What's new
This page is updated each week (usually on Monday morning) 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
1. I have fallen way behind in my blogging about Sugar Labs: the combination of too much travel and too much time consumed with repairing my house from flood damage has taken its toll. I'll try to touch on a medley of topics today, referring to various email threads on the lists for more details. (Also, the 'o' key on my keyboard has become flaky—please forgive me any typs.)
Perhaps the most exciting news over the past few weeks has been the numerous announcements about One Laptop per Child programs sprouting up around the world. There was an announcement of a significant program in the Middle East; an initiative in East Africa; and when I heard him speak in Miami last week, the president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, spoke about one laptop per child as a legacy he wants to leave for his country. In every case, these are Sugar-based initiatives. It is invigorating to see this steady increase in the application of our efforts to provide great learning opportunities for children. (Kudos to Sean Daly and the Marketing Team for their efforts in getting the word out.)
The Sugar-on-a-Stick team is very close to releasing Mirabelle, which is based on Fedora 13 and Sugar 0.88. It is an exciting release because it is both a great effort in terms of content and process. There has been a productive dialog between the packaging team, the developers, testers, and the user community; as a result, we are converging on a more sustainable process and we are better meeting the needs of our users. Many thanks, especially to Peter Robinson, Tom Gilliard, Caryl Bigenho, Mel Chua, James Cameron, Frederick Grose, and Sebastian Dziallas.
The Paraguay team is wrapping up their work on porting Fedora 11/Sugar 0.84 to the XO 1.0 hardware. This is important because it will allow deployments to migrate there installed base of machines to the same system being deployed on the XO 1.5 machines, making the overall support and maintenance problem more tractable. The team has also backported a number of bug fixes and features, such as 3G support, needed by deployments. It is a great example of downstream working with upstream.
2. Dogi (Stefan Unterhauser), Adam Holt, and I were in Rochester this week for a series of events at RIT: the OLPC Users Group Meeting; the Dean's Lecture Series (I talked about why learning is so important; video); and the Imagine RIT Innovation Festival. Our host was Stephen Jacobs. We spent some quality time with his students, whom are in project teams, developing two Sugar Activities: OVC (a video chat system being developed in collaboration with the National Institute for the Deaf), and Fortune Hunter, an adventure game geared towards 4th Grade mathematics. The great thing about the program at RIT is the way in which the student projects are being integrated into the global Sugar initative. I've asked Steve to share his "secret sauce" with other universities so that the model can spread.
One concrete outcome of the visit is the establishment of a Sugar "Story Team". Remy D of the RIT Storytelling Team has volunteered to lead the effort. Another tangible outcome is that three of the servers donated to Sugar Labs from the Wikipedia Foundation have a new home at RIT. Dogi worked with Steve's students to bring them up to speed on how to maintain the servers.
3. The Sugar Oversight Board had an opportunity to meet face to face, along with about 10 community members whom happened to be in the Cambridge area. In addition to breaking bread together, we discovered that we had consensus regarding the on-going trademark debate. We'll be discussing and voting on the final wording of the policy next time we meet in IRC and will be summarizing (a) how the decision was made; (b) why it was made; (c) what alternatives were considered; (d) how it fits in with the Sugar Labs mission; (e) how it impacts the Sugar; and (f) how it impacts the Sugar community. Stay tuned.
4. There has been a renewed and intense discussion about maintenance over the past few weeks. (The topic is an important one both to Sugar Labs and our downstream partners.) Our developer and release teams have been striving towards a set of well-documented procedures for making Sugar a project "with continuity, with an adequate progression in stability and new features and with a development process that gives them some control." You can follow the latest thread of the discussion here.
Help wanted
5. We are seeking to revitalize the deployment team and as a consequence, we are seeking community leaders who can play a role in organizing meetings on a regular basis. It is not necessary to be fluent in all of the issues, rather, we need someone who will help shepard the various parties into discussion once every few weeks. This is a critical, missing piece of our strategy to keep open the channels of communication between Sugar Labs and its upstream and downstream partners.
6. There have been regular meetings of the OLPC Learning Team on irc.mibbit.net channel #olpc-learning led by Joy Riach. The meetings are held on Thursdays at 10 AM EST (14 UTC) and are conducted in both English and Spanish. (Summaries of past meetings will be posted—I'll report the details when they are available.)
Tech talk
7. I have been working with OLPC on a "high-school" keyboard for the OLPC XO 1.5. I designed "non-membrane" keyboards in File:OLPC-1.5-es-non-membrane.svg Spanish and File:OLPC-1.5-us-non-membrane.svg English (US/International).
8. The Infrastructure Team is in the process of migrating some services to some new hardware. We should expect some brief downtime and better long-term stability as a result.
Sugar Labs
Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list.
2010 April 24th-30th (42 emails)
2010 April 17th-23rd (69 emails)
2010 April 10th-16th (59 emails)
2010 Apr 3rd-9th (51 emails)
Visit our planet for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.
