10,502
edits
Walter
Joined 8 May 2008
no edit summary
== Sugar 2020 ==
I've just reread my [[#Sugar Stable/Sugar Future|vision statement]] from 2 years ago and find it still relevant, although rather than a bifurcation, we have a trifrucation of effort: we still have multiple communities using the Sugar Desktop; we have some pilot programs emerging around Sugarizer, and we have a rapidly growing program in Music Blocks, which can run independently of either the desktop or Sugarizer. A professional curriculum for Music Blocks is being developed and the government of Japan is incorporating it into the primary-school curriculum. The latter effort has consumed the majority of my attention over the past two years as a developer and has been personally very rewarding. I am especially pleased that a team of educators has dedicated time and energy into ensuring that the tools are well matched to the needs of the schools – I anticipate that Music Blocks will be a big growth area for Sugar Labs and one we can point to as evidence of the value of our Constructionist approach to learning.
My other efforts have been administer the Google Code-in and Google Summer of Code programs on behalf of Sugar Labs to leverage great work from new contributors, many of whom have become mentors for future contributors. (For example, Music Blocks has had more than 60 unique contributors.) It is largely this opportunity to work with bright young minds from around the world that keeps me excited about Sugar Labs and its mission. I also need to tip my hat to James Cameron, without whose efforts (and those of the developers he patiently supports), the Sugar Desktop would have atrophied by now. James works diligently to ensure that Sugar lives up to the standards of an open libre project with discipline sufficient to ensure a level of quality needed by our user community.
That said, the past two years have been a personal struggle in regards to the Sugar Labs oversight board. It has been difficult to muster a quorum of board members even for our regularly scheduled one-hour monthly meetings. A disinterested, disengaged board has made it impossible to do any long term planning for Sugar Labs. I'm at an impasse: I have considered stepping down from the board since I feel it is so ineffective. As I outlined two years ago, we have lots of potential as an organization, but I have not been able to realize that potential unilaterally. I am disappointed that we have do so little to engage the Maker community, the existing Sugar communities, or take the time to discuss new opportunities. It all ultimately boils down to communication -- there has been none from the majority of my colleagues on the board. But having reflecting upon it, I have decided to run again for a seat on the oversight board, as I think I still have something to contribute to Sugar Labs. But I will not serve as chair of our meetings as I have not been effective in that role. I am hoping that the community will elect new members who will participate and the dead weight that prevents us from moving forward will be jettisoned. Together, we have much to accomplish.
== Sugar Stable/Sugar Future ==
== Sugar Stable/Sugar Future ==