Sugar Labs/Current Events

What's new

This page is updated every few weeks with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list, blogged at walterbender.org, and archived here.) If you would like to contribute, please send email to walter at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit planet.sugarlabs.org.)

Sugar Digest

Ten days ago, my mentor and friend Marvin Minsky passed away. As one of the co-founders of the field of Artificial Intelligence, his passing has been widely covered by the press and many notable colleagues have blogged about his numerous intellectual contributions. I have little to add regarding his contributions to AI, although I had the pleasure of many conversations with him about the ideas he discusses in Society of Mind and The Emotion Machine.

Perhaps less well known are some of Marvin's writing on learning. He was a long-time colleague of Seymour Papert and made significant contributions to Logo and the core ideas of Construtionism. (He built one of the first Logo "turtles" and, along with Ed Fredkin, invented the digital synthesizer, which he interfaced to Logo.) While I was at One Laptop per Child, I commissioned him to write some essays on learning. Alas, we will never get to read the final four essays in the series (Future Essays).

Spending time with Marvin was always a pleasure: the range of topics discussed, the challenging of every assumption and convention, the unquenchable curiosity, and the generosity with ideas, critique, and reflection is in my experience unmatched.

I promise to take the time to share some recollections from our time together over the coming months, beginning here with a scenario I saw repeated on numerous occasions. In the days of overhead projectors, when Marvin would give a lecture he would (I always presumed deliberately) drop his slides on the floor as he approached the projector. He'd then look down, pick one up seeming at random, put it on the projector, and then dive into a fascinating discourse, not necessarily on topic, but always well worth the time and attention of his audience. Marvin was always at his best when he was unleashed.

Marvin had a beautiful mind and a beautiful spirit. He is dearly missed.

1. A warm welcome to the new Sugar Labs oversight board: Walter Bender; Lionel Laské; Adam Holt; Sameer Verma; Claudia Urrea; Tony Anderson; and José Miguel García. We'll hold our first meeting this Friday at 16 UTC on irc.freenode.net #sugar. Please join us.

Many thanks to Daniel Francis, Gonzalo Odiard, and Chris Leonard whom have served many years on the oversight board and continue to make numerous contributions to the Sugar community.

2. Google Code-In is over and the mentor team has selected our two grand-prize winners: Piotr Antosz (from Poland) and Ezequiel Pereira Lopez (from Uruguay). While it is never an easy decision -- we had many strong contenders for the top two spots -- I am quite pleased with the decision as both Piotr and Ezequiel did great work and have deeply engaged with the community. Congratulations to both of them. And, again, thank you to all of the contestants and to the mentors.

3. One topic I hope to discuss on Friday is Google Summer of Code 2016. I've set up a preliminary page in the wiki to get the application process start (I am presuming that the oversight board will agree to participate again this year). Please add project suggests to the wiki.

In the Community

4. I just returned from Constructionism 2016, a "bi-annual gathering of researchers and practitioners of the constructionist learning philosophy is intended to be a place to showcase lessons learned, innovative learning tools, new case studies, and novel approaches that has been happening throughout the world." A number of Sugar Labs community members were there, including Cynthia Solomon, Claudia Urrea, and Devin Ulibarri. Devin and I spoke about Music Blocks and along with Cynthia and Claudia, we ran several workshops for children and teachers. Lots of great feedback and many new and renewed connections. (Our host, Khun Paron, has been an advocate for Sugar for almost a decade.) The entire conference was videotaped and will be posted online soon. Be sure to watch Cynthia's keynote address in which she reviewed the history of Constructionism, which has had a great influence on the design and development of Sugar.

5. Music Blocks is a fork the Turtle Blocks program that we began last year during GSoC. Our goal is for Music Blocks to be an open-ended, yet musically relevant tool—one that invites learners to explore fundamental musical concepts that are both intrinsic to music yet transcendent of a specific discipline.

The structure of our workshops included the concept of a "Power Piece". A power piece is a melody or a song that is taught because it is powerful and becomes more powerful as it is taught. Children took phrases of some familiar music as a basis of exploring and manipulating the music through programming.

As a result of feedback from the workshops, I have made a number of improvements to Music Blocks. It is much more robust and internally consistent. Please do try it (there is a Guide for getting started) and give me additional feedback.

By coincidence, I subsequently read in Stephen Wolfram's blog about Marvin Minsky that "Marvin immediately launched into talking about how programming languages are the only ones that people are expected to learn to write before they can read. He said he’d been trying to convince Seymour Papert that the best way to teach programming was to start by showing people good code. He gave the example of teaching music by giving people Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and asking them to transpose it to a different rhythm and see what bugs occur."

