Sugar Labs/Contacts

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Sugar has a growing community that is ready to help you. Because users and contributors span the globe, a key element to the project is communication. Mailing lists, forums, IRC , Jabber and email provide quick and easy ways to communicate.

Mailing Lists

The full list of mailing lists is at http://lists.sugarlabs.org. Sometimes they multiply when one isn't watching.

A web-view of mailing lists in a fourm-like interface can be found at Nabble. Keep in mind that using Nabble has the following limitations:

Nabble does not support posting to more than one mailing list at a time (cross-posting)
Nabble does not index all sugar lists
The authoritive record is on lists.sugarlabs.org

General List

It's an Education Project - The primary education mailing list (see Self Organising Map archive for an overview of past weeks discussions).

Developer Lists

Sugar-devel - For developers (see Self Organising Map archive for and overview of past months discussions).

Starting a new list

The best way to start a new mailing list is to begin a discussion on a related list that already exists, and once the discussion becomes active, to ask for a separate list for that topic or that sort of traffic.

When you have a critical mass of people regularly talking about the same topic, request a mailing list by emailing the following information to IAEP list:

The name you want for your mailing list, with alternative names if the first one is taken
A description of the list, its purpose, and why it's needed (being able to say "we've been talking on this other list for a while, and the discussion has grown too big - see these archive links" is helpful)
The name/email of the list admin, and of at least one other moderator (minimum one admin and one moderator)
At least 10 names/emails of people who want to be the initial subscribers

Forums

Support Forum

Support - The official support forum for G1G1 and OLPC

total posts 6.887 • Total topics 1.324 • Total members 1.609 22:56, 20 April 2008 (EDT)

General Discussion

olpcnews - A popular forum but not frequented by developers

total posts 20.765 • Total topics 2.332 • Total members 2.754 22:56, 20 April 2008 (EDT)

Blogs

OLPC planet and Planet Sugar Labs - Aggregate a number of popular blogs on Sugar and OLPC. See blogs for a list of these blogs and instructions on adding more blogs to this feed.

IRC Chat

Most Sugar Labs chat takes place on IRC (that's Internet Relay Chat). You can either use a computer-based client to log in to IRC (such as Sugar IRC activity, Pidgin, X-Chat) or this web browser-based service provided by Mibbit to chat online here. It even includes in-line language translation, if needed.

IRC is mainly designed for group communication in discussion 'channels', but allows for personal chat and data transfer as well.

The SugarLabs Community uses a series of channels in the irc.freenode.net network. Check {{User irc}} to see how to register your participation in the IRC channels within the wiki, and to find the category where users are registered.

irc.freenode.net channels

General:
`#sugar`	Sugar development.
`#sugar-meeting`	The meeting channel for the sugar developers

irc.oftc.net channels

General:
`#schoolserver`	The meeting channel for the XS (XO school Server)

How to use irc channels

A web-based chat for all channels is mibbit, with nickname: (whatever you like), server: irc.freenode.net, and channel: #sugar (or whatever other channel you're trying to get into). It also includes an inline translation service that is helpful when other languages are used.
Some helpful resources are here, and this tutorial, which also includes basic commands.
Learn about IRC etiquette. Try here, here, or here.
For IRC under sugar, install the latest Sugar IRC] activity.
In Pidgin you can configure IRC and then Add a Chat to your Buddy list. Select the IRC channel from the drop-down menu, and enter the name of the channel. You can set Pidgin to open channels automatically whenever it starts up. In a traditional IRC client, you join a channel with the /join command, for example

/join #sugar

Connect to one of the above channels, and say hello. You will see a list of the handles (on-line names) of the people in the channel, and the conversation will appear in a scrolling window. Type your message in the command entry area, and press return.

Jabber Networks

While the OLPC is designed with mesh wireless networking built in (where users can connect to each other without having a central wireless internet router/connection), Sugar users around the world may not be able to connect with others using the platform unless it's through the Internet, since mesh networking relies on a concentration of users (for example, in a classroom, school or business environment).

Jabber networks link Sugar users to each other in order to chat, interact and collaborate. There are global Sugar Jabber networks, or regional ones hosted by organizations and individuals around the world. You can choose whichever Jabber network you wish to connect to. Connecting Sugar to one of these networks will greatly enhance your Sugar experience.

Video

OLPC TV is dedicated to collecting videos related to OLPC. The site needs help recoding videos to play in Gnash, the Free Flash viewer.
Dailymotion have an OLPC-compatible portal at olpc.dailymotion.com with videos encoded with the free OGG Theora/Vorbis codecs, and they have OLPC-relevant content.

Sugar Labs contacts

Sugar Labs is led by its Oversight Board. The executive director is Walter Bender (walter AT sugarlabs DOT org).

We also have an ombudsman who will help mediate any disputes (ombudsman AT sugarlabs DOT org).

Journalists can call +1.857.254.1100 or e-mail Sugar Labs Public Relations (pr AT sugarlabs DOT org).

See our community contacts index for additional contacts.

Mail

You also may contact us by mail:

Walter Bender

Executive Director

Sugar Labs

22 Central Street

Auburndale, MA USA 02466-2409