An archive of this digest is available.
Planet
The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.
Sugar in the news
| 14 Apr 2010 |
National Science Foundation – XO Laptops Inspire Learning In Birmingham, Alabama (video)
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| 02 Apr 2010 |
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| 15 Mar 2010 |
nbc13.com – Birmingham City students opt to spend spring break in class, XO computer camps (video)
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| 18 Feb 2010 |
LWN – Karma targets easier creation of educational software
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| 05 Feb 2010 |
iprofesional – La PC barata de Negroponte desembarca en la Argentina para pelear contra Intel
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| 14 Jan 2010 |
AALF – Open Systems for Broader Change
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| 03 Jan 2010 |
Educacion 2.0 – PLAN CEIBAL, El Libro
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| 14 Dec 2009 |
xconomy – Sugar gets sweeter
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| 10 Dec 2009 |
Ars Technica – Sugar software environment gets sweeter with version 2
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| 09 Dec 2009 |
Wired – New Sugar on a Stick Brings Much Needed Improvements
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| 08 Dec 2009 |
engadget – Sugar on a Stick OS goes to 2.0, gets Blueberry coating and creamy Fedora 12 center (video)
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| 07 Dec 2009 |
Teleread.org – Sugar on a Stick: What it means for e-books and education
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| 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
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| 16 Nov 2009 |
zanichelli – software libero a scuola
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| 12 Nov 2009 |
opensuse.org – openSUSE 11.2 Released
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| 07 Nov 2009 |
My Broadband News – Mandriva 2010 packs a punch [and Sugar]
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| 06 Nov 2009 |
GhanaWeb – Open education and an IT-enabled economic growth in Ghana: Musings of a dutiful citizen
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| 09 Oct 2009 |
interdisciplines – OLPC and Sugar: mobility through the community
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| 08 Oct 2009 |
IBM developerWorks – 10 important Linux developments everyone should know about
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| 01 Oct 2009 |
OLPC France – Interview Walter Bender au SugarCamp
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| 25 Sep 2009 |
The Inquirer – One Laptop per Child marches on
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| 18 Sep 2009 |
Groklaw – The Role of Free Software in Education
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| 18 Sep 2009 |
Reuters – Sugar Labs and Free Software Foundation Celebrate Software Freedom Day
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| 17 Sep 2009 |
ICTDev.org – Dream Again with One Laptop per Child
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| 26 Aug 2009 |
Latinux – Azúcar en una memoria USB
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| 03 Aug 2009 |
Wired: Geek Dad – Inventing a New Paradigm: SugarLabs and the Sugar UI
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| 30 Jul 2009 |
Zanichelli – Sugar on a Stick: imparare insieme
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| 23 Jul 2009 |
Everything USB – RecycleUSB.com - Donate your Flash Drives for a Good Cause
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| 22 Jul 2009 |
OLPC France – Sugar : mauvaise presse et mise au point
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| 13 Jul 2009 |
Spiegel Online – Das zuckersüße Leichtbau-Linux
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| 07 Jul 2009 |
ComputerWorldUK – Gran Canaria Desktop Summit: a Study in Contrasts
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| 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
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| 02 Jul 2009 |
Howard County Library – Sugar on a Stick
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| 27 Jun 2009 |
Deutschlandfunk – Süßes für die Kleinen: Sugar ist Linux speziell für Kinder (in Deutsch)
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| 26 Jun 2009 |
EduTech – Sugar on a stick, and other delectables (praise for the lowly USB drive)
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| 26 Jun 2009 |
Ars Technica – Sugar on a Stick brings sweet taste of Linux to classrooms
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| 24 Jun 2009 |
BBC – OLPC software to power aging PCs
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| 24 Jun 2009 |
Technology Review – $100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC
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| 15 Jun 2009 |
TechSavvyKids – Episode 10 FOSSVT: Sugar on a Stick (audio)
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| 10 Jun 2009 |
LWN.net – Sugar moves from the shadow of OLPC
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| 27 May 2009 |
LWN.net – Activities and the move to context-oriented desktops (subscriber link)
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| 27 May 2009 |
Business Wire – Dailymotion Launches Support for Open Video Formats and Video HTML Tag
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| 01 May 2009 |
Guysoft – Nokia N810 Running OLPC Sugar
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| 29 Apr 2009 |
El Mercurio – Así se vivió la fiesta del software libre
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| 27 Apr 2009 |
ostatic – Sugar on a Stick: Good for Kids' Minds (and School Budgets)
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| 25 Apr 2009 |
Free Software Magazine – The Bittersweet Facts about OLPC and Sugar
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| 24 Apr 2009 |
Ars Technica – First taste: Sugar on a Stick learning platform
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| 22 Apr 2009 |
Betanews – Beta of Live USB Sugar OS opens
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| 27 Mar 2009 |
Mass High Tech – Google promotes summer open-source internships
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| 18 Mar 2009 |
