Sugar Labs/Current Events

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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 and blogged at walterbender.org.) 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 a bad habit of losing myself in programing. Not that I am much of programer these days, but once I start in on a project, I have a hard time attending to things happening around me. I don't regret my decision to use Turtle Art Portfolio for my presentation at LCA (linux.conf.au) in Hobart last week, but I haven't been able to let it go. I spent too much of my time Down Under debugging Python code rather than debating the larger questions facing Sugar Labs. Nonetheless, I did manage to get things working reasonably well for my talk last week. (I cannot seem to find the link to the videos, but they are posted on line somewhere.) The talk itself was not my most inspired. I let myself get bogged down in some some questions at the end regarding human-centric versus learning-centric design. Had I been on top of my game, I would have been a bit more clear with my answers.

Thanks to Mike Usmar, who is the force behind the Computer Clubhouse efforts in New Zealand, I had a second (third and fourth) chance to debug both my code and my talk. From the post talk discussions, I think things went better in Wellington and Auckland. I had a chance to meet the wonderful Wellington Testing Group led by Tabitha Roper at the office of Catalyst, Ltd. There were representatives from the ministry of education there as well. It was a good discussion, about pedagogy and the pragmatics of getting things going in the region. The minsitry doesn't tell schools what do to, but they can play a role in helping to spread the Sugar meme by supporting teacher workshops and offering credits toward continuing education when teachers work with Sugar. In Auckland, I had a chance to meet students and faculty at the university. Tabitha's father, who coincidently is studying portfolio assessment, had some great feedback—collectively we have a ways to go, but we are progressing and the vector is pointed in the right direction. (I also saw some student work that has good potential as an alternative Journal/portfolio view—a potential Summer of Code project?) I also met with the teachers of an Auckland school. An independetn-minded and inspired group, they are going to start a one-to-one program for middle- and high-school students. My one small contribution to their plans was to relay to them a lesson I learned from Carla Monroy Gomez: use the introduction of the computers as a reason to hold a community celebration that draws the parents into the school as stakeholders.

A highlight of my trip was the day I spent with Bill Kerr and Tony Forster in Melbourne on my way between Hobart and Auckland. Tony lives in the countryside about 45 minutes outside of the city. We sat and talked, coded, debugged, debated, and ate a delicious barbicue. I have a long list of things that need improvement. It is real pleasure to spend time with people who are both grounded in the day-to-day needs of the classroom and are fluent in the works of the likes of Marvin Minsky. I learned a great deal from some gifted teachers. (Had I not been up to my nose in Python code, I probably would have learned even more.)

2. Speaking of Minsky, I posted his latest essay learning this week (See [1]) in which he discusses ways in which we can "provide our children with ideas they could use to invent their own theories about themselves."

3. A new a non-profit organization, Squeakland Foundation Inc, will take over from Viewpoints Research as the guardians of Squeak Etoys. The new board includes: Tim Falconer, Kim Rose, Walter Bender, Rita Freudenberg, Kathleen Harness, Marta Voelcker, Scott Wallace, Yoshiki Ohshima, and Milan Zimmerman (See [2])

Sugar Labs

4. Gary Martin has generated another SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see SOM).

Community News archive

An archive of this digest is available.

Planet

The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.

Sugar in the news

26 Jan 2009 Linus MagazineSugar Defies OLPC Cutbacks
19 Jan 2009 Feeding the PenguinsThe status of Sugar, post-OLPC
16 Jan 2009 OLPC NewsSugar on Acer Aspire One & Thin Client via LTSP
12 Jan 2009 Bill Kerrthoughts about olpc cutbacks
07 Jan 2009 Ars TechnicaOLPC downsizes half of its staff, cuts Sugar development
06 Jan 2009 OLPC NewsAn Inside Look at how Microsoft got XP on the XO
30 Dec 2008 OLPC NewsSugar Labs Status at Six Months
22 Dec 2008 The GNOME ProjectSugar Labs, the nonprofit behind the OLPC software, is joining the GNOME Foundation
16 Dec 2008 Feeding the PenguinsSugar git repository change
14 Dec 2008 NPRLaptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk (Part 2)
13 Dec 2008 NPRLaptops May Change The Way Rural Peru Learns (Part 1)
09 Dec 2008 SFCSugar Labs joins Conservancy
31 Oct 2008 Linux DevicesAn OLPC dilemma: Linux or Windows?
10 Oct 2008 Feeding the PenguinSugar on Ubuntu
21 Sep 2008 GroklawInterview with Walter Bender of Sugar Labs
17 Sep 2008 Bill KerrSugar Labs
16 Sep 2008 Open SourceSugar everywhere
28 Aug 2008 OLPC NewsAn answer to Walter Bender's question 22
20 Aug 2008 OLPC NewsSugarize it: Intel Classmate 2
08 Aug 2008 Investor's Business Daily'Learning' Vs. Laptop Was Issue
06 Aug 2008 OLPC NewsTwenty-three Questions on Technology and Education
18 Jul 2008 Bill Kerrevaluating Sugar in the developed world
28 Jun 2008 OLPC NewsA Cutting Edge Sugar User Interface Demo
18 Jun 2008 PC WorldOLPC Spin-off Developing UI for Intel's Classmate PC
17 Jun 2008 DatamationIf Business Succeeds with GNU/Linux, Why Not OLPC?
11 Jun 2008 LinuxInsiderThe Sweetness of Collaborative Learning
06 Jun 2008 Bill Kerruntangling Free, Sugar, and Constructionism
06 Jun 2008 Open EducationWalter Bender Discusses Sugar Labs Foundation
06 Jun 2008 BusinessWeekOLPC: The Educational Philosophy Controversy
05 Jun 2008 Code CultureThe Distraction Machine
05 Jun 2008 BusinessWeekOLPC: The Open-Source Controversy
27 May 2008 The New York TimesWhy Walter Bender Left One Laptop Per Child
26 May 2008 Ars TechnicaOLPC software maker splits from X0 hardware, goes solo
22 May 2008 BetaNewsLinux start-up Sugar Labs in informal talks with four laptop makers
16 May 2008 OSTATICOLPC's Open Source Sugar Platform Aims for New Hardware
16 May 2008 PCWorldBender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI
16 May 2008 MHTBender jumps from OLPC, founds Sugar Labs
16 May 2008 News.comSugar Labs will make OLPC interface available for Eee PC, others
16 May 2008 Feeding the PeguinsThe future of Sugar
16 May 2008 Sugar listA few thoughts on SugarLabs
16 May 2008 xconomyBender 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 wikiDual-boot XO Claim: OLPC will not work to port Sugar to Windows.
16 May 2008 SoftpediaBender Launches Sugar Labs for Better Development of OLPC's Sugar UI

Press releases

 9 Dec 2008 Sugar Labs/Sugar Labs joins the SFC
 15 May 2008 Sugar Labs/Announcing Sugar Labs