Papert did speak of the need for guidance, both in the programming environment itself and in the teacher’s facilitating a child's exploration of it. Power Pieces introduce rich musical ideas that can be studied, analyzed, transformed, and re-imagined, they are ripe for open-ended explorations as part of workshops.

During the workshops (and at the conference) Devin and I both stood on our "soap boxes" in support of Free/Libre Software. Using computers and programming software to run on computers is a powerful means to drive learning. Free Software raises the ceiling by enabling student contributions to the design, the documentation, and the code itself.

Tip of the hat to Sawaros Thanapornsangsuth, who translated Music Blocks into Thai for our workshops.

Tech Talk

6. The Sugar Labs systems team has been busy upgrading our servers. Thanks to their efforts we have had very little down time in the past few years.

Sugar Labs

7. Please visit our planet.

Community News archive

An archive of this digest is available.

Planet

The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.

Sugar in the news

28 Aug 2015	Musson Foundation – Jamaica Girls Code (video)
28 Aug 2015	Google Open Source – My sweet adventures with Sugar Labs and Google Code-in
09 May 2015	La Prensa – De alumnos a creadores de su aprendizaje
30 Apr 2015	Diario La República – Swedish researcher visited Uruguay to meet the project Butiá
24 Apr 2015	Jamaica Observer – Future Coders
24 Apr 2015	Jamaica Information Service – State minister urges young women to enter ICT sector
6 Feb 2015	Cromo – El chico Google
5 Feb 2015	Capital Noticias Canelones – El joven de Canelones, Ignacio Rodríguez, ganó nuevamente la competencia de programación de Google. (video)
3 Feb 2015	montevideo.com – Código joven
1 Dec 2014	Google Open Source Blog – 3, 2, 1 Code-in: Inviting teens to contribute to open source
7 Oct 2014	Kauffman Report – Paraguay Thirsty for 21st-Century Education
25 Sept 2014	ANEP – Fecundo intercambio de jovenes de todo el mundo en encuentro de programadores
12 Jun 2014	Producción Nacional – Innovando con XO (video)
28 Apr 2014	ABC Color – Paraguay Educa realiza talleres de programación y de robótica
21 Apr 2014	El Tiempo – 'Cada niño podría ser un maestro del 'software': Walter Bender
2 Apr 2014	vera.tv – Antel vuelta a clases (video)
4 Feb 2014	La Diaria – En código
24 Jan 2014	Espectador – Entre los ganadores del concurso anual de programación de Google Code-in hay nuevamente un joven uruguayo
23 Jan 2014	El Pais – Le enseña a sus profesores y ahora lo premia Google
20 Jan 2014	Google Open Source Blog – Google Code-in 2013 - drumroll please!
28 Nov 2013	BBVA Paraguay – Turtle Art Day in Caacupé (video)
17 Oct 2013	ANTEL Integra – Turtle Art: la plataforma del Butiá
14 Oct 2013	ABC Color – Software libre es tema de paneles en la cumbre
14 Oct 2013	ABC Color – Programar ayuda a los niños a pensar
14 Oct 2013	ABC Color – Hoy es el Día de TortugArte, en Caacupé
14 Oct 2013	ABC Color – Las TIC en la educación son clave para el desarrollo del país, aseguran
12 Oct 2013	Cromo – M’hijo el programador
08 Aug 2013	News1 – Interview with former MIT Media Lab director (in Korean)
12 Jul 2013	RIT – ‘Sky Time’ video game selected for White House Champions of Change event July 23
28 Apr 2013	BBC Mundo – Los programadores adolescentes premiados por Google
07 Feb 2013	el Neuvo Herald – Joven uruguayo brilla como programador y es distinguido por Google
06 Feb 2013	el Observador – Joven uruguayo gana la competencia Google Code (Also see GCI press interviews)
07 Sep 2012	NDTV – One Laptop Per Child initiative a hit in rural India
08 Jul 2012	Estado de S. Paulo – Para educar
24 Apr 2012	Pacific Standard – OLPC Redux
12 Apr 2012	Huffington Post – Hult Global Case Challenge: One Laptop Per Child
30 Mar 2012	newswise – “Sugar on a Stick” Helps Kids Learn How to Learn
11 Jan 2012	Boston Herald – One Laptop Per Child screening $100 tablet
10 Jan 2012	ars technica – Crank, bicycle, and waterwheel: hands-on with the OLPC XO 3.0 tablet
