of the Etoys activity, commented, “Expanding Sugar to more hardware platforms gives a great boost to all developers of educational software. Sugar is the first system specifically aimed at helping children to learn while supporting a rich variety of contributed applications. As third-party developers, my colleagues at Viewpoints Research Institute look forward to a great relationship with Sugar Labs.”

“Sugar has been brought to maturity by OLPC and a relatively small team of community supporters,” said Tomeu Vizoso. “The time has come for Sugar's potential as a global education project to be untapped; the creation of the Sugar Labs is the next step expanding upon a project where people from all around the world can contribute to improving education, with the assurance that their efforts will be of benefit to everyone.”

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Media Contact:

press@sugarlabs.com