The Undiscoverable/Collaboration
The basic idea of collaboration in Sugar is that the user can share any Activity, which then shows up in the Neighborhood view. Anyone else in the group can click on the icon for the shared activity to join it. There are a number of other features that children need to be shown.
Friend
In the Neighborhood view, right-click on any icon to bring up a menu showing the person's name, with the option Make Friend. Friend icons appear in the Friend view, in their colors if their users are present, and in monochrome if they are not. You can share documents with friends who are present and invite them to join your shared Activity sessions.
On the Activity tab, select My Neighborhood on the Share With: menu. An icon for the activity in your colors will appear in the Neighborhood view. When someone else joins, a small personal icon in that person's colors will appear next to the icon for the shared activity. You can invite others to join your Activity with the Invite To option on the hover menu.
When you see an Activity icon in Neighborhood view in another person's colors, you can either click on it to join, or point at it and wait for the hover menu to unfold to show the Join option. In either case, a small version of your personal icon appears by the shared Activity icon. If an entire class shares an activity, a large cloud of icons will surround the Activity icon.
Different Sharing Modes
A person joining a shared Activity will be able to collaborate in whatever way the Activity provides: with a second brush in paint, another cursor in Write, another musical instrument in TamTam, an opponent in a game. Some Activities do not provide any colloborative functions beyond simple observation.
We want to let two users join to play a game like owari, chess, or go, and any number of others to observe. The observers will be able to chat about the game without the players seeing their comments.
Any participant can save a shared Activity session with the Keep button on the Activity tab. When the saved session is resumed, it is not shared by default. We do not have a way to open a session with the original participants.
Send Documents
In the Journal, the menu for any entry includes the option to send it to any friend who is present at the time.