08 Jan 2012	The Verge – OLPC XO 3.0 tablet preview: impressions, video, and pictures
07 Jan 2012	The Verge – OLPC XO 3.0 tablet: an 8-inch tablet for $100, with Android and Sugar options for the children
23 Dec 2011	Miller-McCune – One Laptop Per Child Redux
18 Oct 2011	BDU – Robotics in Uruguay (video)
11 Aug 2011	Berlin.de – Gewinner des Berliner Landeswettbewerbs zu Open Source stehen fest
25 Jul 2011	CCC Classic – Garmin-sugarlabs development cycling team at Crit starting line
25 Jul 2011	CCC Classic – Garmin-sugarlabs development cycling team after Crit
13 Apr 2011	framablog – L'expérience Sugar Labs préfigure-t-elle une révolution éducative du XXIe siècle?
05 Apr 2011	Businesswire – The Government of Peru Expands the One Laptop Per Child Program with Local Manufacturing
31 Jan 2011	Sundance – A Day in the Life – Peru
01 Dec 2010	velonation – Sugar Labs to back Garmin-Cervelo’s development team in unique arrangement
28 Oct 2010	UCR – Nuevas tecnologías deben estar al alcance de todos los niños y niñas
05 Oct 2010	xconomy – One Ecosystem per Child
08 Sep 2010	FLOSS Weekly – Sugar Labs
09 Aug 2010	ABC digital – Indicadores constatan el impacto positivo en el aprendizaje de niños
23 Jun 2010	ABC digital – Xo para todas las escuelas de Caacupé
21 Jun 2010	La Nacion – “Buscamos que los niños no solo usen softwares, sino que puedan crear uno”
20 Jun 2010	UltimaHora.com – La laptop une a padres, alumnos y docentes
15 Jun 2010	The H – OLPC XO-1.5 software updated
10 Jun 2010	engadget – Sugar on a Stick hits 3.0, teaches us about a new kind of fruit
27 May 2010	Pro Linux DE – Sugar on a Stick v3 freigegeben (German)
27 May 2010	NY Times – One Laptop Per Child Project Works With Marvell to Produce a $100 Tablet
27 May 2010	PC World – OLPC Rules out Windows for XO-3
03 May 2010	WXXI: Mixed Media – Interview with Walter Bender (audio)
03 May 2010	Linux Magazine – OLPC Computers for Palestinian Refugee Children
14 Apr 2010	National Science Foundation – XO Laptops Inspire Learning In Birmingham, Alabama (video)
02 Apr 2010	Dailymotion – Un jour... à Paris... ensembles pour OLPC et Sugar... (video)
15 Mar 2010	nbc13.com – Birmingham City students opt to spend spring break in class, XO computer camps (video)
18 Feb 2010	LWN – Karma targets easier creation of educational software
05 Feb 2010	iprofesional – La PC barata de Negroponte desembarca en la Argentina para pelear contra Intel
14 Jan 2010	AALF – Open Systems for Broader Change
03 Jan 2010	Educacion 2.0 – PLAN CEIBAL, El Libro
14 Dec 2009	xconomy – Sugar gets sweeter
10 Dec 2009	ars technica – Sugar software environment gets sweeter with version 2
09 Dec 2009	Wired – New Sugar on a Stick Brings Much Needed Improvements
08 Dec 2009	engadget – Sugar on a Stick OS goes to 2.0, gets Blueberry coating and creamy Fedora 12 center (video)
07 Dec 2009	Teleread.org – Sugar on a Stick: What it means for e-books and education
27 Nov 2009	CNET Japan – 「コードを見せて、もっと良くなるよ」と言える子どもが生まれる--Sugar Labsが描く未来
16 Nov 2009	zanichelli – software libero a scuola
12 Nov 2009	opensuse.org – openSUSE 11.2 Released
07 Nov 2009	My Broadband News – Mandriva 2010 packs a punch [and Sugar]
06 Nov 2009	GhanaWeb – Open education and an IT-enabled economic growth in Ghana: Musings of a dutiful citizen
26 Oct 2009	Linux Magazine ES – Software Libre como apoyo al aprendizaje
09 Oct 2009	interdisciplines – OLPC and Sugar: mobility through the community
08 Oct 2009	IBM developerWorks – 10 important Linux developments everyone should know about
01 Oct 2009	OLPC France – Interview Walter Bender au SugarCamp
25 Sep 2009	The Inquirer – One Laptop per Child marches on
18 Sep 2009	Groklaw – The Role of Free Software in Education
18 Sep 2009	Reuters – Sugar Labs and Free Software Foundation Celebrate Software Freedom Day
17 Sep 2009	ICTDev.org – Dream Again with One Laptop per Child
26 Aug 2009	Latinux – Azúcar en una memoria USB
03 Aug 2009	Wired: Geek Dad – Inventing a New Paradigm: SugarLabs and the Sugar UI
30 Jul 2009	Zanichelli – Sugar on a Stick: imparare insieme
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

See our Press Page