Metropolis – A Good Argument
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| 16 Mar 2009 |
Laptop Magazine – Sugar Labs’ New Version of Sugar Learning Platform Is Netbook and PC Ready
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| 16 Mar 2009 |
Market Watch – Sugar Labs Nonprofit Announces New Version of Sugar Learning Platform for Children, Runs on Netbooks and PCs
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| 14 Feb 2009 |
OLPC Learning Club – DC – Learning Learning on a Stick
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| 05 Feb 2009 |
xconomy – Sugar Beyond the XO Laptop: Walter Bender on OLPC, Sucrose 0.84, and “Sugar on a Stick”
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| 26 Jan 2009 |
Linus Magazine – Sugar Defies OLPC Cutbacks
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| 19 Jan 2009 |
Feeding the Penguins – The status of Sugar, post-OLPC
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| 16 Jan 2009 |
OLPC News – Sugar on Acer Aspire One & Thin Client via LTSP
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| 12 Jan 2009 |
Bill Kerr – thoughts about olpc cutbacks
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| 07 Jan 2009 |
Ars Technica – OLPC downsizes half of its staff, cuts Sugar development
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| 06 Jan 2009 |
OLPC News – An Inside Look at how Microsoft got XP on the XO
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| 30 Dec 2008 |
OLPC News – Sugar Labs Status at Six Months
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| 22 Dec 2008 |
The GNOME Project – Sugar Labs, the nonprofit behind the OLPC software, is joining the GNOME Foundation
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| 16 Dec 2008 |
Feeding the Penguins – Sugar git repository change
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| 14 Dec 2008 |
NPR – Laptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk (Part 2)
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| 13 Dec 2008 |
NPR – Laptops May Change The Way Rural Peru Learns (Part 1)
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| 09 Dec 2008 |
SFC – Sugar Labs joins Conservancy
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| 31 Oct 2008 |
Linux Devices – An OLPC dilemma: Linux or Windows?
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| 10 Oct 2008 |
Feeding the Penguin – Sugar on Ubuntu
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| 21 Sep 2008 |
Groklaw – Interview with Walter Bender of Sugar Labs
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| 17 Sep 2008 |
Bill Kerr – Sugar Labs
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| 16 Sep 2008 |
Open Source – Sugar everywhere
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| 28 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – An answer to Walter Bender's question 22
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| 20 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – Sugarize it: Intel Classmate 2
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| 08 Aug 2008 |
Investor's Business Daily – 'Learning' Vs. Laptop Was Issue
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| 06 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education
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| 18 Jul 2008 |
Bill Kerr – evaluating Sugar in the developed world
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| 28 Jun 2008 |
OLPC News – A Cutting Edge Sugar User Interface Demo
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| 18 Jun 2008 |
PC World – OLPC Spin-off Developing UI for Intel's Classmate PC
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| 17 Jun 2008 |
Datamation – If Business Succeeds with GNU/Linux, Why Not OLPC?
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| 11 Jun 2008 |
LinuxInsider – The Sweetness of Collaborative Learning
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| 06 Jun 2008 |
Bill Kerr – untangling Free, Sugar, and Constructionism
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| 06 Jun 2008 |
Open Education – Walter Bender Discusses Sugar Labs Foundation
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| 06 Jun 2008 |
BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Educational Philosophy Controversy
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| 05 Jun 2008 |
Code Culture – The Distraction Machine
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| 05 Jun 2008 |
BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Open-Source Controversy
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| 27 May 2008 |
The New York Times – Why Walter Bender Left One Laptop Per Child
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| 26 May 2008 |
Ars Technica – OLPC software maker splits from X0 hardware, goes solo
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| 22 May 2008 |
BetaNews – Linux start-up Sugar Labs in informal talks with four laptop makers
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| 16 May 2008 |
OSTATIC – OLPC's Open Source Sugar Platform Aims for New Hardware
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| 16 May 2008 |
PCWorld – Bender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI
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| 16 May 2008 |
MHT – Bender jumps from OLPC, founds Sugar Labs
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| 16 May 2008 |
News.com – Sugar Labs will make OLPC interface available for Eee PC, others
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| 16 May 2008 |
Feeding the Peguins – The future of Sugar
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| 16 May 2008 |
Sugar list – A few thoughts on SugarLabs
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| 16 May 2008 |
xconomy – Bender Creates Sugar Labs—New Foundation to Adapt OLPC’s Laptop Interface for Other Machines
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| 16 May 2008 |
BBC – '$100 laptop' platform moves on
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| 15 May 2008 |
OLPC wiki – Dual-boot XO Claim: OLPC will not work to port Sugar to Windows.
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| 16 May 2008 |
Softpedia – Bender Launches Sugar Labs for Better Development of OLPC's Sugar UI
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Press releases
See our Press Page
