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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.
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.
An archive of this digest is available.
Planet
The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.
Sugar in the news
| 09 Feb 2016 |
www.montevideo.com – DOS URUGUAYOS ENTRE GANADORES DEL CONCURSO GOOGLE CODE-IN
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| 28 Aug 2015 |
Musson Foundation – Jamaica Girls Code (video)
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| 28 Aug 2015 |
Google Open Source – My sweet adventures with Sugar Labs and Google Code-in
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| 09 May 2015 |
La Prensa – De alumnos a creadores de su aprendizaje
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| 30 Apr 2015 |
Diario La República – Swedish researcher visited Uruguay to meet the project Butiá
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| 24 Apr 2015 |
Jamaica Observer – Future Coders
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| 24 Apr 2015 |
Jamaica Information Service – State minister urges young women to enter ICT sector
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| 6 Feb 2015 |
Cromo – El chico Google
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| 5 Feb 2015 |
Capital Noticias Canelones – El joven de Canelones, Ignacio Rodríguez, ganó nuevamente la competencia de programación de Google. (video)
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| 3 Feb 2015 |
montevideo.com – Código joven
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| 1 Dec 2014 |
Google Open Source Blog – 3, 2, 1 Code-in: Inviting teens to contribute to open source
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| 7 Oct 2014 |
Kauffman Report – Paraguay Thirsty for 21st-Century Education
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| 25 Sept 2014 |
ANEP – Fecundo intercambio de jovenes de todo el mundo en encuentro de programadores
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| 12 Jun 2014 |
Producción Nacional – Innovando con XO (video)
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| 28 Apr 2014 |
ABC Color – Paraguay Educa realiza talleres de programación y de robótica
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| 21 Apr 2014 |
El Tiempo – 'Cada niño podría ser un maestro del 'software': Walter Bender
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| 2 Apr 2014 |
vera.tv – Antel vuelta a clases (video)
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| 4 Feb 2014 |
La Diaria – En código
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| 24 Jan 2014 |
Espectador – Entre los ganadores del concurso anual de programación de Google Code-in hay nuevamente un joven uruguayo
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| 23 Jan 2014 |
El Pais – Le enseña a sus profesores y ahora lo premia Google
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| 20 Jan 2014 |
Google Open Source Blog – Google Code-in 2013 - drumroll please!
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| 28 Nov 2013 |
BBVA Paraguay – Turtle Art Day in Caacupé (video)
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| 17 Oct 2013 |
ANTEL Integra – Turtle Art: la plataforma del Butiá
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| 14 Oct 2013 |
ABC Color – Software libre es tema de paneles en la cumbre
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| 14 Oct 2013 |
ABC Color – Programar ayuda a los niños a pensar
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| 14 Oct 2013 |
ABC Color – Hoy es el Día de TortugArte, en Caacupé
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| 14 Oct 2013 |
ABC Color – Las TIC en la educación son clave para el desarrollo del país, aseguran
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| 12 Oct 2013 |
Cromo – M’hijo el programador
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| 08 Aug 2013 |
News1 – Interview with former MIT Media Lab director (in Korean)
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| 12 Jul 2013 |
RIT – ‘Sky Time’ video game selected for White House Champions of Change event July 23
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| 28 Apr 2013 |
BBC Mundo – Los programadores adolescentes premiados por Google
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| 07 Feb 2013 |
el Neuvo Herald – Joven uruguayo brilla como programador y es distinguido por Google
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| 06 Feb 2013 |
el Observador – Joven uruguayo gana la competencia Google Code (Also see GCI press interviews)
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| 07 Sep 2012 |
NDTV – One Laptop Per Child initiative a hit in rural India
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| 08 Jul 2012 |
Estado de S. Paulo – Para educar
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| 24 Apr 2012 |
Pacific Standard – OLPC Redux
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| 12 Apr 2012 |
Huffington Post – Hult Global Case Challenge: One Laptop Per Child
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| 30 Mar 2012 |
newswise – “Sugar on a Stick” Helps Kids Learn How to Learn
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| 11 Jan 2012 |
Boston Herald – One Laptop Per Child screening $100 tablet
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| 10 Jan 2012 |
ars technica – Crank, bicycle, and waterwheel: hands-on with the OLPC XO 3.0 tablet
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| 08 Jan 2012 |
The Verge – OLPC XO 3.0 tablet preview: impressions, video, and pictures
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| 07 Jan 2012 |
The Verge – OLPC XO 3.0 tablet: an 8-inch tablet for $100, with Android and Sugar options for the children
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| 23 Dec 2011 |
Miller-McCune – One Laptop Per Child Redux
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| 18 Oct 2011 |
BDU – Robotics in Uruguay (video)
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| 11 Aug 2011 |
Berlin.de – Gewinner des Berliner Landeswettbewerbs zu Open Source stehen fest
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| 25 Jul 2011 |
CCC Classic – Garmin-sugarlabs development cycling team at Crit starting line
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| 25 Jul 2011 |
CCC Classic – Garmin-sugarlabs development cycling team after Crit
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| 13 Apr 2011 |
framablog – L'expérience Sugar Labs préfigure-t-elle une révolution éducative du XXIe siècle?
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| 05 Apr 2011 |
Businesswire – The Government of Peru Expands the One Laptop Per Child Program with Local Manufacturing
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| 31 Jan 2011 |
Sundance – A Day in the Life – Peru
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| 01 Dec 2010 |
velonation – Sugar Labs to back Garmin-Cervelo’s development team in unique arrangement
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| 28 Oct 2010 |
UCR – Nuevas tecnologías deben estar al alcance de todos los niños y niñas
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| 05 Oct 2010 |
xconomy – One Ecosystem per Child
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| 08 Sep 2010 |
FLOSS Weekly – Sugar Labs
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| 09 Aug 2010 |
ABC digital – Indicadores constatan el impacto positivo en el aprendizaje de niños
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| 23 Jun 2010 |
ABC digital – Xo para todas las escuelas de Caacupé
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| 21 Jun 2010 |
La Nacion – “Buscamos que los niños no solo usen softwares, sino que puedan crear uno”
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| 20 Jun 2010 |
UltimaHora.com – La laptop une a padres, alumnos y docentes
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| 15 Jun 2010 |
The H – OLPC XO-1.5 software updated
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| 10 Jun 2010 |
engadget – Sugar on a Stick hits 3.0, teaches us about a new kind of fruit
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| 27 May 2010 |
Pro Linux DE – Sugar on a Stick v3 freigegeben (German)
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| 27 May 2010 |
NY Times – One Laptop Per Child Project Works With Marvell to Produce a $100 Tablet
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| 27 May 2010 |
PC World – OLPC Rules out Windows for XO-3
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| 03 May 2010 |
WXXI: Mixed Media – Interview with Walter Bender (audio)
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| 03 May 2010 |
Linux Magazine – OLPC Computers for Palestinian Refugee Children
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| 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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| 26 Oct 2009 |
Linux Magazine ES – Software Libre como apoyo al aprendizaje
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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
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