Changes

== What's new ==

== What's new ==

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 [http://walterbender.org/ walterbender.org], and [[Archive/Current Events|archived here]].) If you would like to contribute, please send email to [[User:walter|walter]] at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit <span class="plainlinks">[http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet.sugarlabs.org].</span>)

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 [http://walterbender.org/ walterbender.org], and [[Archive/Current Events|archived here]].) If you would like to contribute, please send email to [[User:walter|walter]] at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit <span class="plainlinks">[http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet.sugarlabs.org].</span>)

== Sugar Digest ==

== Sugar Digest ==

1. [https://developers.google.com/open-source/gci/ Google Code-in] begins 7 December. We have more than 20 mentors from the community and about 250 tasks defined across 5 categories: documentation, quality assurance, outreach, user interface, and coding. This year we have a balance between Python and JavaScript tasks. We'll be adding new tasks over the course of the next 7 weeks, so please let me know if you have Sugary things that need doing. Please do help spread the word to talented 13-17 yr olds.

1. Sugar Labs will be participating in Google Code-in again this year. Ignacio

Rodriguez and I are the program administrators and are gathering

suggestions for bite-sized tasks in coding, documentation, research, design,

and outreach. We'll also be scouring the open issues in the various

you are interested in mentoring, please contact me. Finally, it would great if

you could help spread the word about the contest among educators so that we can

reach out to as many potential participants as possible (the contest is open to

13-17 year olds). GCI is a great opportunity to recruit new talent into the

describing our participation is at [[Google Code In 2017]].

2. There is a new release of Music Blocks available [https://github.com/walterbender/musicblocks/releases/tag/v2.1 3]. Features include a

 

marked improvement in performance and lots of bug fixes. Tip of the hat to

2. We have seven [[Oversight_Board/2015-2016-candidates|candidates]] for the seven open Sugar Labs oversight board seats. I am not sure how the election committee plans to proceed -- stay tuned.

Devin Ulibarri, Edgar Quispe, and Euan Ong for their contributions to this

 

release.

 

3. Josh Burker continues to do great Turtle Blocks projects in his [http://joshburker.blogspot.com/2015/11/turtle-blocks-club-progressing-from.html workshops] and with his [http://joshburker.blogspot.com/2015/11/3d-printed-variable-star-ornaments.html 3D printer].

 

4. A few weeks ago I was asked by Luis Galindo to make suggestions for the COP21 workshop in Paris. In his email, he included some wishes from students in Japan and Canada: "I need a way to produce no single waste in a class room!" and "I need a way to use human energy to power the entire physical classroom. For example, a stationary bicycle that powers a light bulb. Where each desk in the classroom allows kids to move while they work, and create enough energy to power the lights, charge their laptops (assuming they have some), or more."

 

My initial response was to suggest that he get his hands on a couple of OLPC XO 4s and some solar panels; he would be very close to achieving the stated goals of both students. How did we manage to get so much right in the design of the XO and Sugar: repairable (by the kids themselves), designed for a long lifetime of operation; maximizing materials that can be recycled; no toxic materials in the device (the very first laptop that could claim to be entirely lead-free, since it was the very first laptop to use a LED backlight); they form their own local network to make a collaboration and communication space and again, no need for external infrastructure or power (or exposing children to potential privacy violations). And Sugar is full of tools for doing Science. (One feature still unique in the marketplace is the ability to use the microphone port as a sensor port.

 

 

As a challenge, I suggested that we need a way to measure energy consumption, waste, communication, or collaboration in the classroom as a baseline for determining the impact of the classroom of the future? Given the Paris climate summit, maybe it is time for the world to finally pick up on some of the OLPC/Sugar contributions.

 

 

5. As I mentioned in my [[User:Walter#Sugar_Stable.2FSugar_Future|position statement], I am in the process of launching a new college for industrial design. I am instilling Free/Libre Software as a core principle of the college and I hope to be able to make Sugar be at the core of the educational technology section of the school. More on that effort soon.

 

 

6. James Cameron recently announced the release of OLPC OS 13.2.6 for XO-1, XO-1.5, XO-1.75, and XO-4 (Sugar 0.107 on Fedora 18, with a few activities upgraded). See [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/13.2.6 the Release Notes] for details.

 

 

7. Please visit our [http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet].

== Community News archive ==

== Community News archive ==

==Sugar in the news==

==Sugar in the news==

{|

{|

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|align=right valign=top|28 Aug 2015||'''Musson Foundation''' &ndash; [https://youtu.be/HZtVv2nlP8Y Jamaica Girls Code] (video)

|align=right valign=top|28 Aug 2015||'''Musson Foundation''' &ndash; [https://youtu.be/HZtVv2nlP8Y Jamaica Girls Code] (video)

|-

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|align=right valign=top|06 Feb 2013||'''el Observador''' &ndash; [http://www.elobservador.com.uy/noticia/242936/joven-uruguayo-gana-la-competencia-google-code/ Joven uruguayo gana la competencia Google Code] (Also see [http://people.sugarlabs.org/aguz/gci-press-interviews.html GCI press interviews])

|align=right valign=top|06 Feb 2013||'''el Observador''' &ndash; [http://www.elobservador.com.uy/noticia/242936/joven-uruguayo-gana-la-competencia-google-code/ Joven uruguayo gana la competencia Google Code] (Also see [http://people.sugarlabs.org/aguz/gci-press-interviews.html GCI press interviews])

|-

|-

|align=right valign=top|07 Sep 2012||'''NDTV''' &ndash; [http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/one-laptop-per-child-initiative-a-hit-in-rural-india-263867 One Laptop Per Child initiative a hit in rural India]

|align=right valign=top|07 Sep 2012||'''NDTV''' &ndash; [http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/one-laptop-per-child-initiative-a-hit-in-rural-india-263867 One Laptop Per Child initiative a hit in rural India]

|align=right valign=top|06&nbsp;Aug&nbsp;2008||'''OLPC News''' &ndash; [http://www.olpcnews.com/people/leadership/23_questions_on_technology_education.html Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education]

|align=right valign=top|06&nbsp;Aug&nbsp;2008||'''OLPC News''' &ndash; [http://www.olpcnews.com/people/leadership/23_questions_on_technology_education.html Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education]

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|align=right valign=top|18&nbsp;Jul&nbsp;2008||'''Bill Kerr''' &ndash; [http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2008/07/evaluating-sugar-in-developed-world.html evaluating Sugar in the developed world]

|align=right valign=top|18&nbsp;Jul&nbsp;2008||'''Bill Kerr''' &ndash; [http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2008/07/evaluating-sugar-in-developed-world.html evaluating Sugar in the developed world]

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==Press releases==

==Press releases==

[http://www.sugarlabs.org/index.php?template=press See our Press Page]

http://www.sugarlabs.org/press

[[Category:General public]]

[[Category:General public]]